Austin Lucas

Austin Lucas, BS, serves as the program director for the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation (OSPF). He has been employed with OSPF since 2018. In this role, he manages suicide prevention programming, training, events, education, and resources for federal, state, and foundation grants. Lucas serves as the project lead for the Suicide Prevention Plan for Ohio Implementation Team, which ensures the goals and objectives in the Suicide Prevention Plan for Ohio are met and exceeded. He is also the project lead for Ohio’s effort to build out its local and state suicide fatality review and psychological autopsy infrastructure. Lucas works with community-level partners in Ohio, including local suicide prevention coalitions, government agencies, Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors (LOSS) teams, mental health organizations, and many others. He is passionate about empowering communities to spread suicide prevention training, knowledge, and skills.

Lucas’s passion for suicide prevention derives from his personal struggles with depression as well as having many friends and family members that live with mental illness. He is a certified Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) Master Trainer and a Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) Instructor. Additionally, Lucas is certified by the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) as a psychological autopsy investigator. He received a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from The Ohio State University. Lucas currently lives in Westerville, Ohio.