VA San Diego Healthcare System;University of California, San Diego;Cindy Chang, PsyD, is a Research Psychologist at the VA San Diego Healthcare System and Assistant Adjunct Professor at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Chang’s research focuses on suicide prevention, social connectedness, and increasing access to mental healthcare among LGBTQ+ Veterans. Dr. Chang is the Principal Investigator of a five-year VA Career Development Award to develop and evaluate a group-based suicide prevention intervention designed to strengthen social connectedness among vulnerable Veterans. Dr. Chang's research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, and she has received over a dozen awards or grants recognizing her work from organizations such as the American Psychological Association and the Veterans Affairs.

University of North Carolina Charlotte;Kim DeFiori, PhD, is a retired Army officer and Postdoctoral Fellow at the UNC Charlotte Violence Prevention Center. Her research focuses on suicide prevention, health policy, and healthcare systems, with particular attention to military-connected and LGBTQ+ populations.

Center on Alcohol, Substance Use, and Addictions at University of New Mexico;Louisa Kane, Ph.D., is a current post-doctoral fellow at the Center on Alcohol, Substance use, And Addictions (CASAA). Her research focuses on the development, testing, and dissemination of individual and couple-based psychosocial interventions for substance use disorder and co-occurring mental health conditions. She is particularly interested in contextual and interpersonal mechanisms of substance use and behavior change, and how these can inform more effective treatments. Louisa approaches her work through a harm reduction lens, aiming to develop and improve existing interventions to meet people where they are within their broader relational context.

VA San Diego Healthcare System;Amy B. Hoang, B.A., is a clinical research coordinator at the Jennifer Moreno Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center. Over the past several years, Amy has been involved with coordinating VA clinical trials that focus on couple therapy, PTSD, and suicide-focused interventions, as well as working with Veterans across a variety of backgrounds and identities. Amy is passionate about helping address the "gap" between research and everyday people; namely by examining how interventions are accessed and delivered under existing real-world systems particularly for individuals of LGBTQ+, BIPOC, non-college-educated, and low-income backgrounds.