Teressa Baldwin has been directly impacted by suicide and wanted to take action to help reduce the rate of suicide in her home state of Alaska. As a junior in high school, Teressa was appointed by Governor Sean Parnell to the Statewide Suicide Prevention council and became one of the youngest appointed representatives in the state of Alaska. Following her appointment, Teressa started her own organization teaching her peers about the signs of suicide and sharing her own story about how suicide affected her life. After facing common hurdles to suicide prevention programs, including high costs and low enrollment numbers in trainings, Teressa has been able to work with 12 schools on suicide prevention programs and is hoping to expand to more. Teressa feels that her work is part of her life goal to help lower the rates of suicide in not only Alaska but the rest of the country.