Barbara Stanley

Barbara H. Stanley (August 13, 1949 – January 25, 2023) was an American psychologist, researcher, and suicidologist who served as Professor of Psychology at Columbia University and the Director of Suicide Prevention Training at New York State Office of Mental Health. She also served as Research Scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Stanley was best known for the Stanley-Brown Safety Planning Intervention, which she developed in 2008 together with Gregory K. Brown. It has since been adopted by hospitals and mental health clinics across the U.S. as a method for suicide prevention. Life and career Born Barbara Hrevnack in Newark, New Jersey, on August 13, 1949, she earned a B.A. from Montclair State College and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from New York University before becoming a licensed psychologist and a researcher. In 1970, she married Michael Edward Stanley, a neuroscientist, with whom she worked and published on subjects related to informed consent and borderline personality disorder. Stanley's research focused on suicide risk assessment and prevention. She was the author and co-author of over 200 scholarly articles and book chapters, and served as editor-in-chief of the Archives of Suicide Research. She was the chair and later member of the Committee on Human Research at the American Psychological Association and a standing member of the National Institute of Health, Center for Scientific Review's Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging study section.