SPRINGFIELD — In recognition of his consistent leadership on veterans’ mental health initiatives and suicide prevention, State Senator Mike Porfirio received the 2025 National Innovator of the Year award from the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition.

“We have to treat veteran suicide as the national emergency it is and address it with all resources possible,” said Porfirio (D-Lyons Township). “There are breakthrough therapies available that have shown incredible efficacy and saved the lives of veterans. We need to invest in these therapies and build them out to scale so that every veteran has access to the best available and effective treatment – and we need to do it now.”

The Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition is a nonprofit veteran-member group with a focus on ending the veteran suicide epidemic and advocating for safe and effective treatments and therapies for veterans.

Porfirio, a Captain in the Navy Reserve with over seven and a half years of service on active duty and an additional 14 years of reserve duty, has a strong history of leadership in supporting veterans’ mental health and breakthrough therapies for veteran suicide treatment. In 2025, he was appointed chair of the Breakthrough Therapies for Veteran Suicide Prevention Advisory Council and is currently serving as chair of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

In the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, Porfirio advocated for $6 million toward breakthrough therapies for veteran suicide prevention. 

“This investment, that I will continue to call for in the state budget, provides funding toward clinical trials to treat veterans and save veterans’ lives. We need to build capacity and train clinicians who can provide these treatments throughout the state of Illinois,” Porfirio emphasized. “Illinois can be a national leader and build out a best-in-class national model on administering these therapies. We can’t miss this moment. Veterans are dying and we must expand access to these treatments expeditiously, aggressively, ambitiously and unapologetically.”

“Veteran suicide is a national emergency and a matter of moral responsibility. Senator Porfirio has demonstrated the kind of decisive leadership this moment demands,"  said Lt. General Martin R. Steele, USMC (Ret.) of the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition. "By investing in breakthrough therapies and building clinical capacity in Illinois, he is helping ensure that Veterans receive the most advanced, evidence-based care available. That leadership is saving lives and setting an example for the rest of the country."

For more information on the Veteran Mental Health Leadership Coalition and their mission, visit here.