Memphis chapter leadership

Dr. Audrey Elion

Dr. Audrey Elion serves as the Founding President of the BMH Village Memphis Chapter. A native Memphian and lifelong advocate for youth, education, and mental health, she holds a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Memphis and a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University.

She is the owner of Elion Management Consulting, LLC, and Co-Director of Sowing Justice, a nonprofit addressing environmental injustice in Tennessee. With more than fifteen years inside the Memphis-Shelby County Schools system, she has worked as a substitute teacher, an Arise2Read tutor, and a TN Achieves mentor.

Her public service runs deep: she chairs the Greater Memphis Region of the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network and previously chaired its Statewide Advisory Council; she serves as Secretary of the Shelby County Health, Education and Housing Facility Board, appointed by the Shelby County Mayor and confirmed by the County Commission; and she sits on the board of Freed Life, which combats human trafficking in West Tennessee. She was also appointed to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris' Gun Safety Council and previously chaired the Public Policy & Legislation Committee for the American Counseling Association's Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Elion served as Special Assistant for Trauma-Informed Intervention with the Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby County, where she built the court's trauma-informed programming from the ground up. She has also written for the Daily Memphian as a guest columnist on public education policy.

Herschel James

Herschel James, M.S., leads Grants and Development for the BMH Village Memphis Chapter. A Memphis native, he works in business development at Delta Specialty Hospital, focusing on behavioral health partnerships and community outreach, and was recognized among Memphis' 40 Under 40 Urban Elite Professionals for his community advocacy.

Herschel was featured in Fatherhood: Uplifting Voices, Redefining Legacy, an Emmy-nominated WKNO-TV series on Black fatherhood, where he spoke about caring for his father, a Vietnam veteran — one thread in his ongoing voice in local conversations on Black men's health, fatherhood, and caregiving.

Kearee Jackson

Kearee Jackson serves as the Nashville–Memphis Liaison for the BMH Village Memphis Chapter. He is the Youth Programs Director at the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network, where he has spent twelve years supporting Pre-K through 12th grade students across Tennessee school districts and nonprofits.

A certified Sources of Strength trainer, he leads the statewide rollout of the peer-based youth suicide prevention program in Tennessee schools, and holds additional certifications as a QPR and ASIST trainer. Based in Nashville, Kearee bridges BMHV's Memphis and Nashville communities.

Trudi Royston

Trudi Royston oversees Education for the BMH Village Memphis Chapter. She is the Director of the Tutor901 program at Literacy Mid-South, where she leads literacy initiatives for youth and adults across Memphis. A native of Arkansas with a BS in Elementary Education from Delta State University and an MS in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Memphis, Trudi taught kindergarten through fifth grade before moving into school administration and Title I facilitation.

She has also served as a Tennessee Department of Education summer ELA core coach trainer and on the state's TCAP item review committee, and supports programs including Read to be Ready, Kindergarten PREP, and TN ALL Corps Tutoring.

Pretoria Griffin

Pretoria Griffin leads Community Engagement for the BMH Village Memphis Chapter. She serves as Director of Business Development at Crestwyn Behavioral Health in Memphis, following fifteen years in the crisis sector and prior roles as a Business Development Specialist at Lakeside Behavioral Health System and a therapist at Youth Villages.

Pretoria also serves as Secretary of Tennessee's Region VII Policy and Planning Council under the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, helping advocate for expanded mental health resources at the state level.

Dorothy Jones

Dorothy Jones serves as Secretary and leads Criminal Justice initiatives for the BMH Village Memphis Chapter. She is the Director of Programming at JIFF (Juvenile Intervention and Faith-Based Follow-Up), a Memphis nonprofit working to break the cycle of juvenile crime.

A native Memphian with a degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Memphis, Dorothy began her career with AmeriCorps, working with high school students at an alternative school, and spent many years volunteering in the Child Life Specialist program at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. She and her husband, Andre, have two children and are committed to making Memphis a better place.

Melissa Tabor

Bio pending confirmation — awaiting chapter sign-off.