Alison Malmon

Alison Malmon is the founder and executive director of Active Minds, Inc., the leading national organization that uses students as the driving force to change the perception about mental health on college campuses.

She formed the organization following the suicide of her only sibling, twenty-two year old brother Brian Malmon. Wanting to combat the stigma that had caused her brother to suffer in silence and ultimately take his own life, she created a group on her campus at the University of Pennsylvania that promoted an open, enlightened dialogue around the issues. Just after graduating Phi Beta Kappa with honors in Psychology and Sociology in 2003, Alison formed the 501(c)3 organization in order to develop and support chapters of the student group on campuses around the country. From that moment forward, she has served as Executive Director of the non-profit, leading the organization as it engages thousands of student leaders nationwide and promotes a unified national voice for young adults in the mental health awareness movement.

For her efforts, Malmon has been named one of the "Top 15 Emerging Social Innovators in the World" by Ashoka Changemakers and American Express, Washingtonian of the Year (2007) by Washingtonian Magazine, Citizen of the Year (2008) by the Potomac, Maryland Rotary Club, and a Woman of Distinction (2007) by the American Association of University Women. She has also received the Tipper Gore Remember the Children Award from Mental Health America, the inaugural Young Leadership Award from the National Mental Health Research Association (NARSAD), the Leadership Award from Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, and was named the first-ever Montgomery County Public Schools (MD) Distinctive Alumnus. Alison has been profiled as a "Person you Should Know" on CNN, and in stories in the New York Times, Washington Post, Glamour Magazine, and ABC's Good Morning America, among others.

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