Our Team
Our program is part of Forefront Suicide Prevention, a Center of Excellence in UW’s School of Social Work.
The Safer Homes Task Force, a state-mandated committee, acts in an advisory board capacity; it comprises health care providers, suicide prevention experts, first responders/ law enforcement, veterans, and firearms and pharmaceutical industry professionals.
Safer Homes Staff
Brett Bass, Program Manager
Brett Bass co-chairs the Washington State legislature’s Suicide – Safer Homes Task Force and manages Forefront Suicide Prevention’s Safer Homes, Suicide Aware program. Safer Homes’ impact was published in Injury Prevention, demonstrating a statistically significant increase in secure storage of firearms and medications among program participants. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve from 2006-2019 and deployed overseas to Latvia, Kuwait, and Afghanistan (with a brief trip to Kyrgyzstan). Brett also serves as the senior rifle & pistol marksmanship instructor for Bellevue Gun Club. He has more than a decade of experience in training shooters and holds a variety of instructor credentials and has over a hundred hours of private-sector training from a variety of organizations.
Zach North, Outreach Specialist
Erica Runge, Logistics Coordinator
Jeffrey Sung, MD, Faculty Advisor
Safer Homes Task Force
The Safer Homes Task Force is mandated by the Washington State Legislature to advise the Safer Homes program. Its members comprise Washington state legislatures, law enforcement, state agency leaders, suicide prevention experts, firearms retailers and advocates, pharmacy experts, and community partners and advocates whose lives have been touched by suicide.