Dr. April Naturale
Dr. Naturale is a traumatic stress specialist with an extensive history as a health/mental health care administrator and clinician specializing in responses to traumatic events. Her dissertation focused on Secondary Traumatic Stress in disaster responders, a subject she continues to study. Dr. Naturale led Project Liberty, the NY mental health response to the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster and later served as the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Disaster Technical Assistance Center Project Director. Dr. Naturale was the architect of and helped implement the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing behavioral health response.
In 2004, Dr. Naturale helped launch the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and in 2011, the Disaster Distress Helpline. Over the past 20 years she has provided disaster and traumatic stress response training and consultation throughout the U.S. and internationally. From 2013-2020, Dr. Naturale has worked with the Dept of Justice/Office for Victims of Crime as a program and needs assessment consultant for the San Bernardino terror attack, the Las Vegas Harvest Festival, Pulse Nightclub, Parkland, Thousand Oaks, Pittsburgh Tree of Life, Poway Synagogue, Virginia Beach, El Paso and Highland Ranch shooting incidents and the TN Christmas Day bombing. She has trained Psychologists in the Ukraine Military Service, Humanitarian Aid workers for the European Union and recently helped launch the new European Centre of Expertise for Victims of Terrorism.
Currently, Dr. Naturale is the Interim Executive Director for the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline working to move the effort forward as the network expands and works more closely with each of the states and crisis centers dedicated to suicide prevention. She has also recently been appointed to the U.S. Department of Justice team of nine subject matter experts to aid in a review of the law enforcement response to the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting.