Soul Shop™ for Black Congregations
Ready to discuss SUICIDe prevention?
Join Soul Shop™ for Black Congregations for a webinar specifically designed for laypeople, pastors, church staff, and faith-based clinicians in Black and African American churches and faith communities more broadly. This program supports faith community members who are on the front lines of community mental health crises to minister to those impacted by suicide.
Join the Conversation
As Black and African American churches are deeply rooted in their communities, pastors, ministry leaders, and congregants are often on the front lines of responding to mental health crises and ministering to individuals and families impacted by suicide.
This webinar will explore the impact of stigma and other factors contributing to suicide among Black and Brown youth, the prominent role of the church in African American communities, and how that influence can be use to champion public health, mental health, and suicide prevention efforts.
MEET OUR EXPERTS
Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony
Member, NAACP National Board of Directors
Vice Chair, NAACP Religious Affairs Committee
President, NAACP Detroit Branch
Reverend Dr. Wendell Anthony is a native of St. Louis, Missouri. He was educated in the Detroit PublicSchool system. He graduated from Wayne State University with a B.A. in Political Science and Marygrove College with an M.A. in Pastoral Ministry. He attended the University of Detroit for advanced study inBlack Theology. Rev. Anthony is a Certified Social Worker with the State of Michigan. On May 12, 2007, Rev. Anthony was the keynote speaker for the Graduation Class of Marygrove College at which time the Board of Trustees conferred upon Rev. Anthony the degree of Honorary Doctor of Arts. In 2022, Wayne State University conferred upon Rev. Anthony the degree of Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa.
He became the Pastor of Fellowship Chapel in December 1986 following the passing of Reverend James E. Wadsworth, Jr. Through the grace of God and the labor of his ministry, the church has experienced the greatest growth in its 55-year history. Through its James E. Wadsworth, Jr. Community Center, Fellowship Chapel has a full-time outreach ministry with programs ranging from health and wellness, youth mentoring and development and job training.
Currently, Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony is a member of the NAACP National Board of Directors. In addition, he is serving his 15th term as President of the Detroit Branch NAACP, a position he has held for 28 years. The Detroit Branch NAACP is the largest branch in the country. It hosts the largest sit-down dinner in the nation, bringing at least 10,000 persons to gather every year to celebrate and commemorate the struggle for social justice, freedom, and equality. He is the founder of the Freedom Institute for Economic, Social Justice, and People Empowerment, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, which also sponsors the annual Freedom Weekend in the city of Detroit.
Dr. Chris Pernell
Director, NAACP Center for Health Equity
Dr. Chris T. Pernell is a physician leader and social change agent dedicated to advancing health justice, community wellbeing, and population health. She serves as Director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity, where she leads efforts to drive equitable health outcomes and transform systems with a whole‑person approach. Before joining the NAACP, she founded The Esther Group, a public health consulting and strategy firm focused on helping organizations and communities innovate toward a healthier, more just future.
Previously, Dr. Chris was the first Chief Strategic Integration and Health Equity Officer at University Hospital in Newark, overseeing population health, strategic planning, community affairs, and patient experience. She also led workplace health and equity initiatives with 1199SEIU and healthcare partners across New York City. A recognized voice in preventive medicine, she has been honored by Insider NJ, ROI‑NJ, NJBiz, the American College of Preventive Medicine, and the New Jersey Public Health Association.
Dr. Pernell advises leaders nationwide on racial justice, community wellbeing, and health equity. A graduate of Princeton, Duke, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins, she also serves as a clinical faculty member and faith leader committed to transforming lives through truth, creativity, and service.
Mavis Flowers, MPH, MSc
Founder of Strategies for Growth
Mavis Flowers, MPH, MSc, is the Founder of Strategies for Growth, which partners with healthcare systems to facilitate sustainable organizational change that improves safety, quality, the patient experience, and employee well-being.
Currently, she is partnered with The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai as a Project Director within the Mental health equity research group which is focused on suicide prevention programs for youth and young adults that helps them build resilience, strengthen social bonds and develop healthy coping skills.
Prior to this role, Mavis was a Project Manager at Columbia University's Center for Community Health and led the TRIUMPH (Transforming Your Ment-Health through Prayer and Healing) research studywhich used a Community Health Worker model to partner with Black Churches to provide free screening, brief counseling and linkages to clinical care for community residents and congregants who screened positive with moderate to high levels of anxiety, depression and/or suicidal ideation.
Mavis is a Mental Health First Aide Instructor, a Volunteer Instructor with the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention, and an Instructor with SoulShop movement which provides suicide prevention training for faith community leaders and equips faith communities to support those affected by suicide by restoring hope and strengthening meaningful connections.
Lauren Jenkins
Co-Director | Soul Shop for Black Churches
Lauren Jenkins is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, Empowerment Speaker, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Advocate and Trainer. Professionally, Lauren holds over 16 years of experience providing therapeutic support and interventions to youth and adults involved in the correctional/mental health systems.
She is a Certified Mental Health First Aid Trainer (Youth and Adult), and a Master Trainer in Adverse Childhood Experiences. Lauren is the founder and owner of mental health wellness and training company called The Journey2Well with the purpose to help people [re]discover the power that lies in their courage to become self-aware, to reclaim their narratives, and find power in telling their stories in order to live well, feel well, be well, and if in the helping profession, help well.
Personally, Lauren is also a person with a personal connection to this work, including her own journey with mental health challenges as well as lived experience with suicide loss and her own lived expereince with suicidality. It was after experiencing great loss and then a suicide attempt in 2012 that was the catalyst to her healing and then pursuit of professional and advocacy work in the mental health and suicide prevention spaces. When Lauren is not providing therapy or serving as an advocate and trainer, she enjoys leading worship, singing, and songwriting. She is currently attending Pittsburgh Theological Seminary for her Master's in Divinity.
Tiffany Walker, LCSW
Senior Fellow, Center for Health Equity
Tiffany Walker, LCSW, is the Senior Fellow for the NAACP Center for Health Equity, where she advances health equity through systems change, public health strategy, and cross-sector collaboration. A clinician and systems architect, Tiffany helps organizations translate vision into scalable systems, frameworks, and infrastructure that improve health outcomes and create measurable impact.
Prior to joining the NAACP, Tiffany served as University Director of Student Wellness Services at Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she led strategy and operations for a multi-campus health and wellness department serving more than 11,000 students. She designed and implemented the university's first upstream public health framework, integrating education, prevention, early intervention, and compassionate care to strengthen student health, mental health, and student success.
Tiffany began her career as a program evaluator for college readiness programs, before moving into direct service as a school social worker. She has dedicated her work to improving the health and wellbeing of people through culturally responsive, equity-centered systems of care. Her current scholarship examines workplace harm as a public health issue, with a particular focus on how chronic exposure to microaggressions, discrimination, and institutional gaslighting shapes health, mental health, leadership identity, and career sustainability for Black women. She is the creator of the Lifecycle of Microaggressions® framework, which she uses to help institutions and executive teams identify where organizational culture and unaddressed harm quietly erode trust, performance, and long-term sustainability.
Tiffany is also the founder of Journey Therapy Center and its Per My Email platform, a coaching and learning space that supports Black women navigating racialized harm in professional environments. Through Per My Email, she provides speaking, coaching, and facilitation centered on regulation, recovery, and strategic clarity for Black women leaders working inside high pressure, historically white dominant systems.