Free Webinar: Survivors of Suicide
Panelists: Karen Heisig, Jeff Winton, Karl Czymmek
Losing a loved one to suicide can be a profoundly painful and isolating experience. The complexity of the emotions can feel overwhelming, and often surviving friends, family, and co-workers struggle to know who to talk to. Learn about common emotions and challenges, the grief journey, and what can help. Hear the stories from several survivors of loss and how they coped.
Jeff Winton is the founder and chairman of Rural MindsTM, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that serves as an advocate and informed voice for mental health equality in rural America.
Due to a family tragedy, Jeff devotes a significant portion of his time and energy to fighting the stigma, suffering and silence caused by mental illness and helps rural Americans tell their own personal stories to assist others on similar journeys.
In addition to being the founder and chairman of Rural Minds, Jeff is the founder and owner of Wall Street Dairy LLC, a working family dairy farm in Chautauqua County, New York, and a member of a multigenerational farm family.
Jeff has worked for four decades as a communications and corporate affairs leader with Fortune 100 corporations and is now chief executive officer of Jeff Winton Associates, a full-service communications and corporate affairs agency he co-founded in 2020. He has deep experience – on both a professional and extremely personal level – with efforts to educate about depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, substance use disorder and other forms of mental illness that has led him to create Rural Minds.
Jeff graduated with distinction from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and currently serves on the Cornell University Council and the Dean’s Advisory Council for the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. He was named outstanding alumnus in 2020 and was most recently honored by the New York State Agricultural Society with the 2025 Cap Creal – Communicator of the Year Award. Additionally, Jeff was appointed to the Advisory Board of NY FarmNet, a Cornell University-affiliated nonprofit organization that helps New York State farms navigate times of transition, opportunity, and challenge through educational programming and holistic consulting that addresses financial, family, and social stress.
Karen Heisig spent 20 years in North and South Carolina after marrying her college sweetheart, an Army ROTC graduate of Niagara University, before returning to her native Rochester, NY with her children. Her husband served with 504th Infantry, 82nd Airborne Division where he deployed for Operation Just Cause and Operation Desert Storm. When the events of 9/11 occurred, after leaving the service and having a successful career as a pharmaceutical sales representative for a decade, he made the decision to resign his commission and enlisted in the Army to be trained as a Special Forces Medic. While the journey that followed is far too detailed to give due justice in a brief bio, Maurice “Mo” Heisig died by suicide on January 23, 2006.
Karen has spent the last 12 years volunteering and working in the suicide prevention and postvention field. Her passions include prevention education, walking with others on their healing journey, spending time with her young adult children and family, and anything to do with being outdoors or cooking. As the widow of a combat veteran, she hopes her experience can help shape the future of preventing other families from ever finding themselves on this journey.
Karl Czymmek Karl Czymmek has a strong background in production agriculture and training in agronomy and law. He served the NY dairy industry for over 20 years as PRO-DAIRY’s nutrient management specialist, where he focused on nutrient management, environmental sustainability, and regulatory issues of importance to the NY dairy industry.
In 2021 Czymmek became Vice President- Field Research and Agronomy with the Environmental Research team at Dairy Management Inc., and in 2022 joined Land O’Lakes subsidiary Truterra as part of the Dairy and Livestock Services team. Both positions involved efforts to support the U.S. dairy industry toward meeting environmental stewardship goals established by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy, including the net zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050 commitment.
In 2024, Czymmek returned to Cornell for a newly created position, Dairy Climate Leadership Specialist, and also as Associate Director of PRO-DAIRY. Efforts as a Dairy Climate Leadership specialist include 1) working with scientific experts across the core dairy GHG “footprints” of enteric, manure and feed production to develop sound practices to reduce emissions while improving economic sustainability through productivity gains, new revenue streams and carbon markets; and 2) communication with and training for dairy producers, industry advisors, scientists, governmental and regulatory agency staff on opportunities to reduce GHG emissions and increase carbon sequestration.