Category: Experts

Dr. Dreher has a Master’s degree in Counseling, and credentials in spiritual counseling and holistic health in addition to her UCLA Ph.D. in English. She is a HeartMath clinical practitioner and a Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation. Her books include the bestselling Tao of Inner Peace, Tao of Personal Leadership, Tao of Womanhood, Inner Gardening, and Your Personal Renaissance as well as scholarly books and articles. Dr. Dreher’s current research includes work on hope, Eastern philosophy, leadership, mindfulness, and positive psychology. Her work has been featured in national newspapers and magazines along with web sites on leadership and personal growth, and she writes a regular blog for Psychology Today. She has served as Chair of the English Department at Santa Clara University, as well as Faculty Senate President, Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and President of the Santa Clara chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). She is Associate Director of the Institute for Applied Spirituality at Santa Clara University, has an international coaching practice, and offers classes and webinars on leadership, balance, and personal growth.

Under Martin’s innovative leadership, Youth Era has established services across the nation. He believes that one of Youth Era’s greatest strengths is the ability to give youth opportunities necessary for a successful transition into adulthood. He maintains that the most effective way to support the young adult population is for young adults to reach out to and support each other.

Martin currently sits on the national board of the Community Alliance for the Ethical Treatment of Youth (CAFETY) and Reachout.com’s youth board. In 2010, Martin won the Mental Health Award of Excellence from AMH and the Oregon Coalition on Housing and Homelessness (OCHH) Ma Curtis Award. Now, he continues to work towards improving services and systems that support positive youth development.

Kelly’s lived experience with mental health diagnoses and trauma are at the center of her passion for transforming how we support individuals and change systems and services. She currently works in Peer Advocacy, Supports, and Services, where she is involved in promoting peer support, peer certification, youth and young adult leadership, and college mental health.

She is passionate about trauma-informed care, peer support, consumer-led transformation, positive psychology, and civil rights. She serves in an advisory role to the Well Being Trust, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and the Center for Law and Social Policy. She has spoken at many events, including The White House Making Health Care Better Series on Mental Health, and has been featured in media outlets including NBC Nightly News, The Mighty, Thrive Global, Yes! Magazine, and Mashable.

In 2019, Kelly was awarded the Disruptive Innovator Award by the International Association of Peer Supporters, an award given to a young person making positive change in mental health through positive disruption.

She is a certified yoga teacher and holds a certificate in Applied Positive Psychology from The Flourishing Center. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Nonprofit Leadership at the University of Pennsylvania.

Vikram Patel is The Pershing Square Professor of Global Health in the Blavatnik Institute’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He co-leads the Department’s Mental Health for All lab and co-leads the GlobalMentalHealth@Harvard initiative. His work has focused on the burden of mental health problems across the life course, their association with social disadvantage, and the use of community resources for their prevention and treatment. 

He is a co-founder of the Movement for Global Mental Health, the Centre for Global Mental Health (at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), the Mental Health Innovations Network, and Sangath, an Indian NGO which won the WHO Public Health Champion of India prize. He is a Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences and has served on the Committee which drafted India’s first National Mental Health Policy and the WHO High Level Independent Commission for NCDs. He has been awarded the Chalmers Medal (the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, UK), the Sarnat Prize (the National Academy of Medicine, USA), the Pardes Humanitarian Prize (the Brain and Behaviour Research Foundation, USA), an Honorary OBE (the UK Government), the Posey Leadership Award (Austin College, USA) and the John Dirk Canada Gairdner Award in Global Health (the Canada Gairdner Foundation). He was listed in TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential persons of the year in 2015.

Erin Michaela Brandt, pre-Covid, traveled full time working with men’s groups, helping men to heal their relationships with women. She’s been a private men’s coach for 13 years. Now, she leads a blend of attachment work and nervous system co-regulation, and teaches men & women to both have compassion for one another and appreciate their differences.

Erin was an Injury Evaluation and Treatment Therapist for 22 years, a Personal Trainer and Movement Analyst for 9, and a Partner Dance Instructor for 25. She has a Master’s in Human Movement Science. Erin condensed about 9 years of learning about attachment theory and nervous system regulation into 3, assisted Diane Poole Heller, and now leads her own trainings in person and online at www.CalmAndEngaged.com

Sarah Fader is the Founder of Stigma Fighters, a non-profit organization that encourages individuals with mental illness to share their personal stories. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Quartz, ADAA, Psychology Today, The Huffington Post, HuffPost Live, The Good Men Project, The Mighty, Ravishly, YourTango, and Good Day New York.

Sarah is a native New Yorker who enjoys naps, talking to strangers, and caring for her two small humans and two average-sized cats. Like six million other Americans, Sarah lives with Bipolar Disorder type II, OCD ADHD, and PTSD. 

Sarah has accurately described herself as a mental health advocate, writer (with published books available on Amazon), and more.