Meet Our Board of Directors
Susan Farren
Executive Director
Margaret Bradley-Foley
Board Treasurer
Gary McCalla, MD
Board Secretary
Bill Bullard
Board Member
Meet Our Advisory Board
Gina R. Poe, Ph.D.
Professor,
UCLA
Gina Poe has been working since 1995 on the mechanisms through which sleep serves memory consolidation and restructuring. Dr. Poe is a southern California native who graduated from Stanford University then worked for two post-baccalaureate years at the VA researching Air Force Test Pilots’ brainwave signatures under high-G maneuvers. She then earned her PhD in Basic Sleep in the Neuroscience Interdepartmental Program at UCLA under the guidance of Ronald Harper then moved to the University of Arizona for her postdoctoral studies with Carol Barnes and Bruce McNaughtons looking at graceful degradation of hippocampal function in aged rats as well as hippocampal coding in a 3-D maze navigated in the 1998 space shuttle mission. She brought these multiunit teachings to answer a burning question of whether REM sleep were for remembering or forgetting and found that activity of neurons during REM sleep is consistent both with the consolidation of novel memories and the elimination of already consolidated memories from the hippocampus, readying the associative memory network for new learning the next day. Moving first to Washington State University then to the University of Michigan before joining UCLA in 2016, Poe has over 80 undergraduates, 6 graduate students, and 6 postdoctoral scholars, and has served in university faculty governance as well as leading 5 different programs designed to diversify the neuroscience workforce and increase representation of people of the global majority in the STEM fields. At UCLA she continues research and teaching and Directs the COMPASS-Life Sciences and BRI-SURE programs and co-Directs the MARC-U*STAR program. Nationally she is course director of the Marine Biological Lab’s SPINES course and co-Directs the Society for Neuroscience’s NSP program which earned the nation’s highest mentoring honor in 2018. These programs have served over 600 PhD level trainees over the years.
Susanne Montgomery, PhD
Director,
Center for Health Research,
Loma Linda University
Dr. Susanne Montgomery is a Professor in the Loma Linda School of Public Health (LLU SPH) Department of Preventive Medicine and the Director for the LLU SPH Center for Health Research. Trained at the University of Michigan as a social/behavioral epidemiologist, she has many years of experience in funded and non-funded community-based participatory action research, working in partnership with hard-to-access populations. Dr. Montgomery has researched and written extensively in the areas of cancer prevention, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and alcohol and tobacco use in traditionally hard-to-access populations, including African American and Latino men and youth in San Bernardino County. She teaches courses in evaluation research, qualitative and quantitative research methods, as well as a year-long, practice-based program development lab focusing on issues of health disparities.
Dr. Montgomery has been the principal investigator or co-investigator of several NIH- and CDC-funded projects and has been an evaluator for several Foundation-funded community-based projects. Though committed to research, she advocates translating and applying research findings at the community level and participates as a member of several area community coalitions, planning groups, and advisory boards using her expertise and access to research data to enhance planning processes. Dr. Montgomery also conducts trainings and workshops on issues of diversity in the United States and abroad.
Donn Gaede, DrPH.
Assistant Clinical Professor,
Loma Linda University
Donn Gaede, DrPH, while currently retired, was a professor of public health at Loma Linda University as well as a practitioner both here in the U.S. and internationally. He worked for the last 20 plus years internationally with mission health care systems and community health. His interest and involvement with PTSD and trauma became more focused while working in Sierra Leone and Liberia during the Ebola epidemic when he was involved with both the community members as well as the health providers as they coped with the trauma of both living through the epidemic as well as providing professional care during the crisis. He initiated the implementation of a very successful community resiliency program by LLU to deal with PTSD which continues to operate today. He feels privileged to be able to continue to work to strengthen resiliency for first responders and family members through the work of First Responders Resiliency, Inc.®
Jan Myers, LPCC
Jan Myers has over 30 years of First Responder experience, ranging from 9-1-1 Dispatch (Training Officer & Tactical Dispatch), Recruit Training Officer (Oregon DPSST), CA POST Master Instructor, and Co-founder of a week 6-day intensive program in 1999 for First Responders experiencing post traumatic stress injuries, as well as a spouse/significant other program. Jan is now a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (CA LPCC#6929) working for a large telehealth company as well as a private practice (Santa Rosa & Petaluma, Sonoma County, CA), with a focus on First Responders.
Jeff Stone, MFT
Jeff has served his career as an MFT with more than 37 years of experience. Stone found his niche working with first responders and their families, becoming a pioneer in the industry of supporting first responders in preventative mental health training. Jeff now provides insight, support, and professional expertise to First Responders Resiliency, Inc. by continuing to run a thriving private and virtual practice in New Hampshire for those in the industry.
Dr. Tori Van Dyk
Assistant Professor, Psychology,
Loma Linda University
Dr. Tori Van Dyk is an Associate Professor at the School of Behavioral Health within the Department of Psychology. She specializes in pediatric health psychology, providing instruction, conducting research, and guiding students in clinical care related to improving child physical and mental health.