The Watchtower Foundation
The Watchtower Foundation exists to answer the hardest questions we rarely ask out loud.
Every 11 minutes, someone in the United States dies by suicide. In 2023 alone, more than 49,000 people lost their lives to suicide—more than the entire population of many American towns. Millions more seriously considered it, and over 1.5 million attempted it.
I founded The Watchtower Foundation in response to a personal reckoning: eleven people in my life, all gone by suicide. These were not marginal figures—they were fully engaged members of society. A childhood friend. Three college classmates. Two professional peers. A high school classmate. A coworker I’d known since 1989. A family connection. A trusted client. A work acquaintance.
They came from different backgrounds, different industries, different life stages. But they all shared something painfully similar: their suffering went unnoticed or was misunderstood—until it was too late.
As I mourned these losses, I began to realize something that is both terrifying and clarifying:
Suicide is not only a tragedy. It is a systemic failure—of detection, of understanding, and of response.
And so, I created The Watchtower Foundation.
🌉 Our Mission:
To illuminate the root causes of suicide, identify individuals at risk well before a crisis point, and reduce national suicide rates through data-driven research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and public education.
🔬 Our Core Beliefs:
Suicide is complex. It is rarely about one event, diagnosis, or cause. It’s often a culmination of factors—psychological, neurological, economic, social, and cultural—unfolding over years or even decades.
Society’s understanding is inadequate. We’re not asking the right questions, and we often seek overly simple explanations that do not match the depth of the problem.
Prevention must be proactive. Crisis hotlines and mental health awareness campaigns matter—but we need new, upstream interventions rooted in research, prediction, and early identification.
Data must guide us. We're building partnerships with researchers, clinicians, sociologists, and data scientists to spot patterns, test hypotheses, and create new models of understanding.
🧭 Our Areas of Focus:
Root Cause Research: Longitudinal studies, qualitative interviews, and interdisciplinary literature reviews to identify key risk patterns across populations.
Predictive Models: Collaborating with data scientists to identify early signals of suicidality—social, linguistic, behavioral, or digital—before they become acute crises.
Public Education: Offering honest, nuanced content on suicide that goes beyond awareness, toward understanding—and offering people a real sense of agency and clarity.
Targeted Interventions: Piloting and funding early-stage interventions in schools, workplaces, and healthcare systems aimed at identifying risk before it escalates.
🤝 My Role as Founder:
Vision & Strategy: I shape and steward the long-term mission of the Foundation, ensuring we are always guided by curiosity, empathy, and the pursuit of answers.
Fundraising & Partnerships: I lead outreach to philanthropic partners, private donors, healthcare institutions, and research collaborators.
Thought Leadership: I write and speak on the topic of suicide prevention with candor, depth, and urgency—through essays, interviews, and public forums.
Organizational Development: I oversee the buildout of our internal team, research fellowships, advisory board, and operational infrastructure.
🛡️ Why “Watchtower”?
A watchtower is a place of perspective. Of vigilance. It stands not in judgment, but in protection. We chose this name to reflect our belief that suicide prevention must begin long before a person is in crisis. We are not just responding to danger. We are watching for patterns, signs, and stories that might otherwise go unseen.
💡 Join Us:
If you're a researcher, healthcare provider, funder, policymaker, or simply someone who has been touched by suicide—we invite you to be part of this mission.
You can donate to our efforts here: https://www.clientsciences.com/giving-page-3
You can learn more and subscribe to our ongoing work here: The Watchtower Foundation | Substack
And if you're reading this and wondering whether you or someone you love might be at risk, know this:
You are not alone. And your story is not over.