Fostering Connection Across the Lifespan

Jose Ballejo is a UA VIP instructor/BTJ Pipefitter, retired U.S. Army Sergeant 1st Class, and member of UA Local 58. I am currently helping military personal transition out of the military to the civilian world by teaching them how to weld. This ensures them a trade and job when the exit the military.

Born is rural South Africa on a mission hospital station and spent his first 10 years living in South Africa. Exposed in childhood to the importance and value of service to others. Experience in agriculture during adolescence. Undergraduate work in science and ecology. Graduate work in nutrition. Medical school research work in nutrition and experience with international health care. Broad pediatric training with additional training in international pediatrics

Primary care practice in a rural area in Upstate New York with focus on American Academy of Pediatrics based preventive care. He and his pediatric colleagues successfully transformed the community from one in which breast feeding was a rarity to one that has regularly had 80 to 85 % breast-feeding initiation and steady increases in duration of breastfeeding. Worked with his pediatric colleagues to end in-patient care for the pediatric population with consistent and careful use of preventive tools. He has had a long-term interest in teaching health practices that avert or prevent poor health outcomes

Worked with the local County Health Department on projects related to breast feeding initiation and duration and for pediatric obesity prevention, food security and community nutrition education. Worked with the County Mental Health to integrated Mental Health Service into clinical pediatric care. Participated in Project Teach to augment pediatric behavioral health management resulting in reduction of in patient and Emergency Room use.

He has worked with his pediatric colleagues to outline support of children and families needing Palliative Care. Championed integrated care through NCQA processes to address social determinants of health including a Readiness for School process. He is the physician lead for Healthy Steps in his practice and for population health aspects of pediatrics in the Adirondack area.

Dr. Bethell is a Professor at Johns Hopkins University in the Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she advances a new integrated Science of Thriving to promote early and lifelong health of children, youth, families and communities. With roots in community health partnerships, systems change, financing reform, social epidemiology and whole child/family integrated health care, she is the founding director (1996) of the national Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI). Recognizing gaps in data to inform and drive change, she led to advance child and family centered measurement, data and IT based tools to enable family engagement in systems, policy and health care. She is the founding director of the National Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health (www.childhealthdata.org) and the Cycle of Engagement Well Visit Planner approach to preventive and developmental services for children and families . She shaped a widely endorsed national agenda to address childhood trauma and promote healing. She has been featured on National Public Radio, provided testimony to the US Congress, has published dozens of peer reviewed studies focused on informing policy, practice and culture change and has contributed to national efforts that promote relational health as the cornerstone of well-being for children, families and communities. Christina earned an MBA an MPH from the University of California, Berkeley and PhD in public policy from the University of Chicago. She teaches about mitigating adversity and promoting child well-being, facilitates Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and is an avid student of human potential and flourishing as a social change strategy. She writes poetry, dances and believes that attuned connection with ourselves, life and others is the source of our creativity and joy.

Dillon Browne is a licensed social worker, coordinating daily operations for MHA Westchester’s Peer Professionally run Sterling Community Center. Dillon first experienced the mental health system at a young age, when he was diagnosed and medication for “developmental disability”. Dillon identifies as a person on the Autism Spectrum, but does not view this as a disability, instead identifying as being “neurodiverse”. Dillon felt ignored, and unheard as a child speaking to “experts” in the mental health system and strives to help develop a world where everyone feels heard and understood, instead of medicated and labelled.

Leveraging his experience as someone in recovery from substance abuse and mental health concerns, Matt Canuteson’s interest in the behavioral health field is founded on the gratitude he has because he was able to succeed despite challenges and has dedicated his career to ensuring that the same gifts are available to all. Despite an early life that included experience with hospitalizations, homelessness, institutions and not finishing high school, Matt went on to graduate from SUNY Albany as a Spellman Achievement Awards winner (Political Science) and later earned his MA in Social and Public Policy from Empire State College. After serving in direct care positions in the behavioral health field, Matt became the Policy Director at the New York Association for Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services. In this role Matt worked to ensure the voice of people with lived experience was heard and understood by New York’s policy makers. Leading and contributing to many successful advocacy campaigns to sustain community mental health funding, expand service access and implement innovative service models - Matt was also instrumental in ensuring marginalized populations in the mental health system had a voice in Albany. Matt’s career then included over a decade working at the national level contributing to or leading several Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration (SAMH-SA)-funded projects related to criminal justice, equity, homelessness, access to public benefits and greater use of peer services. Understanding the service system was fraught with embedded racial inequities - Matt worked to include health equity into all projects he was involved in. It was at this time that Matt was recognized as the 2014 SAMHSA Voice Award winner for Consumer Leadership. Matt joined the Office of Mental Health in 2018, serving as the agency’s first Diversity and Inclusion Officer. Coordinating all agency activities related to workforce diversity, inclusion, and the elimination of disparities in access, quality and treatment outcomes for marginalized populations, most recently Matt has led agency efforts to operationalize agency goals to address bias and inequities grounded in racism specifically.

Jay Carruthers’ interest in health systems began after college when he worked as a health policy analyst for the Jackson Hole Group, a prominent health care reform think tank. He then attended medical school at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and did his residency at the Harvard Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program where he was a chief resident at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center’s Dialectical Behavioral Treatment Partial Hospital Program. He went on to become an assistant professor in psychiatry at Albany Medical Center in their outpatient resident training clinic.

He joined the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) in November of 2010 as director of the Bureau of Psychiatric Services and Research Institute Support. In June of 2014, Dr. Carruthers became the founding director of the OMH Suicide Prevention Center of New York. Since then he has led the effort to coordinate suicide prevention programming for New York State with an emphasis on improving care for suicidal individuals receiving care in the public mental health system.

In the clinical domain, Dr. Carruthers and his team have been nationally recognized for their work with health systems to integrate suicide prevention, receiving several federal grants to support this work, including the largest implementation of the Zero Suicide model in the U.S. involving over 165 mental health clinics. During his tenure as director, he has been co-director for two federal grants, was the lead author of New York State’s most recent suicide prevention plan and was instrumental in bringing a novel intervention for individuals with a recent suicide attempt, an extremely high-risk group, to New York State—a first in the nation program. In 2019, the most recent year for which data is available, New York State had the 2nd lowest suicide rate among all 50 states.

Emily Childress has 8 years of experience providing and advocating for peer support services, including being the director of the first peer-run crisis respite house in the Southern Tier of New York. Emily is a provisionally certified Peer Specialist and holds a master’s degree in public administration. Emily’s passion includes engaging communities and facilitating collaboration amongst multiple stakeholders. She currently serves in multiple roles as the Network Manager for the peer-run statewide Wellness Collaborative of NY IPA, a Trainer with the Mental Health Empowerment Project, and the Southern Tier Regional Coordinator and caucus chair for the NYAPRS board of directors. 

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Dr. Geraci retired from the U.S. Army as an Infantry Lieutenant Colonel after serving for 20 years and deploying as a combat leader with elite Special Operations/Ranger, Airborne, and Infantry units to Afghanistan four different times since 9/11. While in uniform, he also served as an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy in both the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership and the Department of Military Instruction. One of his last positions in the U.S. Army was serving as an Infantry Battalion Commander in which he was directly responsible for the health, welfare, and combat readiness of his soldiers. He received his doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University. He teaches military psychology to graduate students at Teachers College, and was a co-founder of the college’s Resilience Center for Veterans and Families. He serves within the VISN 2 MIRECC as a licensed psychologist and is focused on studying and developing interventions that mitigate the significant suicidal risks that our Modern Warriors (some of them being his former soldiers) face as they attempt to reintegrate back into their civilian communities after military service. Within the MIRECC, he leads two national VA programs (Veteran Cultural Competence training and the Veteran Sponsorship Initiative).

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Dr. Hankerson is Associate Professor and Vice Chair for Community Engagement in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of Mental Health Equity Research in the Institute for Health Equity Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. His research focuses on reducing racial/ethnic disparities in mental health treatment by partnering with Faith-Based Organizations. He is a nationally recognized expert on faith-based mental health services research.

Alexandra Hernandez has been an educator for the last 20 years.  She has been a High School Principal since 2011. As a successful principal she has gained unparalleled experience with multilingual learners and mixed status immigrant youth.  Driven by a mission to lead with kindness, high expectations, and empathy has proven successful as evidenced by NYC high school metrics.   As principal of a Spanish bilingual High School, Ms. Hernandez focused on strengthening the Latino voice and ensuring that all people in her school felt a sense of belonging.  She advocates for educator wellness, kindness, and advocating for all young people.   Today, she serves as a mentor to principals and administrators where she focuses on individual strengths, learning styles, and leadership for those in service to NYC students.

Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Brigham Young University, where she was recently named the Martin B Hickman Outstanding Scholar and is also the director of the social neuroscience lab. She also has an adjunct professorship at Iverson Health Innovation Research Institute Swinburne University of Technology; Melbourne, Australia; and the founding Scientific Chair for the US Coalition to End Social Isolation and Loneliness and the Foundation for Social Connection.

Dr. Hyde is a community psychologist with more than 20 years of research, evaluation, technical assistance, and training experience in social and human services. At AmeriCorps she is responsible for advancing the evidence base for national service programs, sponsoring scholarship on volunteering and other forms of civic engagement, as well as fostering a culture of evaluative thinking within the agency and the field. Prior to joining AmeriCorps, Dr. Hyde worked in the private sector and was responsible for a portfolio of projects related to strengthening families and communities. Dr. Hyde developed her unique skill set by directing and managing both national and local program evaluations. The primary focus of Dr. Hyde’s evaluation practice has been community- and school-based programs designed to prevent delinquency and school drop-out and promote social and academic success among urban youth. Dr. Hyde has also conducted research in the areas of welfare-reform policy. Finally, Dr. Hyde has facilitated community-driven research processes, one of which resulted in the identification of Neighborhood Action and Sense of Community indicators that are now part of a permanent community indicators project in Baltimore known as Vital Signs.

Dr. Hyde is a community psychologist with more than 20 years of research, evaluation, technical assistance, and training experience in social and human services. At AmeriCorps she is responsible for advancing the evidence base for national service programs, sponsoring scholarship on volunteering and other forms of civic engagement, as well as fostering a culture of evaluative thinking within the agency and the field. Prior to joining AmeriCorps, Dr. Hyde worked in the private sector and was responsible for a portfolio of projects related to strengthening families and communities. Dr. Hyde developed her unique skill set by directing and managing both national and local program evaluations. The primary focus of Dr. Hyde’s evaluation practice has been community- and school-based programs designed to prevent delinquency and school drop-out and promote social and academic success among urban youth. Dr. Hyde has also conducted research in the areas of welfare-reform policy. Finally, Dr. Hyde has facilitated community-driven research processes, one of which resulted in the identification of Neighborhood Action and Sense of Community indicators that are now part of a permanent community indicators project in Baltimore known as Vital Signs.

Dr Helen Kingston is a primary care physician in Frome, Somerset, England. Together with Jenny Hartnoll she set up the Frome model of enhanced primary care project in 2013. The project has grown since then and it began to expand across the Mendips in 2016 with the supportive involvement of Dr Julian Abel and compassionate communities UK. The project was designed to better connect and support patient and improve working lives for those in health care. Integration and collaboration across our community were key to this development. By working together, we enable individuals to build on their strengths, creating a vibrant and supportive local community. By supporting one another and making it more possible to take a holistic approach to the whole person this can help improve wellbeing across our community and across those working within health and social care.

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Jen Marr is the Founder and CEO of Inspiring Comfort and author of Showing Up: A Comprehensive Guide to Comfort & Connection and Paws to Comfort. She has utilized her 30 years of experience in business, leadership development, and the healthcare industry to research, develop, and offer solutions to our current mental health crisis.

Dr. James J. Mazza is the co-author of the DBT STEPS-A social emotional learning curriculum for middle and high school students. He received his masters and Ph.D. in school psychology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is a professor at the University of Washington – Seattle where he has been teaching and conducting research over the past 27 years in the field of adolescent mental health. Jim is the past president of the American Association of Suicidology from 2005-2007 and is still actively involved in trying to help school psychologists play a major role in helping to prevent suicidal and self-harming behavior among students. His current research focuses on the implementation of DBT STEPS-A (Skills Training for Emotional Problem Solving for Adolescents). Jim has also developed two college-level courses that focus on resilience and wellness. Jim continues to expand the use of DBT STEPS-A and is in the development of providing a new curriculum designed for elementary students.

Jeffrey McQueen, MBA, LCDC, is the Executive Director of the Mental Health Association of Nassau County.  Mr. McQueen is a combat veteran who has lived experience with multiple facets of recovery.   Prior to his journey in recovery, Jeffrey has experienced several institutions battling emotional distress, PTSD, and substance abuse, Mr. McQueen has presented implementation techniques throughout the country on topics such as Personal Growth and Change, Time Management and other Recovery Based modalities. He has learned from a variety of adversities and obstacles throughout his recovery process and has embraced these experiences as well as learned to use them to not just educate society as a whole, but to find purpose and empowerment in these experiences.

Dr. Molock is an associate professor of clinical psychology at George Washington University. Her current research focuses on risk and protective factors for suicide in African American adolescents and young adults; mental health help-seeking behaviors in African American adolescents and young adults; developing suicide and HIV prevention programs in African American faith-based communities; and HIV risk and suicidal behaviors in young African American men who have sex with men.

Digna Quinones has been an advocate for people with a mental health diagnosis and for the homelessness for 28 years. She began having and experiencing mental health episodes at the age of 8 years due to the trauma she experienced at a very age. She is a survivor of 12 or more suicide attempts since 1968. She started working at the Office of Mental Health for the Office of Consumer Affairs as a Regional Advocacy Specialist in 2005. Prior to her employment at OMH, she worked within two peer agencies. She brings her experience and her awareness as a current recipient of mental heath services. Naturally, being an active and integral part of the survivor community and shares her recovery through the people she helps and works with daily. Digna has raised four children and has nine grandchildren, and is currently a widow due to COVID 19.

Marcia Rice, RN, MS is a Mental Health Program Specialist in the Office of Prevention and Health Initiatives at the New York State Office of Mental Health where she oversees prevention and early intervention initiatives that promote the importance of children’s social emotional health and early identification of problems. Marcia is the program lead for the implementation of the New York State Office of Mental Health’s HealthySteps grant. Prior to joining the Office of Mental Health in 2010, Marcia’s experience includes working for over 20 years as a Community Mental Health Nurse to support children with disabilities and their families. Marcia Rice is a Registered Professional Nurse. She received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Syracuse University and a Master of Science in Management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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Laura Sigel is the HealthySteps Specialist at Plattsburgh Primary Care Pediatrics. As the HealthySteps Specialist Laura works alongside the pediatricians and staff to provide patient center care with a focus on the 0-3 population. Laura is also a Certified Lactation Consultant, endorsed by NYSAIMH and certified with her dog Tessa as a therapy team. Prior to HealthySteps, Laura was the Community Resource Advocate for the Adirondack Medical Home, where she worked in four pediatric offices.

Laura is an active member of the Breastfeeding Coalition Committee, Transforming Trauma Committee, Systems of Care Committee, and the Child Fatality Review Team. She co-chairs a regional monthly Pediatric Initiative Committee meeting focusing on collaboration, school readiness and best practices for patient center care.

Laura is dedicated to helping families through positive parenting, role modeling, and connectedness. Laura’s biggest accomplishments are watching a breastfeeding family latch for the first time, watching a family gently calm their toddler prior to shots or having someone tell their entire trauma history because they trust it will be held close.

Laura’s greatest accomplishment is her son Paul, for whom she will forever be grateful.

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Dr. Ann Marie Sullivan is currently the Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health. As Commissioner, she is responsible for a multi-faceted mental health system that serves more than 800,000 individuals each year. The Office of Mental Health (OMH) operates psychiatric centers across the State, and oversees more than 4,500 community based programs. As Commissioner, she has guided the transformation of the state hospital system in its emphasis on recovery and expansion of community based treatment, reinvesting over 100 million dollars in community services; implemented the incorporation of critical recovery services for the seriously mentally ill in the Medicaid benefit plan and expanded services for the mentally ill in the criminal justice system and in community reentry. Working closely with all mental health providers and health plans, she has been guiding the integration of physical, mental health and substance use in care and treatment, the integration of early prevention, wellness and the social determinants of health in service delivery, and the statewide implementation of critical programs such as Zero Suicide, First Episode Psychosis Teams, crisis intervention services and school-based mental health clinics.

Previously, she was the Senior Vice President for the Queens Health Network of the New York City Health and Hospitals, responsible for Elmhurst and Queens Hospital Centers, two public hospitals which serve a community of over 2 million New York City residents. She has also served as Associate Director of Psychiatry and Medical Director of Ambulatory Care at the Gouverneur Diagnostic and Treatment Center in Manhattan, NYC.

Dr. Sullivan grew up in Queens, New York City. She graduated from NYU and its School of Medicine and completed her Psychiatric Residency at New York University/Bellevue Hospital in 1978. Dr. Sullivan is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has served as the Speaker of the American Psychiatric Association’s Assembly. She is a Clinical Professor at the Mt Sinai School of Medicine, a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, and a member of the American College of Psychiatrists.

Dr. Sullivan is an active advocate for her patients and her profession, and has published and lectured on best practices in community psychiatry.

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Tony Trahan has been an advocate for people with mental health issues and the homeless for 35 years. He began working at the Office of Mental Health as a Regional Advocacy Specialist in 2006. He became the Deputy Director for the Office of Consumer Affairs in 2014. Prior to his employment at OMH, he worked at a homeless shelter for 11 years and a housing program for 8 years. He started experiencing mental health issues in elementary school due to trauma and had a first episode psychosis when he was 17. He is a survivor of several suicide attempts since 1987. Tony is currently married, has one child and is an eagle scout who is active with the local troop teaching various merit badges.

Jean M. Twenge, Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University, is the author of more than 140 scientific publications and six books, the latest of which is iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy--and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. She holds a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Van Orden is a clinical psychologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She directs the HOPE Lab (Helping Older People Engage), which studies programs to promote social connection and healthy aging and prevent suicide in later life. She co-directs the Rochester Roybal Center for Social Ties and Aging, which is focused on promoting social vitality for dementia family caregivers. She co-directs the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide at URMC, as well as a research fellowship in suicide prevention. She mentors students and fellows and maintains a clinical practice providing evidence-based psychotherapy to older adults.

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Bio here...

Dr. Peter A. Wyman is a professor, chief of academic affairs for the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and co-director of the Center for Study and Prevention of Suicide at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. His work focuses on prevention of suicide, depression, and substance use among adolescents and young adults. A key theme of Dr. Wyman’s research involves using natural social networks to strengthen social bonds and augment protective psychosocial processes and using influence among group members to sustain the impact of interventions. His work has been funded by the Department of Defense, National Institutes of Health, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.