Paola Bautista, Director

Dr. E.K. "Ted" Rynearson
 
“Ted” Rynearson is a clinical psychiatrist and researcher from Seattle Washington where he founded the section of psychiatry at the Mason Clinic. In addition to full-time clinical practice, he has served on the clinical faculty of the University of Washington as a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry.
 
For over 40 years, Dr. Rynearson has maintained a particular clinical and research focus on the effects of violent death on family members published in clinical papers, book chapters and two books entitled, Retelling Violent Death and Violent Death: Resilience and Intervention Beyond the Crisis. 
 
He has given numerous national and international trainings on the management of the clinical effects of violent death and with grant support has founded a non-profit organization (the Violent Death Bereavement Society) with its own Internet site (vdbs.org) establishing an informative network for service providers, teachers and researchers of traumatic grief after violent death. His international work included a collaborative training program for Israeli and Palestinian clinicians in supporting members of their communities with traumatic grief associated with violent death.
 
Dr. Rynearson lives on Puget Sound and when younger rowed each dawn in his rowing scull (weather and tide permitting) and almost always saw a seal or an eagle.

 
Dr. Julie Kaplow
 
Julie Kaplow, PhD, ABPP, is a licensed clinical psychologist, board certified in Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Dr. Kaplow founded the SAMHSA-funded Trauma and Grief (TAG) Center in 2012 while on faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School and brought the Center to Texas in 2014. She now serves as the Executive Director of the TAG Center at The Hackett Center for Mental Health. In this role, she develops, evaluates, and disseminates trauma- and bereavement-informed “best practices” to community providers nationwide. Following Hurricane Harvey, Dr. Kaplow and her team provided evidence-based risk screening and interventions to children and families adversely affected by Hurricane Harvey and its aftermath. She also helped to establish the Santa Fe Resiliency Center following the Santa Fe High School shooting, where TAG Center staff have provided evidence-based assessment and treatment to families who were impacted by the shooting.
 
A strong proponent of a scientist-practitioner approach, Dr. Kaplow’s primary research interests focus on the biological, behavioral, and psychological consequences of childhood trauma and bereavement, with an emphasis on therapeutically modifiable factors that can be used to inform interventions. Dr. Kaplow has published widely on the topics of childhood trauma and grief, with over 75 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters, including articles focused on marginalized populations such as LGBTQ youth and youth of color. She is lead author of Multidimensional Grief Therapy, co-author of Collaborative Treatment of Traumatized Children and Teens: The Trauma Systems Therapy Approach, and co-author of Trauma and Grief Component Therapy for Adolescents. She has served as a consultant to the DSM-5 Sub-Work Group on Persistent Complex Bereavement Disorder, the ICD-11 Work Group on Disorders Associated with Stress (PTSD and Prolonged Grief), the National Academy of Medicine (Scientific Advisory Council on Child Death), and the Mass Violence and Children Working Group of the FBI.

Dr. Kaplow received her BA in Psychology from the University of Michigan and her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Duke University. She completed her internship at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School followed by specialized postdoctoral training in childhood trauma at the Center for Medical and Refugee Trauma at Boston Medical Center.

 
Dr. Alison Salloum

Alison Salloum, PhD, LCSW is a Professor at the University of South Florida, School of Social Work. She received her MSW and PhD from Tulane University School of Social Work. Dr. Salloum has extensive clinical experience providing treatment for children and families who have experienced traumatic events. Dr. Salloum’s research focuses on implementation of trauma-related evidence-based treatments; service delivery methods to address treatment barriers for children and their families; childhood trauma, loss, and anxiety; and ways to support helping professionals so that they may serve others effectively. She is the author of Grief and Trauma in Children: A Evidence-Based Treatment Manual (Routledge, 2015), Group Work with Adolescents after Violent Death: A Manual for Practitioners (Brunner-Routledge, 2004) and Reactions: A Workbook for Children Experiencing Grief and Trauma (Centering Corporation, 1998). Dr. Salloum has presented workshops nationally and internationally to help clinicians working with children who suffer from grief and trauma, and is the author of numerous publications regarding trauma-informed care and childhood trauma.

 
Tari Hartman
 
Tari Hartman Squire’s EIN SOF Communications is a leading disability-inclusive diversity media, business and disability strategic marketing and employment-consultation firm. Since founding Media Access Office  in 1980, Squire has consulted on hundreds of TV, film, marketing/advertising and/or build disability awareness campaigns for AT&T; Amazon Studios; American Masters/Becoming Helen Keller; Apple; Bank of America; BBDO; CBS; Droga5/Honeymaid; Meta; Fox Searchlight/The Sessions; McDonald’s; Mattel; Microsoft; National Organization on Disability; NBCUniversal; Nickelodeon/Pelswick; Sony Pictures Entertainment; Verizon Media/Getty Images; and World Institute on Disability, to name a few.

Squire established disability strategic marketing as a genre with its My Left Foot campaign and Congressional Screening to encourage passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Her Lights! Camera! Access! (LCA) initiative builds on Media Access Office success to increase employment in front of/behind the camera; improve disability portrayals across delivery platforms and insure accessible media. EIN SOF was recently tapped to serve on The Valuable 500’s Directory to support disability inclusion.

In collaboration with Danny Woodburn (Seinfeld), they created ADA Lead On Productions, have hired over 150 emerging and established cast and crew, and won the 2021 Shorty Audience Honors Award and 2022 Anthem Gold Award for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.  Squire and Woodburn pioneering efforts toward disability inclusion in Hollywood was recently featured in Forbes, and they are creating a disability talent database.

EIN SOF specializes in creating mutually-beneficial strategic alliances with disability community, media, corporations, foundations and universities with its Disability Community Market Research Initiative.  For example, The Disability Collection with Verizon Media, Getty Images and National Disability Leadership Alliance to create authentic disability stock photos and design Disability Guidelines for 240,000 Getty photographers.

After discrimination in casting during a temporary disability, Squire and other disabled actors spearheaded SAG Committee of Performers with Disabilities. Squire was then hired as Founding Executive Director of Media Access Office (liaison between disability community and media industry) to build its official casting clearinghouse, insure authentic casting, technical assistance, script consultation, media advocacy and produce Media Access Awards. 

She co-authored Ruderman TV Challenge with Daryl “Chill” Mitchell (NCIS: New Orleans) that issued the challenge to 151 TV series and pilots across 39 delivery platforms to audition performers with disabilities; Squire co-authored Making News: How to Get Disability Rights Coverage, advised AP Stylebook on disability-savvy semantics, and is conversant in American Sign Language (ASL).
 
 
Coni Sanders

Coni Sanders is co-owner of PFA since 2008. She graduated from University of Northern Colorado with a degree in Clinical Psychology. She graduated with honors from Regis University with a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Counseling with a minor in the Psychology of Violence. She is also a DVOMB approved provider. She is a Certified First Responder Counselor providing services to our first responders. She speaks nationally on High Profile Grieving in addition to working at the Colorado State Mental Institute. Coni has true compassion for her work and has proven that she holds a strong commitment to her clients and their ability to create positive change in their lives.


Laura Takacs
 
Laura Takacs is a 2004 graduate of the University of Washington School of Social Work and School of Public Health. Since graduating, Laura has worked both internationally and domestically, with those impacted by war.  Currently, Laura serves as the Clinical Director at Virginia Mason Medical Center, Grief Services, where she provides both individual and group therapy to the bereaved after a sudden, traumatic death, utilizing the Restorative Retelling model.

Prior to her role at Grief Services, Laura worked in the Middle East where she utilized Restorative Retelling while working with Syrian and Iraqi refugees. Laura has presented the Restorative Retelling model in the United States, Canada and the Middle East.
Laura holds her LICSW and MPH and has completed a post‐graduate Certificate in Psychological Trauma from the University of Washington.
 
Bob Weiss
 
Bob Weiss became a gun violence survivor at 9:15pm. May 23, 2014 when his life changed forever. His 19 year-old daughter Veronika, a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, bled out on the sidewalk in front of a sorority house on the University's Greek Row. She was walking back to her sorority with her sisters, Katie, who was shot in the eye socket and died instantly, and Bianca, who sustained a gunshot wound to her kidney, and survived. Bob has first-hand experience dealing with woefully unprepared municipalities who willfully chose to believe that "it could never happen here." This lack of preparedness and protocol leads to the exploitation and abuse of the most vulnerable of us, grieving parents in shock. Since May 2014, the day after his beloved daughter was shockingly and violently taken, Bob has advocated for gun reform and survivor rights.
 
Katie Medley
 
Katie Medley is the co-founder of the non-profit Project Hope Baskets in Colorado. With her husband Caleb Medley and other survivors and friends from CO, they deliver gift baskets of hope and notes of encouragement to first responders, medical teams, city and county officials and victims and survivors of mass casualty crimes and natural disasters. Katie was nine-months pregnant with their first child when she and Caleb (a stand-up comedian) became victims and survivors of the Aurora theater mass shooting. They have delivered Hope Baskets of donated items to first responders and medical teams after the mass shooting in Vegas, Highlands Ranch (STEM school) and to the survivors of the disastrous floods on the border of Iowa/Nebraska (with the local non-profit People Helping People).

Pardeep Kaleka
 
Author of, “The Gifts of Our Wounds.” Pardeep S. Kaleka works as a hate and violence prevention senior advisor with Not In Our Town and the director of Behavioral Health Response at Carroll University. He has served as a de-radicalization interventionist, assisting families and individuals offramp from hate groups and ideologies. In 2012, following the death of his father in the hate killings at the Oak Creek Sikh Temple, he co-founded Serve2Unite, an organization nationally recognized for community healing and resilience.
 
As a first-generation immigrant from India, Mr. Kaleka has spent more than 25 years in the public arenas of law enforcement, education, mental health, assisting hate crime survivors and perpetrators across the United States with recovery. He is the former director of the Interfaith Conference and has also worked on numerous coalition-building efforts across ethnic, racial and religious differences. With a specialization in understanding the impacts of communal trauma, he has helped to develop policies and practices to help mental health professionals, social service practitioners, law enforcement agents, and educators address hate and the rise of targeted violence. 

Caren Teves

On July 20, 2012, Caren experienced every parent’s worst nightmare. Her first born son, Alex, was murdered in the Aurora theater shooting while heroically shielding his girlfriend from gunfire. The theater shooting left 12 dead and over 70 injured. Alex was only 24 years old.
 
In the days immediately following the murder of their first born child, Caren and her husband Tom founded NoNotoriety, a movement dedicated to reducing rampage mass murders by limiting the name and face of the killers in the media. Notoriety is a known and consistent motivating factor of rampage mass shooters.

In honor and memory of her son, Caren is also the founder and director of the Alexander C. Teves ACT-Foundation.org which awards scholarships to students in need to attend Humanex Academy, providing students with a specialized environment to build confidence, social skills, emotional strength and intelligence. Caren received the Courage Award from the National Center for Victims of Crime for her work on behalf of crime victims.


Anson Williams

Anson Williams is best known for his Golden Globe nominated role on the series, “Happy Days.” For over the past two decades he has been an award-winning television director and writer; directing over 300 hours of television, including LA Law, Steven Speilberg’s “Sea Quest,” Pretender, Lizzie Maguire, Melrose Place, Charmed, 90210, Star Trek Voyager, Deep Space Nine, Hercules, Zena, HBO’s “All American 
Murder” starring Christopher Walken, Profiler, and the award winning, Shailene Woodley starring hit, “Secret Life of the American Teenager.” For his writing, Anson has won the prized Humanitus Award, and was honored by the National Association of Student Leaders. Anson was on the National board of USO, and was instrumental in making the entertainment division profitable for the organization. Anson is also a  successful entrepreneur, cofounding an international product company. Anson has been honored by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his expertise in product trademarking which included a speech by Anson along with the under Secretary Of Commerce. Anson inspired and supported by his famous uncle, Dr. Henry Heimlich, created the lifesaving product, Alert Drops, that has saved thousands 
of lives from drowsy driving and exhaustion in the work place. Alert Drops has been honored by the United States Congress, California State Senate, and the city of Los Angeles. He has helped VictimsFirst behind the scenes and traveled to D.C. to speak with the head of the Dept. of Education and to Parkland after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Florida to share how to re-integrate traumatized children into a safe, learning environment. He did this based on first-hand experience with his own children in CA.

 
Jackie Williams
 
Jackie Williams is a mother of five who is a relentless advocate for safe learning in schools. After the toxic chemical PCB was found in their Malibu Middle and High Schools, she spearheaded an effort to get schoolkids to safety and reached out to Pepperdine University to donate a classroom to continue education away from the facilities. In doing so, she procured the first physical classroom in the United States ever to come out of the homeschool K-12 program. In only three weeks, Jackie was not only able to get school children away from the toxic environment and into a safe learning center but also put together a full curriculum. That school ran for over the two years as the school district worked to remove PCBs and rebuild. After the fires swept through the area years later, she and another mother also made sure kids were safe and continued education. She has advocated for safe learning environments for 24 years. Her work led her to meet with the head of the Dept. of Education in Washington, D.C. and also to Parkland, FL after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas where 14 students and three staff members were murdered. In 2019, she became The Malibu Times' recipient of the Mother of the Year Rosie Award to celebrate a mother who is a driving force for good in the community.

 
Caryn Kaufman
 
Caryn is an entrepreneurial leader specializing in integrated, strategic communications, public affairs and crisis management. She has worked with The White House, members of Congress, foreign dignitaries, former presidents, CEOs, athletes, and celebrities on the domestic and international stages.
 
In her current role, Caryn leads communications, reputation management, and thought leadership for Ascension’s largest market, which includes 24 hospitals, 100+ clinics, and 1,200+ clinicians.
 
Prior to that, she launched and led Caryn Kaufman Communications, a consulting agency specializing in marketing, communications, and event management. Her experience in both the public and private sectors positioned her well to lead the non-construction operations of ABC television’s award winning “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Bridgeport, Connecticut episode. As communications director for Connecticut’s largest city, she successfully led the crisis communications response to situations ranging from taking office on the heels of a national corruption scandal, an I-95 bridge collapse, and municipal political scandals.
 
In New York City, Caryn successfully positioned We Media Inc. as the leading disability media outlet. She also directed the international media campaign for the Company’s sponsorship of the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games and development of the Company’s Salt Lake 2002 Paralympic Games website.
 
In Washington, D.C., she served as director of conferences for the National Leadership Coalition for Health Care Reform. Caryn developed her love for elite international sporting events while working with the Centennial Olympic Games (1996) and World Cup (1994). She began her career in tourism marketing for the State of Connecticut.
 
She is a graduate of Clark University, The Campaign School at Yale, FEMA’s Center for Domestic Preparedness, and Leadership Greater Bridgeport. Caryn is humbled to serve on the Victims First Leadership Council, as a spokesperson for victims of mass murders, and to have played a role in the establishment the National Compassion Fund. She also is a professional pianist.
 
 
Jasmine Madatian
 
Jasmine is a marketing executive with core expertise in all facets of entertainment communications and brand strategy and an expert advancing business goals for public, private, and non-profit organizations. She has proven expertise in experiential marketing, promotional partnerships, media training, digital/social platforms, talent and media relations, award campaigns, crisis management and event production.
 
She's also a motivated, innovative leader with a consistent track record spearheading successful programs driving consumer and employee engagement for Fortune 100 companies. She has loyal, longstanding contacts and relationships with consumer, business and trade media.
 
Jasmine is also an experienced communications professional with senior leadership roles at Walt Disney Studios, DreamWorks Studios/Amblin Partners, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences/The Oscars. She currently serves as advisor to Baobab Studios. She has a long history of developing and executing global marketing communications strategies, always with an eye toward innovation and imagination.
 
Jasmine is a PR consultant with her own company, AshTam LLC, which provides strategic counsel to clients, including the city of Los Angeles, and the producers of the Oscars.

 
Nathaniel Smith

Nathaniel has been practicing law for the past 33 years, primarily as a litigator and trial lawyer in constitutional and civil rights cases. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1987 and was admitted to practice law in New York State in 1988.   While in law school, he was a member of the Brooklyn Law Review and served as a Notes Editor in his third year of law school. 
 
After law school, he worked as an associate for six years in the litigation department at Paul, Weiss, Rikfind, Wharton and Garrison. As an associate at Paul Weiss, he worked on various types of complex litigation, including securities fraud, antitrust, trademark, and civil rights.
 
After leaving Paul Weiss, he opened his own law practice, which he has developed over the past 25 years. He has been primarily involved in litigation and trials with an emphasis on civil rights and employment discrimination litigation in state and federal courts on behalf of persons who assert that their constitutional or civil rights have been violated, oftentimes by governmental agencies or large institutions.
 
He is a member of the New York County Lawyers Association and the New York chapter of the National Employment Lawyers Association. He is admitted to practice law in the following federal courts: Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York, the Northern District of New York, the Second Circuit, the Fourth Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, the Tenth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.
         
He is committed to working for those who ordinarily lack the resources or power to protect and to assert their rights against large intuitional interests.

 
Paige Gold
 
Paige Gold is an attorney/MBA with broad knowledge of business and entertainment law. She began her professional life in the nation’s capital, working in public affairs before moving to Los Angeles and entering the entertainment industry, ultimately opening her own media and entertainment law practice.

Paige’s Washington, D.C. pre-law background encompasses positions in politics, public policy, and an early stint as a feature writer at Washingtonian Magazine. Along the way, she earned an MBA at George Washington University.

In Los Angeles Paige held production-development positions with several independent film companies and with ABC Television before entering Southwestern Law School. After graduating and passing the bar exam, Paige  practiced business law in Los Angeles for six years before earning a Master of Law degree (LLM) in media and entertainment law, then expanding her practice to those areas. A member of both the California and DC bars, Paige advises creative professionals (writers, producers, directors and designers), businesses and nonprofit organizations concerning contracts, copyright and trademark law, personnel issues, business negotiations and other matters.


Cristina Hassinger 

Cristina previously collaborated with others who are also on the Leadership Council after the mass shooting in Newtown, CT on Dec. 14, 2012 where her mother, Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung was murdered – one of six educators and 20 children taken that day. Following the shooting, Cristina was the first to speak up to try to keep donations safe for the victims of that tragedy after non-profits swooped in to collect funds. Others now involved in VictimsFirst also joined with her to lend support. This mother of four was responsible, too, for bringing 9/11 Special Master Kenneth Feinberg in to help the Newtown families secure the donations meant for them. Cristina has subsequently helped behind the scenes on other mass casualty crimes, educating officials about why one centralized fund is crucial to help prevent fraud. Cristina’s mother, Dawn, will forever be remembered as was one of the day’s heroes whose last act was to save her students.


Bryan Mosko

Bryan Mosko joins VictimsFirst after spending six years in Asia working in live entertainment for AEG Presents. During his time at AEG, Bryan advocated for improved safety at live events while striving to provide a safe environment for people attending large-scale and community events. Collaborating with VictimsFirst, Bryan provides insight into how live events are planned, how to prevent future incidents, and support for fundraising endeavors. 
Since relocating to Los Angeles, Bryan has worked, in conjunction with the Academy of Country Music, to raise money for those affected by Borderline Shooting in Ventura County. In addition, he has worked to help raise money for the homeless in Los Angeles through multiple charities via the LA Gives Back annual event.


Yvonne Crasso

Yvonne became a gun violence prevention activist after the death of her sister, Nina, in 2012. She advocates for survivors and victims of gun violence as well as advocating for stronger gun laws. 



Eric and Mary Kay Mace

Eric and Mary Kay Mace were unwillingly inducted into the fraternity of families who have survived the death of a loved one in a mass shooting. Their daughter, Ryanne, was the youngest of the five fatalities in the shooting that occurred on February 14th, 2008 in Cole Hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University.  Since that time, both have become active in various ways.
 
Mary Kay has been a tireless advocate for common sense firearms legislation by volunteering with organizations such as It Can Happen Here, Moms Demand Action, Everytown for Gun Safety, among others. She has also spoken publicly about her experiences on many occasions, including testifying at Ilinois’ legislative committee hearings for the Firearms Restraining Order Act that was enacted in 2018, and has been frequently interviewed for both print and television media.
 
Eric has been involved in the formation of the National Compassion Fund and served as a victims advocate in the direction of donations resulting from the Henry Pratt shooting in Aurora, IL. He has also advocated for the adoption of family bereavement leave for U.S. workers. He also advocates for common sense gun legislation at the state and national level.
 
Together, Eric and Mary Kay created the Ryanne Mace Memorial Scholarship Fund at NIU Foundation. This fund is fully endowed and will provide monetary awards to individuals who are studying psychology with plans to become counselors. It is their belief that even though Ryanne is no longer with us, the work she was called to do still must be done if there is ever to be a hope of stopping mass shootings.



Jerri Jackson

Jerri Jackson is the mother of Matt McQuinn who was murdered while protecting his girlfriend from gunfire in the Aurora theater mass shooting on July 20, 2012. Jerri has been working behind the scenes since that time, having travelled to Newtown after the mass shooting there to help families cope, and working to help victims/communities of multiple mass shootings advocating for victims' rights. In 2012, she founded the Matt McQuinn Acts of Kindness Foundation to encourage people to spread kindness throughout the Miami Valley in Ohio.


Marcus Grimmie

Marcus Grimmie knows first-hand the devastating effects gun violence can have on families. Marcus serves as the Board VP of the Christina Grimmie Foundation, which was founded by him and his parents in March 2017 in honor of his sister Christina who was murdered while signing autographs after her Orlando concert in June 2016.
 
Since its inception, Marcus has served as the CGF’s spokesperson and liaison to all the families the nonprofit helps. He is personally involved in the decision making for each grant given out and is also actively involved in CGF’s fundraising efforts. 
 
In addition, Marcus volunteered with Ventura County’s Victim’s Services to better understand the process of Victim’s Advocacy. He has spoken at numerous Victim Service summits and conferences throughout California. Both Marcus and his father, Albert, travel throughout the U.S. to meet with victim’s families and service providers to help strengthen the resources that are available.
 
This South Jersey native, is also a personal trainer, producer and musician with the band The Similar. He resides in Southern California.
 


Shani-Angela Hervey

A self-described troublemaker, Shani-Angela is a black queer feminist deeply invested in collective healing and justice for communities impacted by violence and has been on the frontlines of numerous civic actions in her community. She holds a Master's degree in Public Administration from the Univesity of Central Florida. Shani-Angela currently offers consulting through her business, Mixit Florida LLC, and brings more than 15 years of senior management experience in the nonprofit sector. In addition to her nonprofit expertise, she is an Air Force veteran and Military Sexual Assault (MST) survivor. She is committed to ensuring that healing justice plays a key role in building sustainable communities and movements with a focus on self-care for everyone doing the important work of fighting for social change. She is committed to building the world we want to see while dismantling the existing structures that oppress us. 

David Bilu

An alumnus of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, David helped form an integral chain of care for the students, teachers, families, and victims following the high school shooting on February 14, 2018, which resulted in 17 deaths. He helped form a group of alumni of over 11,000 strong to assist in everything from Meal Trains to Emergency Funds and organizing the March for Our Lives in March 2020. David organized buses to send over 2,000 students and teachers to Washington DC for the March and also was Captain for the local March in Parkland. David worked directly with Anita Busch and the National Compassion Fund to secure millions in financial relief that went directly to the victim base. David is a licensed insurance broker currently living in Florida. He co-founded VictimsFirst as a nonprofit and served as a Director on the Board.


Volunteers 

Dr. Dan Eller

Dr. Dan Eller (B.S. California State University, Northridge, 1984; M.P.H., 1987; Ed.D. University of California, Santa Barbara, 2010) is a Professor Emeritus of Public Relations in the Journalism Department at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Dan has twenty-five years of industry experience in Public Relations in the public sector with the State of California, authored and co-authored five juried journal articles, one book chapter, and presented twelve juried research papers at academic conferences.


Ricky Robertson

Ricky Robertson has had the privilege to work with students from pre-K to 12th grade who have persevered in the face of trauma and adversity. Along with Victoria Romero & Amber Warner, Ricky is the co-author of the Corwin bestselling book, Building Resilience in Students Impacted by Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Whole Staff Approach. As a consultant and coach, Ricky supports schools and districts in developing multi-tiered social-emotional and behavioral supports that are trauma-informed and culturally responsive. Ricky’s deep respect for young people and the educators who serve them continue to inspire his work today. ​


Sarah Leonard

Sarah Gayle Leonard joins our team through VTVCare, after her Mother was murdered in the Virginia Beach 5/31 Municipal Massacre. She is a proud Virginian, Mother, and graduate of Longwood University. She believes “public service never dies” and is deeply committed to helping pass Mass Violence Care Funds across the country. She’s seen rock bottom in her recovery journey and wants to rescue others from it. Sarah is a strong advocate for mental health care and healing through artistic expression. She lives and works near Virginia Tech.


Alyce Brodoff

Alyce Brodoff has worked behind the scenes with VictimsFirst since its inception in 2012 amid the aftermath of the Aurora theater mass shooting. She helped create the Love to Aurora Facebook campaign and helped promote the NoNotoriety cause. Helping victims has been central in her life the past 11 ½ years and counting. A lifelong volunteer, Alyce has sat on numerous Boards of Directors, Commissions and Committees dedicated to human rights, the health and welfare of children/teens/adults/seniors and community building. A retired teacher who coached many amateur and professional singers/public speakers in her 40 year career, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Alyce grew up in Denver, Colorado.


Ashtin Gamblin
 
Ashtin Gamblin is a native to rural Illinois but currently resides in Colorado Springs, CO. She received her associates in criminal justice in 2022. In November of 2022, she survived the Club Q mass shooting, after taking part-time work at the bar. She was shot 9 times. While still working to complete her bachelor's in criminal justice, she has obtained certificates in human rights and human trafficking training. She focuses on advocating for victims rights and funding as well as police protocol for mass casualty events.


Jorshua N. Hernandez Carrion
 
Jorshua N. Hernandez Carrion was born in Bayamón Puerto Rico. He is a survivor of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, FL on June 12, 2016. He was wounded by a bullet in my left arm. He has a bar with nine screws. He was also wounded on the left side and it affected four organs which had to be reconstructed. Currently, he still has a bullet in his body. He says, "I am here to support victims and help each survivor move forward because I went through the same thing and know it well. I want survivors and family to feel safe. Don't give up on moving forward."

Pierce Mackenzie

Pierce Mackenzie is the son of Lynn Murray, whose life was tragically taken in the Boulder King Soopers mass shooting on March, 22, 2021. He is also the son of the late John Mackenzie, who was the first to raise the alarm and informed victims about the Colorado Healing Funds’ abuse after they collected donations in the aftermath of the shooting. As a social media specialist, Pierce is adept at promoting videos and posts to gain public attention. He is dedicated to supporting victims of mass shootings. His firsthand experience fuels a passionate commitment to aiding and empowering fellow victims.


Robin D. Harris

Robin is a writer, poet, public speaker, tour guide, history enthusiast, and community organizer. A Texas native, Robin currently lives in Florida where she fights for numerous social justice issues and leads local mutual aid projects. Since the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub that occurred on June 12, 2016, Robin has worked directly with victims and the local community to amplify the voices of Black shooting survivors. Robin participated in numerous local events to bring attention to the issues of gun violence and appeared in the documentary Surviving Pulse: Life After a Mass Shooting. She has spoken at several press conferences and rallies, speaking up for racial justice, speaking out on intersectional issues, and speaking against all types of discrimination.