Hope College alumnus Dr. David Litts, a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force, will share one of his most significant Washington, D.C., experiences in public health policy—the establishing of a history-making suicide prevention effort in the United States Air Force—during a campus address on Thursday, April 23, at 11 a.m. in the Maas Center conference room.

The public is invited.  Admission is free.

Litts, who is a 1976 Hope graduate and optometrist, will describe his role in establishing the policies that propelled the program covering 350,000 men and women in the Air Force to success and world-wide recognition. Lessons learned from the program were reflected in the first National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, which Litts also played a key role in producing. After publishing the strategy in 2001, Litts then led the federal government's effort to disseminate the approach across all the states and territories.

The Maas Center is located at 264 Columbia Ave., on Columbia Avenue at 11th Street.