Alison Malmon is founder and executive director of Active Minds, Inc., the leading organization dedicated to college student mental health advocacy. She started the program in 2001, while a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, following the suicide of her older brother, Brian, one year earlier. 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 that promoted an open, enlightened dialogue around the issues. Just two years later, Alison formed the 501(c)3 organization to develop and support chapters of the student group on campuses around the country. She currently serves as Executive Director of the non-profit organization, having set up more than 230 college-based chapters of the student group and creating a unified national voice for young adults in the mental health awareness movement.
Alison was the 2003 recipient of the Tipper Gore Remember the Children Award from the National Mental Health Association, and the 2004 Young Leadership Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression. In 2007 she was named Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian magazine, and has appeared in numerous articles in The New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe and others. Having graduated from University of Pennsylvania in 2003, she now lives and works in Washington, DC, where she sits on numerous boards and planning committees, and in her spare time, teaches the flying trapeze.