Keita Franklin.
Vice President of Integrated Health Care Strategy, TriWest Healthcare Alliance / Co-Director, Columbia Lighthouse Project
Vice President of Integrated Health Care Strategy, TriWest Healthcare Alliance / Co-Director, Columbia Lighthouse Project
Dr. Keita Franklin is a nationally recognized public health leader and senior executive with more than 25 years of experience in suicide prevention, behavioral health, and large-scale systems change. She spent the majority of her career in senior executive roles at the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, where she served as principal advisor on suicide prevention and behavioral health policy, testified before Congress, and advised the White House. She is widely credited with helping shift the VA’s suicide prevention efforts from a medical model to a comprehensive public health approach.
Dr. Franklin serves as Co-Director of the Columbia Lighthouse Project and as Vice President of Integrated Health Care Strategy at TriWest Healthcare Alliance. She holds a PhD in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University and executive education credentials from Harvard and UNC–Chapel Hill. She is the author of The Humanity Cure: How Small Acts Can Change the World (2026).