Our People

Meet the people at the heart of Action on Male Suicide.

Action on Male Suicide brings together people with different forms of knowledge and experience, united by a shared determination to improve how male suicide is understood and prevented.

The people featured here are some of those currently helping to shape and build the charity.

Founder, Trustee

Dr Susie Bennett

Dr Susie Bennett PhD (Glasgow), is a psychological researcher specialising in male suicide risk, recovery, and prevention. She is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory and part of the Advisory Council for the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys. Her work sits at the intersection of academic research, lived experience, and real-world impact. Alongside her academic contributions, Susie has built a strong track record of translating research into action. She has led large-scale knowledge-sharing events across the UK, developed widely accessed public and professional resources, delivered training and webinars to diverse audiences, and contributed to public discourse through media and podcast engagement. Susie is now leading the establishment of ‘Action on Male Suicide’ to scale high-quality research and deliver tangible improvements to prevention, policy, and practice.

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Chair of Trustees

Dr Tiago Zortea

Dr Tiago Zortea, DClinPsych (Oxford), PhD (Glasgow), CPsychol, is a Clinical Psychologist in the Emergency Department Psychiatric Service at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, working with young people and adults in suicidal crisis and conducting clinical research. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow’s Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory, where he completed his PhD and postdoctoral work, including serving as scientific adviser to the Scottish Government’s National Suicide Prevention Leadership Team. With around 15 years of experience in suicide prevention and over two decades in psychology and mental health, Tiago has led international collaborations, published in leading journals, and delivered invited keynote talks at international conferences. He co-founded and co-directs netECR, has held leadership roles within the International Association for Suicide Prevention, and has received awards (Glasgow City Council; BABCP) for his contributions to suicide-prevention research and practice.

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Trustee

Senta Singerland

Senta Slingerland is a brand strategist, writer and curator. She is the Chief Strategy Officer of Belgium-based integrated brand and communications agency Brigada. She is also a Leader-at-Large at MESA, a company that assembles and leads extraordinary teams to build solutions to complex challenges in just 5 days. Previously, Senta was the Director of Brand Strategy of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, which awards the best brand communications and activations from across the globe. Senta has written two books: Game Changers: The Evolution of Advertising (Taschen, 2013) and City Shapers London: The Creative People Shaping the City (Lannoo, 2018).

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Treasurer, Trustee

Imran Mubreen

Imran is a chartered accountant who trained with a leading accountancy firm and has spent over twenty years connecting finance with purpose. He has advised government, housing associations and universities on funding, strategy and governance. He specialises in sustainable finance, linking investment to social impact and to the lived experience of the communities those organisations serve. He is a board member of a large UK housing association, a former school governor, and has advised UK charities and international non-governmental organisations working in education and healthcare. His work on government policy has strengthened his belief that robust data, research and evidence are essential to designing interventions that improve lives. Imran is passionate about preventing male suicide through evidence-led approaches. He believes Action on Male Suicide's mission must rest on strong governance, sound financial management and directing resources where they will have the greatest impact, so it can make a lasting difference to men, their families and their communities. A keen runner and cyclist, Imran regularly takes on challenges to raise money for causes he believes in, most recently a half marathon for Action on Male Suicide.

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Expert Academic Advisor

Professor Rory O'Connor, University of Glasgow

Professor Rory O'Connor completed his PhD at Queen's University Belfast in 1997 and then moved to Scotland where he has been ever since. He joined the University of Glasgow in July 2013 where he is Professor of Health Psychology, Director of the Suicidal Behaviour Research Laboratory and head of the Mental Health and Wellbeing group there. He is a registered health psychologist who is broadly interested in self-regulation processes and health outcomes. He is President of the International Association for Suicide Prevention and Past President of the International Academy for Suicide Research. In 2014 he was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2022. He also serves on the Scientific Review Board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, is Joint Chief-Editor of Archives of Suicide Research, an Associate Editor of Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior and also serves on the editorial board of Crisis. He is recipient of a number of awards, most recently of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention's 2023 Research Award and the BPS 2022 Popular Science Book Award for When It Is Darkest. Why People Die By Suicide & What We Can Do To Prevent It. He has been named in Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2022 list for individuals who "have published multiple highly cited papers, ranking in the top 1% by citations for field and year over the last decade". He is also Co-Chair of the Academic Advisory Group to the Scottish Government's National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group. He is also a Trustee of two mental health charities: MQ Mental Health Research (as well as being a member of MQ's Science Council) and the suicide prevention charity James' Place.

Expert Academic Advisor

Professor Johnny Andoh-Arthur, University of Ghana

Prof. Johnny Andoh-Arthur is an Associate Professor of Social and Community Psychology and the Examinations Officer at the Department of Psychology, University of Ghana where he teaches courses both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. He researches on mental health and suicide of men and young persons and also on social cognition, culture, religion and health. He has published about 60 scientific papers as book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles and has presented his works at local and international conferences. He obtained his PhD (Health Science) and MPhil (Human Development) both from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway. Prof. Andoh-Arthur is also a Licensed Community Psychologist with the Ghana Psychological Council and the Founder of a youth-based mental health advocacy group, Community and Life Empowerment Advocacy Network, Ghana (CLEAN-GH) that mentors the youth in leadership. He also uses CLEAN-GH to equip young persons with mental health literacy and life skills. He is an Affiliate at the Center for Ageing Studies and Center for Gender Studies and Advocacy, both at the University of Ghana.