Lauren Ashley Tipton Wins National Mental-Health Advocacy Award

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Lauren Ashley Tipton

LEXINGTON, VA (04/11/2012)(readMedia)-- Lauren Ashley Tipton, a Washington and Lee University senior from Myrtle Beach, S.C., has won the Jed Foundation's annual Jerry Greenspan Student Voice of Mental Health Award.

The award recognizes "a student who is reducing stigma around mental illness, raising awareness of mental health problems on campus, or encouraging help-seeking among his or her peers."Tipton will receive a $2,000 cash award, a trip to New York to attend the Jed Foundation's annual gala in June and a video highlighting her award-winning work, which will be shown during the event.

A neuroscience major who plans to attend medical school and become a psychiatrist, Tipton founded and serves as president of Washington and Lee's chapter of Active Minds, the organization that supports campus-wide events and national programs to remove the stigma that surrounds mental-health issues.

Under Tipton's leadership, the W&L chapter grew from a small group to an organization that presented its successes at the Active Minds national conference last year. The group has tackled a variety of topics, ranging from eating disorders to bipolar disorder to depression.

In addition to her work with Active Minds, Tipton was recently inducted into Phi Beta Kappa; belongs to the Student Recruitment Committee; and belongs to Chi Omega sorority. She belongs to the Beta Beta Beta Biology honor society and the Psi Chi psychology honor society. W&L named her a General of the Month last October.

The Jed Foundation was founded in 2000 by Donna and Phil Satow after they lost their son Jed to suicide. While trying to learn more about suicide and make sense of their unthinkable loss, the Satows discovered an urgent and unmet need for programming and resources that helped colleges, students and parents recognize and address the signs of emotional distress and suicide.