Program Founder and Director

Dr. Dana Alonzo is an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Social Service (GSS) at Fordham University. Dr. Alonzo has a wide range of clinical experience working with individuals with mood disorders and suicidality in outpatient, inpatient, and psychiatric emergency room settings. Informed by her clinical experience, Dr. Alonzo has spent the last fifteen years conducting research identifying unique, previously unrecognized risk and protective factors for suicide as well as barriers to and facilitators of mental health treatment engagement of at risk-individuals across cultures. Her research has also focused on the development of novel interventions aimed at improving the mental health treatment engagement and adherence of individuals at risk of suicide. She has provided trainings and workshops on suicide risk assessment, management and treatment in collaboration with local universities and community organizations both nationally and internationally. As a Principal Investigator, Dr. Alonzo has received funding for her research from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), the Mental Health Association of New York State (MHANYS), and the Office of Mental Health of New York State (OMHNYS).

Dr. Alonzo has authored over 30 peer reviewed publications in scientific journals, has co-authored two editions of a seminal text on suicide assessment and treatment, written chapters in multiple texts focused on mental health and suicide, and has given numerous presentations nationally and internally on her research.

Program Associate

Program Associate

M. Colon has over 10 years of professional working experience with children, adolescents and families as a psychotherapist and program supervisor. Her primary research interests lie in protective factors and resiliency in suicidal adolescents, self-harm in adolescence, developing new clinical interventions for outpatient mental health settings and training of medical personnel. She also focuses on developing measurement tools and has expertise in analyzing data.

Program Associate

Associate Professor
Graduate School of Social Service
Fordham University

Dr. Popescu’s work centers around social development and human rights. Dr. Popescu’s research interests include women’s rights (specifically focusing on violence against women in different settings and contexts); forced migration, migration policies and the impact of such policies on women asylum seekers and refugees, migration, trauma and impact on mental health (particularly as it relates to the criminalization of migration and use of detention centers for migrants); international interdisciplinary social work education; program evaluation; and the role of international organizations in addressing global issues and working with governments and communities to develop rights-based policies and programs. She has also worked on community capacity building internationally in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Guatemala, Ghana, Kenya, and Ukraine.

Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Social Service
Fordham University

Dr. Ross completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Notre Dame; she earned Master’s degrees in Social Work and Public Health and a joint doctorate in Social Work & Sociology from Boston University. Informed directly by both her background in public health and her clinical work in emergency, outpatient psychiatry, and other pediatric medical settings, Dr. Ross’s research focuses improving the mental health service delivery system for children and adolescents at risk for suicide. Specifically, Dr. Ross's research focuses on early detection of suicide risk in children and adolescents, development and testing of family-based interventions designed to mitigate risk and expedite care, and systemic factors that promote sustainable delivery of preventive evidence-based interventions for children and youth at risk for suicide.

Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Division of Health Services Research
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Dr. Thompson conducts both public health and clinical research in the intersecting areas of substance abuse, psychiatric disorders, suicide, sexual risk behaviors, and homelessness. He has been the principle investigator of two NIH-funded randomized trials to develop and test the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of brief motivational interventions to reduce substance use and sexual risk behaviors among homeless young adults, of whom more than half report suicidal ideation/attempt. Dr. Thompson has expertise in standardized and computer-assisted screening and clinical assessment; brief individualized motivational interventions; the incorporation of technological advances to enhance brief motivational interventions; motivational interviewing; cognitive-behavioral treatment; HIV-risk reduction strategies; study recruitment and compliance techniques; participant recruitment and tracking; and analyses of clinical trials.

Program Associate

Dr. Siva Mathiyazhagan is Founder-Director of the youth-led non-profit Trust for Youth and Child Leadership (TYCL) International, based in India and the USA. He serves as TYCL representative to the United Nations. He is an affiliate researcher at SAFE Lab, Columbia School of Social Work, New York and development consultant and formerly served as Guest Faculty in the Department of Social Work, Pondicherry Central University. He has a Masters in Social Work (MSW) and a Ph.D. in Social Work, specialized in youth-centered community development from Pondicherry Central University. As part of TYCL, Siva established social innovations including Puducherry Youth Helpline- a suicide prevention hotline working towards zero youth suicide in Puducherry, Girls Lead Girls- a holistic self-defense program for girls, INaGi- a visual SWOT for youth-led community development, Children’s Incubation House for social innovation, and NKaNa –a career-focused mentorship program for young people with a mobile tracking application, all for the first time in India. Siva was a visiting scholar at the University of California Riverside and the University of La Sierra (2011). He has delivered several lectures on youth and emerging technologies and transnational youth-led social development in India, Europe, Canada, and the USA. He is also an alumnus of the UNESCO International Human Rights and Peace Building Training Program for Social Change Agents (2012), as well as the Clinton Global Initiative University (2011). Recently, Siva published “Social Incubation Workbook” for social entrepreneurs. Currently, Siva is working on “Ecosystem-Based Leadership Workbook” for young people. In the future, he intends to initiate a technology-enabled new social innovation lab for young people in a local and global effort to create an integral economy and a safe and inclusive society for young people.

Program Associate

Dr. Zubaroglu-Ioannides, a proud Fordham alumna, is a lecturer at Suleyman Demirel University, Isparta, Turkey. She holds a bachelor’s degree (Hons) in social work from Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, master’s degree in Social Work/ Social Policy from Columbia University, New York, U.S., and completed her PhD in Social Work/Social Policy at Fordham University, New York, U.S. Her research interests include policy and program evaluation, particularly in the areas of refugee resettlement policies, refugee wellbeing, mental health, women’s welfare, youth empowerment, international and interdisciplinary social work education, and the social impacts of COVID. Her doctorate dissertation examined the impact of refugee resettlement policies in the U.S. on refugee wellbeing. Dr. Zubaroglu-Ioannides was granted in 2015 with the Generation Jobless award by International House and Ford Foundation to implement Job, Training, Connection Project addressing the youth unemployment in Haiti.