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Alison Malmon

Founder and Executive Director

Alison Malmon is the founder and Executive Director of Active Minds, and a sought after mental health expert. Alison formed the organization in 2003 as a 21-year-old, following the suicide of her brother and only sibling Brian. Wanting to end the silence that caused her brother to suffer alone and ultimately take his own life, Alison created a group on her campus at the University of Pennsylvania to promote open dialogue around mental health. Since then, Active Minds has grown into the country’s foremost mental health organization for students and young adults, with award-winning programs and a vibrant network of campus chapters located at more than 550 colleges, universities, and high schools nationwide.

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Laura Horne

Chief Program Officer

As Chief Program Officer at Active Minds, Laura develops innovative strategies and unique partnerships to empower students to help society embrace a comprehensive, public health approach to mental health. She oversees Active Minds’ evidence-based peer-to-peer approach and award-winning programmatic portfolio, including Active Minds’ nationwide network of more than 550 college and high school chapters, Send Silence Packing®, Active Minds Speakers, V-A-R®, among many others.

Prior to Active Minds, Laura provided technical assistance and training to a nationwide network of multi-sector community coalitions to implement health policy, systems, and environmental change and prevent chronic disease in schools, workplaces, and communities through her work at the National Association of County and City Health Officials. She also managed a public health communications portfolio at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. Laura earned her Master of Public Health degree in community health sciences from Tulane University and her Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from Loyola University New Orleans. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist through the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing.

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Becky Fein

Director of Training and Engagement

Becky oversees and leads the Active Minds California Mental Health Services Act (CalMHSA) funded initiative. She has been supporting the creation of peer-powered student advocacy programs, under CalMHSA contracts, for five years, beginning in 2012 at Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State University. Becky served as Adjunct Faculty at Santa Rosa Junior College, where she taught a course on personal health and issues at the forefront of public health. She has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from University of California, Davis, and a Master’s of Public Health from Columbia University. Becky also co-founded the Powerful Voices Project, a documentary film series highlighting the stories of resilience and recovery from people who have experienced sexual assault.

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Tanya Bass

Senior Manager of Health Equity

Dr. Tanya Bass previously served as Program Supervisor managing the Cultural and Community Initiatives in the NC Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCOMHHD). At NCOMHHD, she worked with agencies and individuals to advance racial justice, health equity, and inclusion. As a member of the North Carolina Society for Public Health Education (NCSOPHE), the Association of Black Sexologist and Clinicians (ABSC), and the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), she remains engaged in professional growth and development. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator (CSE). Tanya is an alumna of North Carolina Central University’s (NCCU) Department of Public Health Education, where she has served as an adjunct instructor for several years and is currently the lead instructor for Human Sexuality. She has a PhD in Education at Widener University in the Center for Human Sexuality Studies. She also has a Master of Science in Health Promotion and Human Services from NCCU and a Master of Education from Widener University. Tanya uses she/her pronouns.

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Lauren Cikara

Senior Manager of K-12 Initiatives

Lauren has spent her entire career advocating for youth and young adult programming in K-12 education, higher education, and community spaces. Most recently, she worked for the Colorado School of Public Health School recruiting schools to participate in the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS), Colorado’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), and Smart Source. In this role, Lauren supported schools in administering the surveys and provided technical support to schools and community partners as they navigated using results to inform school and adolescent health work across Colorado. She is a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusive school board policies and ensures the work she is a part of has an equitable and intersectional lens. Lauren’s background is in student leadership, health education and equity, policy and advocacy, and equity and inclusion.

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Amy Gatto

Senior Manager of Higher Ed & Evaluation

Amy is interested in the relationship between health and education. Blending together her experiences as a former high school teacher, higher education health educator, and young adult health researcher, she has found a niche in working to improve adolescent and young adult mental health. Amy is a doctoral candidate at the University of South Florida in the College of Public Health, holds a Master in Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Bachelor of Arts in Human Services from Elon University.

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