Active Minds National Conference 2022

Tanya Bass

Dr. Tanya Bass currently serves as Active Minds’ Senior Manager of Health Equity. She previously served as Program Supervisor managing the Cultural and Community Initiatives in the NC Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCOMHHD). At NCOMHHD, she worked with agencies and individuals to advance racial justice, health equity, and inclusion. As a member of the North Carolina Society for Public Health Education (NCSOPHE), the Association of Black Sexologist and Clinicians (ABSC), and the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT), she remains engaged in professional growth and development. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and an AASECT Certified Sexuality Educator (CSE). Tanya is an alumna of North Carolina Central University’s (NCCU) Department of Public Health Education, where she has served as an adjunct instructor for several years and is currently the lead instructor for Human Sexuality. She has a PhD in Education at Widener University in the Center for Human Sexuality Studies. She also has a Master of Science in Health Promotion and Human Services from NCCU and a Master of Education from Widener University. When she is not working, she loves to scrapbook and make beaded jewelry. Tanya uses she/her pronouns.

Lauren Cikara

Lauren is Active Minds’ Senior Manager of K-12 Initiatives and has spent her entire career advocating for youth and young adult programming in K-12 education, higher education, and community spaces. Most recently, she worked for the Colorado School of Public Health School recruiting schools to participate in the Healthy Kids Colorado Survey (HKCS), Colorado’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), and Smart Source. In this role, Lauren supported schools in administering the surveys and provided technical support to schools and community partners as they navigated using results to inform school and adolescent health work across Colorado. She is a strong advocate for LGBTQ+ inclusive school board policies and ensures the work she is a part of has an equitable and intersectional lens. Lauren’s background is in student leadership, health education and equity, policy and advocacy, and equity and inclusion. She enjoys hiking, baking, and exploring the Denver art and music scene.

Rachel Cohen

Rachel is a junior at the George Washington University in DC studying Human Services and Social justice and criminal justice. She has been involved in Active Minds since her freshman year. She recently joined the national advisory board where she is working with the group to develop a mental health one-stop resource. She is excited to be attending her first conference this year and is excited to speak!

LinkedIn: Rachel Cohen

Jan Collins-Eaglin

Jan Collins-Eaglin serves as the Senior Advisor for the Steve Fund, overseeing the Equity in Mental Health Framework for the Steve Fund. She also consults with higher educat6ion institutions, helping them make mental health a priority of BIPOC students. She was the Senior Associate Dean of Students for Wellness and Personal Success and the Disability Coordinator at Pomona College. She worked in this position for seven years. She was responsible for mental health and wellness initiatives, staff development, and all ADA cases. She also served as the Intergroup Dialogue consultant for the college.

Kelly Davis

Kelly Davis is the Associate Vice President of Peer and Youth Advocacy at Mental Health America, where she works on the expansion of peer support and young adult leadership. She is passionate about lived experience-driven programs, policies, organizations, and research. Kelly has been awarded the Disruptive Innovator Award by the National Association of Peer Supporters and the National Peer Leader of the Year Award by Peerpocalypse. Kelly and her work have appeared in the New York Times, Teen Vogue, NBC Nightly News, and the White House. She is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania where she also works as a research assistant in the School of Medicine studying lived experience perspectives of inpatient psychiatric units.

Instagram: @mentalhealthamerica

Twitter: @mentalhealthAM

Cirleen DeBlaere

Dr. Cirleen DeBlaere is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of the Counseling Psychology Ph.D. program at Georgia State University. Her professional interests focus on identity-related experiences (e.g., discrimination, internalized oppression) and mental health among marginalized people. She has also written extensively on cultural humility in psychotherapy and supervision. Dr. DeBlaere is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Kalista Dwyer

Kalista Dwyer is a 23-year-old content creator who has accumulated over 70 million views and 500,000 followers online—her content focuses on navigating her 20’s while also shedding light on her mental health struggles.

Instagram: @kalistadwyer

TikTok: @kalistadwyer

Diego Estrada

Diego was born and raised in Madrid, Spain. He is an Upper School Counselor at The John Cooper School in The Woodlands, Texas. Diego holds a PhD in Psychology and a Master’s degree in journalism. He trained in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and is a certified teacher of the mindfulness-based emotional intelligence program Search Inside Yourself, which was developed at Google.

Twitter: @JDEstradaRuiz

Nathan Evans Jr.

Nathan Evans Jr. is a First-Generation High School & First-Generation College graduate. He is a 3x published author and the #1 best-selling author of “I LOVE YOU; LETTERS OF LOVE FROM BLACK MEN TO BLACK BOYS”. Nate is a highly requested mental health speaker, workshop specialist, podcast host, teen mentor, award-winning personal trainer, and creative entrepreneur. He lives by the quote, “CHANGE WHAT WE NORMALIZE™”. This quote was inspired by his mission to eradicate the stigmas around mental health in underserved communities while also normalizing emotional wellness amongst students of all ages. Nate is currently a volunteer for the Covenant House in Atlantic City, New Jersey, a distinguished alumnus of Atlantic Cape Community College, “Top 4 Under 40 award recipient,” and he also is certified in “Adverse Childhood Experiences Early Trauma” as well as “Mental Health First-Aid.”

Instagram; @nateevansjr

Twitter: @nateevansjr

Facebook: Nate Evans Jr.

LinkedIn: Nate Evans Jr.

Seli Fakorzi

Seli Fakorzi serves as the Director of Mental Health Operations for TimelyMD, where she leads a diverse team of licensed counselors, psychiatrists and health coaches who specialize in meeting the unique needs of college students. A practicing clinician with experience in inpatient and outpatient, crisis intervention, and clinician development, she has also served as the director of psychiatric services for multiple youth residential treatment centers. Seli has a BA in Business Management and Public Relations from Coe College and a Master of Counseling from Dallas Baptist University.

Obi Felten

Obi Felten is the founder and CEO of Flourish Labs, a startup combining cutting edge mental health science and technology to foster flourishing and good mental health. Previously, Obi was head of getting moonshots ready for contact with the real world at X (formerly Google X), led consumer marketing for Google in Europe, Middle East and Africa, and set up e-commerce businesses.

Obi is an independent director of Springer Nature, a global academic and educational publisher, of Marathon Health, a primary care clinic provider, and an advisor for the UK NHS Best For You youth mental health initiative. She is an advocate for women and other underrepresented groups in tech.

Obi grew up in Berlin, has a BA in Philosophy and Psychology from Oxford University and lives in California with her husband and children.

Twitter: @obifelten 
LinkedIn: Obi Felten

Grace Fortson

Grace Fortson (she/hers) is a senior Political Science major at the University of Portland. Her personal life has been greatly impacted by mental health struggles both individually and in loved ones. In her research with the Center for Migration, Gender, and Justice, she has learned about the disproportionate mental health experiences in marginalized communities as well, particularly for migrant women. As a result of these life experiences, she has become invested taking care of her own metal health and that of her community through Active Minds.

Holly A. Garriock

Holly A. Garriock, Ph.D., is the Chief Cohort Development Officer for the All of Us Research Program. Holly came to All of Us from the National Institute of Mental Health, where she managed a research portfolio of child and adolescent depression, anxiety, suicide, and trauma that supported her growth and expertise in the fields of child development and mood disorders. Holly did her undergraduate training in Canada; graduate training at the University of Arizona, where she received her Ph.D. in genetics; and postdoctoral research at the University of California, San Francisco.

Tatum Hafford

Tatum Hafford uses she/her/hers pronouns, and is a senior at the University of Portland. She is a Communication major, and Social Justice minor. She is also the club meeting organizer for Active Minds at UP, and is very passionate about mental health. Her interest in mental health stemmed from her own personal struggle, as well as seeing friends and family struggle with their mental health. She loves being a part of Active Minds because of the amazing community they’ve fostered and the space that they have created for people to be open and vulnerable with their mental health struggles.

Instagram: @tatumhafford

Twitter: @tatumhafford

Anthony Lawrence

Anthony Lawrence serves as Chief of Staff for City Year Cleveland, leading a team of 74 corps and staff members. Anthony has over 12 years of diverse Human Resources experience and is a subject matter expert in the areas of HR compliance, career development, team building, policy and procedure development.

Anthony began his career as the Assistant City Manager for Wayne, Nebraska. During his tenure he developed team building procedures, conflict resolution trainings and leadership development. Anthony then moved to Kansas City, Missouri where he spent four years counseling, advising, directing management and staff on employee relations and community center operations for the Parks Department as a Supervisor of Recreation.

Kelly Maguire

Kelly is a senior studying psychology at Florida Gulf Coast University, member of the National Advisory Board and student leader on the National Student Advisory Committee for Active Minds. Currently, she is the Chapter President for my Active Minds chapter at FGCU, professional speaker with Lee Health of Southwest Florida, and hopes to one day pursue a career with Active Minds or another mental health non-profit organization.

Erin McClintock

Over the past 15 years, Erin McClintock has served as a clinician, researcher, and consultant at the intersection of mental health, behavior change, and technology. Currently, Erin serves as Senior Learning Experience Manager at BetterUp, where she utilizes behavioral science to create engaging and impactful learning experiences for BetterUp members.

Erin began her career as a clinical mental health counselor, and held a variety of roles in the mental health and well-being sector within K12, higher education, and community wellness before moving into the world of tech in 2016. Previously, Erin served as Vice President of Community Engagement Impact and Education at EverFi, where she served as the organizations internal subject matter expert on mental health, wellness, and social and emotional learning, creating content and curating data to support over 1,300 workplaces, 1,500 colleges and universities, 25,000 K-12 schools, and over 5 million learners.

Her work and expertise have been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Parents Magazine, Inside Higher Ed, Thrive Global, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Popsugar, US News and World Report, The Great Falls Tribune, SHRM, and several other media outlets. Erin holds a graduate degree in Mental Health Counseling and completed her post-master’s education in trauma and addiction counseling.

LinkedIn: Erin McClintock

Kaylee Menefee

Kaylee Menefee uses she/her pronouns and is a senior at the University of Portland. She currently serves as the president of her Active Minds chapter and has been on the executive board for two years now. She became passionate about mental health after her own battles with anxiety and depression and after losing a close friend to suicide during college. She also works as a Crisis Text Line crisis counselor and is on the SAC of Active Minds. She wants to focus her mental health work on the emphasis on looking at mental health with an intersectionality lens and has worked to do so in her chapter with the help of her chapter advisor and leadership team. Active Minds has been the best and most welcoming part of her college experience and she is glad to have found a home with Active Minds.

Keygan Miller

Keygan Miller is an Advocacy Manager for The Trevor Project, the nation’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people. Keygan is responsible for the research, advocacy, and legislative agenda for The Trevor Project in the area of school suicide prevention policy. In addition, they oversee the day-to-day operations of the advocacy team. Keygan previously served as a Special Education Teacher for Cincinnati Public Schools.

Walker Nichols

Walker is a grade 11 student at The John Cooper School in The Woodlands, Texas. He joined Active Minds two years ago motivated to build a better school community.

Rachel Nielsen

Rachel Nielsen is an actor who has worked in film, tv, and on stage. She can be seen as ‘Rose’ in HBO’s “Mare of Easttown” with Kate Winslet. She also is starring in the recently released film “Alpha Rift” alongside Lance Henriksen. Rachel is a proud member of New York Women in Film and Television and has been awarded as “Phillies Extraordinary Scholar” for her volunteer efforts at Citizens Bank Park, by Senator Verb, Kohl’s and Prudential. She is deeply honored to be serving as a Young Adult Ambassador for the 2021 National Mental Health Advisory Board and to be presenting at this year’s Active Minds National Conference!

Rushika Prasad

Rushika is a high school senior from Texas, and enjoys making a space for mental health to enter into new ideas. Planning to double-major in engineering and business, she wants to bring the conversation about mental health into STEM oriented fields, as well as her native asian culture. Stigma is a force that can be defeated only through knowledge, and as a Student Ambassador and Co-President of her school’s chapter, she’s ready and willing to fight ignorance and spread understanding. Leadership has shown her that the impossible can always become possible, just as soon as you make a promise to the future to never give up on being a part of the solution.

LinkedIn: Rushika Prasad

Myeshia Price

Myeshia Price (she/they) is a Senior Research Scientist at The Trevor Project. Dr. Price has more than fifteen years of experience in adolescent public health research, with a focus on sexuality, gender, and LGBTQ youth from an intersectional perspective. After completing their Ph.D. in developmental psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with research focusing on predicting early sexual behaviors during adolescence, they were an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Old Westbury prior to taking a postdoctoral research associate position at the Center for Innovative Public Health Research (CiPHR). Her primary research interest areas include developmental understandings of adolescent gender and sexuality and reducing LGBTQ youth mental health disparities with a particular focus on the role of protective factors.

Instagram: @myeshia_precio
Twitter: @mypreeney

David Rivera

David P. Rivera, Ph.D., is an associate professor of counseling at Queens College-City University of New York (CUNY) and founding director of CUNY’s LGBTQI+ Student Leadership Program. Dr. Rivera’s research focuses on cultural competency development and issues impacting the marginalization and wellbeing of people of color and oppressed sexual orientation and gender identity groups, with a focus on microaggressions. His latest co-edited books, Affirming LGBTQ+ Students in Higher Education and Critical Theories for School Psychology and Counseling: A Foundation for Equity and Inclusion in School-Based Practice will be released in late 2021. Dr. Rivera is adviser to The Steve Fund, faculty with the Council for Opportunity in Education, and holds leadership roles in the American Psychological Association.

Twitter: @DavidPRivera

Alexandra Salazar

Alex is a 25-year-old Latina Indigenous American woman. She attends university at CU Denver and is on the National Mental Health Advisory board and the Colorado Mental Wellness Network board. In 2022 she will be training to become a certified mental health peer support specialist.

Carissa Samuel

Carissa Samuel is a Molecular and Cellular Biology major at UC Berkeley. She serves as a Stakeholder in the Alameda County Mental Health Services Act Group where she represents youth and advises county leaders on ways to effectively spend their multi-million-dollar budget. Carissa also currently serves as in UC Berkeley’s student government as an External Associate in their Mental Health Commission. She is committed to creating change in her community in reducing mental health stigma and supporting wellness.

Anthony Sartori

Anthony strives to bring people together. After interning at Active Minds and earning a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Maryland, Anthony led mindfulness programs at an outpatient clinic for youth with mental health challenges. He is a graduate of Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield’s two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Program. In March of 2020, he launched Evolving Minds with a purpose: to connect. He’s raised over $20,000, developed impactful mental health programming for students, educators, and businesses, and has graduated over 400 alumni. He currently leads the development of mindfulness content for health care workers with Vitalize, a digital wellness platform, sits on the Mental Health America Young Adult Leader Council and serves as the Equity and Interdependence Committee Board Rep for Inward Bound Mindfulness Education.

Instagram: @ourevolvingminds

LinkedIn: Evolving Minds

TikTok: @ourevolvingminds

Sarina Saturn

Sarina Saturn, PhD (she/her) serves as the faculty advisor of the University of Portland’s Active Minds chapter. She is a bicultural CHamoru and Indian woman, mother, professor, mentor, scholar-activist, healer, and community builder. Our chapter at the University of Portland has been nationally recognized as recipients the Transformational Change Award and the Health Equity Award, which highlights a chapter that has centered its work around health equity, anti-racism, diversity, and inclusion. With a PhD in neuroscience, she specializes on the biology underlying emotional processing, including depression, anxiety, trauma, resilience, and coping.

Abraham Sculley

Abraham Sculley is the founder of Speaks 2 Inspire, an author, podcaster, mental health advocate, and Active Minds Speaker. His personal experience struggling with depression during college inspired him to use his story to promote mental health awareness and help others reach their highest potential mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. In his book, Unlearn The Lies: A Guide to Reshaping The Way Think About Depression, Abraham encourages others to challenge the myths about mental illness and learn how to prioritize their mental health.

Instagram: @abrahamsculley

Facebook: Abraham Sculley

LinkedIn: Abraham Sculley

Fani Sculley

Fani is a mental health practitioner, advocate, and Program Manager at Speaks 2 Inspire. She was born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela, and migrated to the U.S. in 2015 to pursue a degree in Psychology. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work from the University of West Florida. Her cultural background, extensive experience in policy and advocacy, and passion for diversity, equity, and inclusion, inform her work and practice. She is passionate about the intersection of culture, faith, and creative art with mental health education.

Instagram: @fanisculley

LinkedIn: Estefania Sculley

Gayle Simon

Gayle Simon has a background in psychology and public health research with extensive experience in conducting outreach and engagement with community members enrolled in digital health research. As the lead of community engagement for the All of Us Research Program at Scripps Research Translational Institute, Ms. Simon manages the Virtual Advisory Team comprised of over twenty program advocates representing a cross-section of communities historically underrepresented in biomedical research in the United States. Ms. Simon also oversees several All of Us engagement partner activities including the All of Us mobile engagement tour and the Active Minds student ambassador program.

Twitter: @gayle_simon

Zoe Tait

Zoe Tait is a second-year undergraduate student at the University of California, San Diego who is majoring in cognitive behavioral neuroscience with a minor in language studies, specializing in Spanish. She is interested in participating in continued research examining mental illness and treatments. She currently serves as the president of Active Minds at UC San Diego and is an Active Minds Student Ambassador.

Instagram: @zoemtait

Cameron Vigil

Cameron currently works at a national nonprofit nonpartisan organization called Young Invincibles (YI) as the Colorado Engagement Manager. In this role, she leads YI’s Young Advocates and Youth Advisory Boards, as well as consulting for other partner programs, where she trains diverse young adult leaders on public policy. Through her dynamic experiences with YI, she has developed and implemented direct and indirect advocacy programs built upon strength-based approaches to serve young people furthest from power and privilege.

Twitter: @camcamvigil