SPEAKERS

---

Dr. Kari Finley is a Co-Director and Research Scholar for the Center for Health and Safety Culture at Montana State University. Dr. Finley holds a Ph.D. in Human Services and has approximately eight years of experience as a research scientist focusing on conducting basic and applied research on a variety of health and safety issues. She has been the principal investigator on multiple projects with specific interests in behavior change, stigma reduction, understanding motivation and intention, and measuring culture. Dr. Finley is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over twelve years of experience helping people with substance use disorders. Dr. Finley is a contributing author and presenter.

---

Gregory Dorchak has worked in the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts since 2015 where he primarily focused on addressing the opioid crisis through federal civil rights laws. Prior to working in the Department of Justice, Greg enforced fair housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Greg received his J.D. from Northeastern University and his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts.

---

Bethany Berry, CNM, MSN is the Senior Nurse Midwife at Southcentral Foundation in Anchorage, Alaska. She received her nursing degree at Johns Hopkins University and her midwifery degree at Yale University. Prior to her current position, Bethany worked for over 10 years with the Indian Health Service in the lower 48. Her clinical specialty areas are contraception, addiction medicine in pregnancy, and cervical cancer prevention. She currently volunteers as a member of the Exam Committee with the American Midwifery Certification Board and with the American Cancer Society’s National Roundtable on Cervical Cancer. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her family.

---

Corey Cox, MD, is a provider primarily located at the Front Street Clinic in Juneau, Alaska. He was born in Pikeville, KY and attended medical school at University of Louisville in Kentucky. His post-graduate training was at Mountain Area Health Education Center in Asheville North Carolina, specializing in family medicine and addiction medicine. He loves helping families with addictions from all ages and backgrounds by working to make an inclusive and welcoming environment for all patients. He also enjoys working with the underserved and unhoused populations.

---

Jen serves as the Analytics Grant Specialist at Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC). She has a passion for data and how it can be leveraged to positively influence Alaska Native and American Indian communities. As part of ANTHC’s Data and Analytics Team, Jen supports several grants and initiatives related to indigenous health and collaborates with Tribal Health Organizations across the state to foster a data-driven culture. Jen is a member of the Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak, which is located on Kodiak Island in the northwestern edge of the Gulf of Alaska. She is a graduate of the University of Alaska Anchorage where she earned her Masters of Science in Project Management.

---

I have been in recovery for the last 5 years in which I was able to utilize a MAT program to help me in achieving the goals I had for my life in recovery. I have worked hard to build a strong support system within my family and community.

---

Brenda Is the Clinical Director at Interior AIDS Association, an AIDS service organization providing services for the prevention and treatment of HIV including education, prevention and testing, a syringe services program, SBIRT, and medication assisted treatment. She has worked at Interior AIDS Association since 2002 when she started as a substance abuse counselor. Brenda is a licensed professional counselor, a master addictions counselor, and is a certified chemical dependency counselor in the State of Alaska. She received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and master’s degree in counseling from UAF, where she has taught as adjunct faculty and from where she has welcomed multiple practicum students and counseling interns. Brenda is a member of the local Wellness Coalition, the Fairbanks Opioid Work Group, the Community Action Planning group, and has served on the HUB team for the Co-Occurring Behavioral Health Opioid and Stimulant Use Disorders ECHO for the past two years.

---

Robin Lutz is the Executive Director of the Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association and has been working in the HIV and Harm Reduction field for over 20 years. She has extensive experience providing direct services through syringe access programs as well as HIV Care and Prevention. She lives on Dena’ina land (Anchorage) with her dog, co-parents a lovely 5 year old, and is a member of Anchorage’s Queer community.

---

Police Officer for the Wasilla Police Department since 2019. I am Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator and have been working with the Mobile Crisis Team as a liaison.

---

Ms. Oss is a person with lived experience and started volunteering in Correctional facilities at one year of sobriety. She has worked inside and outside juvenile and adult correctional institutions, hospitals, and treatment agencies as a Counselor.

Marsha Oss relocated to Alaska from Idaho in 1996 and went to work for Tanana Chiefs Conference between 1997-2002. She worked in the Community Health Department, traveling the Interior of Alaska working with prevention and chaperoning elders & youth for Denakkanaaga. In 1998, she moved to the position of Primary Counselor, then Clinical Supervisor, and finally Acting Director of Old Minto Family Recovery Camp.

Marsha spent the past 6½ years as the Fairbanks Reentry Coalition Case Manager, helping justice-involved folks return to the community. Marsha joined the City of Fairbanks in 2022 as the Reentry Coalition Coordinator. Marsha completed her AA and BA in Interdisciplinary Studies with Minors in Justice, Political Science, and History through UAF in August 2022. She currently holds an NCAC-I and is certified through Alaska as a CDC/BHC II, and PSS/TPSS.

---

Jennifer Pierce is currently a PhD student in the Clinical-Community Psychology program at UAA and works as a clinician with the Anchorage Fire Department Mobile Crisis Team. She has experience working as a police officer with the Anchorage Police Department for over 8 years. After earning her master’s in clinical psychology, she worked as a therapist at Providence on an inpatient mental health unit, in the emergency department, and also continues to teach verbal-escalation.

---

Sara has spent the last fourteen years in the behavioral health world, including advocating for people with mental illness, being a case manager in residential and non-residential settings, integrating counseling services within schools, providing individual and group therapy, and overseeing admissions and early interventions for a community behavioral health clinic that provides both outpatient and residential services for substance use disorders. Sara arrived in Alaska 6 years ago and feels grateful for the opportunity to call Alaska her forever home. She has a passion for connecting individuals, families, and providers to each other, to themselves, and to shared goals to improve well-being for all Alaskans.

---

Michael has been with the Anchorage Fire Department for over 10 years, and for the last 5 of those years he has worked as the Mobile Integrated Health Program (MIHP) Coordinator. Two significant programs were and are the Restore Hope in the Linkage to Care Collaboration and a first of its kind Fire Based Mobile Crisis Team (MCT).

---

Laura Ross, LMFT brings more than 20 years of experience directing clinical and administrative behavioral health care programming in a range of settings. Her expertise includes developing trauma-informed, client-centered and evidence-based treatment programs for behavioral health integration.

---

Kristine is a life-long Alaskan who began her career with the Department of Corrections (DOC) in 2000. She previously worked as an Institutional Probation Officer prior to becoming a Criminal Justice Planner, overseeing substance use disorder programs for the department. She graduated from UAA with a bachelor’s degree in Justice and minor in Psychology and later received her master’s degree from UAF in Administration of Justice.

---

Christina is a lifelong Alaskan with predominant work experience in a non-profit organization here in downtown Anchorage aimed at reducing recidivism. This experience has allowed her to develop her case management skills into a relationship-building, problem solving, client-centered approach in order to provide direct services for those returning to our community after incarceration. She currently serves in a Contractor role between Partners for Progress and Department of Corrections which has embedded her into Anchorage Correctional Complex full time to provide release planning and resource support for all inmates, as well as coordination with institutional staff on matters related to community reintegration. Prior to this, she provided direct service and grant reporting for a special case load of high risk/high needs reentrants that allocated additional grant based financial, treatment and housing supports in partnership with the MHTA and DBH.

---

Sonya, a lifelong Alaskan, has worked with children and families across the state for over 20 years. She enjoys helping families find their way to healing and wholeness through whatever path best suits their needs. Sonya has worked extensively with families in crisis and believes the best way to help children is through promoting health in every aspect of their home and family, whatever shape that may take. As a mother of five, she has an intimate understanding of the many challenges a family may face and finds a great deal of satisfaction in helping parents and children achieve their goals. In her free time, Sonya enjoys exploring all the many wonders Alaska has to offer—whether fishing, hunting, camping, hiking or just enjoying her back yard with her children.

---

Jane has lived and worked in Alaska for over 30 years. She has a strong passion for rural Alaska, where she has lived the majority of her life. She has served rural communities by working in early education, providing local government assistance and currently works at OSMAP.

---

Jacqueline Summers is the Executive Director of Health TIE, an Alaskan healthcare innovation hub and has worked in program operations and business development for over 20 years.

---

Dr. Terranella is a medical epidemiologist in CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention. He researches best practices to improve access to treatment for substance use disorder and harm reduction programs in young adults and adolescents. He is also a board-certified pediatrician, is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arizona, and practices general pediatrics and adolescent medicine in Tucson, Arizona. He received his BA in Biology from Kalamazoo College, attended medical school at the University of Virginia, and received an MPH from Emory University. He trained in Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx, NY in 2007 and completed an Epidemic Intelligence Service Fellowship at the CDC in 2012. Prior to coming to CDC, he served 14 years with Indian Health Service on the Navajo and Tohono O’odham Nations and most recently as the Chief Medical Officer for the Portland Area Indian Health Service.

---

Kathleen Totemoff is the Founder/President of iEXIST, LLC, a company dedicated to saving lives and strengthening communities through innovative approaches and strategic partnerships in changing the trajectory of the substance misuse epidemic. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Alaska College of Business and Public Policy for more than a decade and spent more than four years as a Medication-Assisted Treatment Project Director/Grant Manager for a rural Alaska clinic. Kathleen is also a Certified Health Coach whose work background includes behavioral intervention, residential treatment, and rural economic development. She earned her Psychology degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage and completed extensive undergraduate coursework in sociology, human and social services, and criminal justice. She lives with her family on a small homestead with her dog, goats, chickens, geese, rabbits, honeybees, and the occasional moose that wanders into the yard.

---

I have been employed at NDTC for more than 11 years. I coordinate care for all new patients entering treatment for opioid use disorder; this includes communication with outside agencies to enroll patient at NDTC. I am the point of contact for patients seeking services.

---

Dr. Ryan Wallace is a board-certified psychiatrist, addiction psychiatrist, and addiction medicine physician. He earned his MD, MPH from the University of Washington School of Medicine. He attended Yale University for psychiatry residency, addiction psychiatry fellowship, and served as assistant professor – he co-led development of a clinical trial examining psilocybin in the treatment of depression and was a founding member of the Yale Psychedelic Science Group. He currently serves as the Program Director for the Alaska Addiction Medicine Fellowship, is faculty for the Alaska Family Medicine Residency, and is the Medical Director for the Providence Breakthrough Substance Use Treatment Program. Dr. Wallace is passionate about pursuing innovative treatment modalities, teaching harm reduction, working with partners throughout Alaska, and serving his community.

---

Dr. Anne Zink grew up in Colorado and attended college in Philadelphia and medical school at Stanford. As a practicing emergency medicine physician, she saw that the emergency department was where all good public health policy comes to fail. She quickly realized that if she was going to care for her patients, she needed to care about health policy as well. She focused her work on the opioid epidemic, complex patient care, workplace violence, and health care reform.

---

Doug started his career with the Department of Corrections in July of 2011 where he provided direct care services to the mentally ill offenders housed at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. In 2018, he was promoted to the Substance Use Disorder Criminal Justice Planner position and provided oversight and guidance for all the SUD program needs within the department. He currently is the department’s Deputy Chief Mental Health Officer and assists with providing oversight of mental health, sex offender, substance use disorder, and domestic violence treatment services for the department.