Shannon Decker

Executive Director & Co-Founder

Shannon Decker holds a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Idaho and brings nearly two decades of experience in both private and public education across Idaho, Nevada, and California. As an interventionist and mental health educator, she leads training sessions that advance the foundation’s mission to promote mental health literacy and advocate for suicide prevention.

• Education

  • UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO
    M.Ed. Educational Leadership, 2014

  • LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
    B.A., Liberal Studies, 2005

  • Additional Studies:

    • University of Portland

    • Boise State University

    • Northwest Nazarene University

    • Sierra College

• Awards

  • Partner of the Year - Community Collaborative of Truckee Tahoe - 2024

  • Advocate of the Year - Idaho Federation of Families - 2017

  • Teacher of the Year - Ponderosa Elementary School - 2010

• Current Advisory/ Leadership

  • Truckee Tahoe Suicide Prevention Coalition Steering Committee

  • Truckee Police Department’s Chief’s Advisory Committee

  • Community Collaborative of Truckee Tahoe Leadership Team

  • Idaho Violent Death Reporting Advisory Board

• Past Advisory/ Leadership

  • United States Olympic and Paralympic Mental Health Task Force - Training Chair - 2020-2022

  • Project AWARE Coordinator & Nevada’s First Youth Suicide Prevention Coordinator - 2021-2022

  • Idaho Suicide Prevention Action Collective - 2018-2021

  • Idaho Suicide Prevention Coalition - 2015-2019

  • Idaho Resilience Project - 2018-2022

  • Western States Conference on Suicide Director 2017 & 2018

  • Author and Legislative Champion - HB 634 - Idaho’s Jason Flat Act - 2018

  • Boise Chief of Police's Community Advisory Panel in Boise - 2017-2020

• Current Collaboration

  • California

    • Tahoe Truckee Unified School District Wellness Partners

    • Know Overdose Nevada County Coalition

    • Mental Health Matters Nevada County Coalition

    • Youth Cannabis Messaging Group - NV County

    • Rx Drug Safety Coalition - Placer & NV Counties

    • Tahoe Alliance for Safe Kids (TASK)

    • Truckee Chamber of Commerce

    • North Tahoe Business Association, North Tahoe Chamber, & Tahoe City Downtown Association

  • Idaho

    • Region 3 Suicide Prevention Coalition - Idaho

    • Boise Chamber of Commerce

  • Utah

    • Utah Suicide Prevention Committee & Coalition

    • Park City Chamber of Commerce

  • Nevada

    • Nevada Suicide Prevention Coalition

    • Suicide Prevention Taskforce - Nevada Office of Suicide Prevention

  • Other

    • Linked by Legacy

    • American Association of Suicidology

• Past Collaboration

  • Idaho

    • Treasure Valley United Way Mental Health, Region 3, and Region 4 Round Tables

    • Region 4 Suicide Prevention Coalition

    • Region 4 Youth Behavioral Health Committee

    • Boise Kind Steering Committee

    • Idaho Lethal Means Task Force

    • Idaho Alliance for the Serious Mental Illness Death Penalty Exemption (IASMIE) Coalition

  • Utah

    • Summit County Suicide Prevention Coalition

    • Promise Park City - United Way of Salt Lake

    • Summit County Mental Wellness Alliance

  • Other

    • Colorado Suicide Prevention Coalition

    • American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

• Certifications

  • Be Sensitive, Be Brave for Suicide Prevention Facilitator - 2024

  • Be Sensitive, Be Brave for Mental Health Facilitator - 2024

  • VitalCog Suicide Prevention Facilitator - 2024

  • Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) - 2024

  • Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) 200 - 2023

  • Trauma Sensitive Yoga Foundations - 2023

  • Caring Connections - Grief of Sudden and Unexpected Death - 2023

  • Community Resiliency Model (CRM) Facilitator - 2022

  • Motivational Interviewing - 2022

  • Suicide Death Investigation/ Psychological Autopsy - 2021

  • STRONG Curriculum Facilitator - 2019

  • Independent Educational Consultants Association (IECA) Summer Training Institute - 2019

  • Greenwood Associates Classification System (GACS) for Special Needs Consulting- 2019

  • Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) - 2017

  • safeTALK Facilitator - 2018-2021

  • Hope Squad Master Trainer - 2017-2024

  • Mental Health First Aid Facilitator - 2017

  • Peer Crisis Debriefing Facilitator -

  • Youth Mental Health First Aid Facilitator - 2016

  • Question, Persuade, Refer (QPR) Facilitator - 2016

  • Professional Ski Instructor - Level I - 2013

  • K-8 Multiple Subject Teaching Credential - CA, NV, ID

    • Brain Gym

    • Love and Logic

    • Crucial Conversations

• Thought Leadership/ Publications

  • Film Contributions

    • Running for Their Lives

    • Weight of Gold

  • Keynotes

    • TEDx - 2022

    • AAS - 2022

  • Panel Discussions

    • Hope Lives

    • BSD Postvention

    • NV conference

    • HBO

    • Mental Health in the Mountains

    • Know the Signs - Rural Communities

    • WSCOS

      • First Responders

      • Educators

    • Nampa

  • Podcasts

  • Publications

    • NPR

    • Olympic Coaches

    • Ski Area Managers

  • Television

• Special Projects

  • Program expansion - consulting & coaching

  • Sober Curious Campaign Development - 2025

  • University of Kentucky - Connecting and Networking for Suicide Prevention (CAN) Athletics - 2025

  • Impactful Trilogy Film Screenings - 2022-2024

  • Suicide postvention support and consulting for City of Boise and Boise School District 2023-2025

  • Impactful PD for Educators - NNU - 2023

  • Messaging Matters training with partners - 2023

  • Development of MentallyCovered On-demand Training Center

  • MentallyCovered Resource Development and Mini-Library Deployment

  • 988 Marketing and Awareness

  • Program Expansion - Paid College Internships and Mentoring - 2022

  • Bronco Bold - Suicide Prevention Training

  • Host Large Training Opportunities

    • Know Overdose -Train-the-TrainerTrain-the-Trainer in Spanish - 2024

    • safeTALK

    • QPR

    • CAMScare

    • CRM

    • Storytelling

    • Mental Health First Aid

    • Youth Mental Health First Aid

  • QPR US Ski and Snowboard

  • Adoption & Scaling of MHFA - USOPC

  • Suicide Postvention Training and Support for Shoshone Bannock Tribe

  • Coordination of 2018 update to Idaho’s suicide prevention plan - public/private partnership

  • Jason Flat Act - Idaho

  • Paper Tigers and Resilience Film Screenings

  • Resilience PD for Educators - NNU and BSU

  • UOP

  • Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline