Who We Are

Alison received her BA in women’s studies and social anthropology from Harvard University and her MA in anthropology from Princeton University, with a focus in psychological and psychoanalytic anthropology. She subsequently undertook clinical training at the National Psychological Association for Psychoanalysis, and is a licensed psychoanalyst in New York State. She joined Dr. Gould’s research group in 2008, bringing an interest in qualitative and mixed methods research. As a project director on the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Evaluation, she oversaw the evaluation of the first cohort of SAMHSA’s crisis-center follow-up grantees, and now focuses on the evaluation of crisis chat interventions, the imminent-risk evaluation, and the hospital data collection aspect of the ED follow-up evaluation. After seven years onsite at NYSPI, she relocated in 2015 to Colorado Springs, CO, and continues to work remotely with Dr. Gould.

Marjorie is a graduate of Vassar College and has an MS degree in biostatistics from Columbia University School of Public Health and an MA degree in psychology from The New School for Social Research. She is a computer programmer and data analyst and has worked with Dr. Gould on almost all of her research projects in the field of adolescent suicide and contagion, as well as her more recent work funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in suicide prevention and assessment of telephone crisis services. She has vast experience in data management and in the use of statistical programming packages such as SPSS and SAS. In addition, she has programmed many of her own statistical procedures.

Saba J. Chowdhury received her MPH in chronic disease epidemiology from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and joined Dr. Gould’s research team as a data analyst in 2017.  Saba is involved with the evaluation of mental health services provided by the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and conducts analyses for other related community suicide prevention projects as well. She developed a strong interest in neuroscience and psychiatry after witnessing a close family member develop a serious mental illness when she was in high school.  Through her involvement in academic research and the arts, Saba hopes to support the dissemination of mental health knowledge to disadvantaged communities and make a positive impact in suicide prevention research.

Claudia Rodriguez graduated magna cum laude from Fordham University in 2018 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance and psychology. In May of 2021, Claudia received her Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University. After graduating from Fordham, Claudia spent a gap year volunteering for the Long Island Crisis Center, where she was trained as a crisis counselor to answer the Lifeline and other local crisis hotlines. This life-changing experience solidified her interest in suicide research – both intervention and prevention – specifically within the Latinx/Hispanic youth population. During her second semester at Teachers College in early 2020, Claudia joined Dr. Madelyn S. Gould’s research unit as a research assistant for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Effectiveness Evaluation. Her main tasks are to interview suicidal callers to the Lifeline starting 48 hours after their crisis call and code crisis call recordings. Under Dr. Gould’s supervision, Claudia wrote her Master’s thesis entitled: Assessing Suicide Risk in Latinx/Hispanic Individuals: A Review of the Literature and its Sociocultural Implications. At Teachers College, Claudia still serves as the Communications Editor for the Graduate School Journal of Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal that has been published by the school since 1998.