Heather Ayn Indelicato
Heather Ayn Indelicato, PsyD. (“Dr. I”) is a Psychologist with the Montana VA Healthcare System. She is passionate about developing effective, meaningful, culturally tailored, suicide prevention approaches with marginalized and underserved communities. Prior to this position, Dr. I served as the Chief Psychologist at New Hampshire Hospital and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Dr. I is the former lead of the Zero Suicide Implementation Team at Tséhootsooí Medical Center (TMC) on the Navajo Reservation. The team was distinguished as a national leader in providing culturally informed, safe suicide practices. Dr. I worked side-by-side with traditional practitioners and community partners to adapt the Zero Suicide Initiative, which led to the development and delivery of culturally relevant care tools, including crisis and emergency response services across remote areas of the reservation. Dr. I cultivated meaningful collaborations with people-with-lived-experiences to create postvention efforts tailored to schools, law enforcement agencies, community mental health providers, and tribal leaders. She is inspired by the Zero Suicide framework, and its capacity to forge radical hope and the collective fortitude necessary to reduce suicide to Zero.