Northeast and Caribbean MHTTC Virtual Conference- Spotlight on Emotional Well-Being

Amanda Lipp (she/her) is a filmmaker, consultant, speaker, and entrepreneur working at the intersection of mental health care, storytelling, and technology. She is the Owner of Lipp Studios, Founder at The Giving Gallery, Co-Founder at neuroTree, and Technical Assistance Specialist at the Center for Applied Research Solutions. She previously worked at the California Mental Health Services Authority (CalMHSA). Amanda has created over 100 short films with clients around the U.S. - ranging from university clinics, large healthcare nonprofits, to social entrepreneurs. Latest clients have included Columbia Psychiatry, Sutter Health, Stanford Medicine, and UCSF. She is focused on elevating complex topics like youth psychosis, mass trauma, recreation therapy, and alternative living. Since age 18, she has given over 150 keynotes sharing mental health resources, films, and her own personal story. Amanda connects the art and science of filmmaking, leveraging the power of stories for systems change and personal empowerment.

is an expert in improving individual, team, and organizational performance in social services and healthcare organizations.During his 45-year career, Tony has served as a senior executive for three nationally recognized behavioral health provider organizations and held positions as an accreditation surveyor, public administrator, and professor at researcher at the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation. Dr. Zipple received his Doctorate in Rehabilitation Counseling from Boston University, his MBA from the University of New Hampshire, and his Master’s of Science in Environmental Design and Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Notre Dame. He has multiple certifications in coaching, positive psychology, happiness studies, positive neuroplasticity training, and cognitive behavioral treatment. Dr. Zipple is a Massachusetts licensed psychologist who has published more than 65 articles, monographs, and book chapters, He is a recipient of the Hall-Render Leadership in Healthcare Award and the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association's Beard and Rutman Awards.

Dr. Michelle Drapkin has been working in the area of behavior change for over 20 years. She is the Owner/Director of the CBT Center and previously held roles in industry (Johnson and Johnson), academia (University of Pennsylvania and Rutgers) and federal government (Department of Veteran Affairs). She has dedicated her professional career to using psychological research to help people. She is a board-certified Clinical Psychologist and sees patients in her private practice, consults with healthcare tech startups, and delivers trainings and workshops on communication/motivation and health and wellbeing at work and in life. She is the sole author of The Motivational Interviewing Path to Personal Change: The Essential Workbook for Creating the Life You Want from New Harbinger Publications.

Tania has 20 + years of experience identifying and connecting resources for schools, districts, and urban communities. She has a rich history working in the mental health field and education leadership and has worked tirelessly with child servicing agencies at the city and state level. Tania has provided leadership, guidance, and coaching to schools. She’s supported school teams with implementing evidence-based supports, responding to behavioral health emergencies, and managing the aftermath of school and community crises. Tania is committed to providing quality services to the most vulnerable populations.

Amy Dyett is co-founder and owner of a women-owned, mission-driven consulting business called Advancing Dynamic Solutions that works at the intersection of education, public health, and behavioral health to create and advance solutions for youth and communities. Amy has dedicated her career to supporting the integration of health and wellness into educational systems and policies and has worked with state departments and school districts for over 15 years. She has written, managed and implemented numerous federal and state school health funding streams and has a deep understanding of how education systems work, how schools are funded, what funding opportunities exist, and how these can be braided, blended and strategically leveraged to sustain behavioral and mental health efforts in schools. Amy was Director of School Health at the Colorado Education Initiative for over seven years, supporting over 178 school districts in integrating health and wellness into their systems, policies, and procedures. She has also worked at Tri-County Health Department, and has been a 2nd and 6th grade teacher. Amy represented the United States as a 2017 Global Education Policy Fellow in China and has held numerous membership roles on state and national coalitions and committees. Amy received her B.S. in Biology and Biomedical Sciences from Colorado State University and her Masters in Teaching from the University of Northern Colorado.

Crystal Socha, MS, LPC, CRC, NCC, ACS (she/her) is a PhD Candidate and Senior Training and Consultation Specialist at Rutgers School of Health Professions in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions. Crystal’s primary role includes providing in-person and remote training, consultation, and technical assistance to New Jersey agencies that provide Community Support Services. She has over ten years of experience in the behavioral health field, delivering trauma-informed, culturally responsive, gender-affirming care and supporting individuals in building a life worth living. Before joining Rutgers, she provided recovery-oriented services in supportive housing, intensive in-home and in-community settings, community mental health centers, integrated primary care, hospital systems, and private practices. She has received a 40-hour foundational training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) by a Linehan Board Certified Clinician and utilizes a DBT informed approach within her work as a counselor.

Stuart Luther, MS, LAC, NCC is a senior training and consultation specialist for the Rutgers-CCSMH. He has diverse background in supporting youth and schools as a regional youth development program director, school-based clinician, and policy advocate. Stuart has extensive experience equipping schools with knowledge and practical strategies through training and coaching to implement school mental health evidence-based practices and programing. He specializes in service delivery and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ youth. Stuart also supports NJ youth and children in crisis as an intensive in-home counselor.

Dr. Imad Zaheer is an Assistant Professor of School Psychology in the Department of Psychology, at St. John’s University and co-founder of the Nurturing Environments Institute (NEI). Dr. Zaheer is a pediatric school psychologist and has worked on numerous projects in clinics, hospitals, and public and alternative school settings that involve direct and indirect (consultation) services across individual, group, and systems level. His research interests are in application of implementation science towards creating and sustaining school prevention and intervention programs (School mental health, SEL, PBIS, & RTI) within a multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) framework, with a particular focus of using third-wave behavioral approaches as both a service delivery method and enhancing existing interventions. For his work in these areas, Dr. Zaheer was awarded the Council for Exceptional Children’s (CEC) Professional Performance Award in 2019. Additionally, Dr. Zaheer sits on the steering committee for the national group, Family School Community Alliance (FSCA), which is an organization dedicated to creating robust collaboration and engagement across schools and families/community settings.

Ann Murphy, Moderator, is an Associate Professor and Director of the Northeast and Caribbean Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions at Rutgers, School of Health Professions. Dr. Murphy’s work focuses on improving the lives of people with mental health conditions via the development, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based practices. She currently directs three funded projects related to workforce development, technical assistance, and performance improvement. Through these projects she collaborates with community-based mental health organizations and schools to support the assessment of needs, identification of resources, development and delivery of technical assistance, and establishment of strategies for sustainability.

Ms. Amy Banko is a Lecturer at Rutgers University in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions. She works as a trainer and implementation consultant at the Integrated Employment Institute, where she provides trauma-informed supported employment (SE) and supported education (SEd) training and implementation support to community providers. Ms. Banko co-developed the first mobile outreach Supported Education program in New Jersey and serves as a co-investigator for several federally funded studies exploring supported education services. Her research focuses on occupational justice for people with mental health conditions and improving the social determinants of health for individuals in the public mental health service system. Ms. Banko's work is informed by her lived experience with a mental health condition, and she brings this perspective to her roles as an instructor, scholar, and clinician.

PhD is a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions at Rutgers, the State University of NJ who has designed and provided workforce development initiatives for behavioral healthcare providers and supervisors for two decades. She is the Project Director of the Academy of Peer Services as well as the New York Peer Support Services Technical Assistance Center (PeerTAC).

Associate Professor at Rutgers University in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions. She teaches, conducts research on aging and wellness, and focuses on inter-professional collaboration to improve the healthcare of people living with serious mental health conditions. Dr. Zechner developed one of the first undergraduate courses on aging and psychiatric rehabilitation in the country and is involved in workforce development initiatives for behavioral health and providers of aging services. She is the Principal Investigator of a federally funded project designed to improve the dental health experiences of people with serious mental health conditions.

Senior Training and Consultation Specialist at Rutgers School of Health Professions in the Department of Psychiatric Rehabilitation and Counseling Professions. Earle provides in-person and remote training, consultation and technical assistance to New Jersey Community Support Services provider agencies. He also provides training to mental health providers funded through the Washington State Healthcare Authority. Earle has more than 25 years of experience managing and administrating behavioral health organizations in New York, New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts. He has extensive experience planning, developing and evaluating Intensive Community Treatment Programs, Mental Health Supportive Housing, Children & Family Services and Intellectual & Developmental Disability Services. Before joining Rutgers University SHP, he served as the Regional Director of Mental Health Residential Services for a private, not-for-profit behavioral healthcare organization in NJ. He worked collaboratively with county mental health boards and local professional advisory committees on alcohol and drug abuse in the northern region of NJ.

Dr. Miguel Vázquez-Rivera holds a Master's Degree in Research in Clinical Psychology (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and a Master's and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (Carlos Albizu University). He has researched topics such as sexual and gender diversity and problematic substance use. He has presented his research in Puerto Rico, the United States, Mexico, Spain, The Bahamas, Colombia, South Africa and Peru. He has published social responsibility articles on various topics in psychology and is editor of Problematic Drug Use: Foundations, Intervention, Diversity, is the lead editor of the book Trans, Queer and Non-Binary Communities: Presence and Resistance, a textbook co-written with the community, LGBT 101: An introductory look at the collective, first textbook for LGBT communities in Puerto Rico and author of the manual Salud LGBT+: A therapeutic manual for working with communities. He is the co-founder of Psicoalternativas, is co-founder and Executive Director of True Self Foundation and co-founder of PsychConnection PR, a company that merges technology into psychology services. Throughout his career he has received awards such as: Graduate of the Year 2015 from Albizu University and Psychologist of the Year 2015 and Outstanding Professional in Public Policy and Public Service 2020, from the Puerto Rico Association of Psychology.