Jim Helling is a psychotherapist, performance consultant, researcher and instructor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who directed the Athletic Counseling Office (ACO) for 12 years. Jim maintains a private psychotherapy and consultation practice specializing in psychological trauma, dissociative disorders, and performance optimization. He has a background in public health approaches to psychological and behavioral health promotion and has focused on developing more inclusive and culturally-attuned approaches to college mental health. He is a co-investigator with a multidisciplinary childhood adversity and resilience research team. His national and international publications and presentations focus on topics related to the neurobiology of psychotherapeutic change, embodied psychotherapy, mental health disparities, treatment of dissociative disorders, ACE, equity in college athlete mental health, and trauma-informed care. Jim was formerly an award-winning broadcast photojournalist, documentary cinematographer, producer and director who covered US politics, international & military affairs, investigations, and social issues.
Dr. Chandler’s passion is understanding how to build resilience to interrupt the effect Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) have on health risk behaviors, hard-to-treat symptoms, and chronic disease conditions. Her resilience model is the framework for strength-based interventions to develop the capacity to bounce back from stress to promote young adult health and wellbeing. She is a leader in promoting trauma informed care to eliminate seclusion and restraints and create a safe environment for patients and staff on inpatient mental health units. Mentoring as strategy to empower students, nurses, and faculty is the focus of Dr. Chandler’s educational research, which has resulted in two books, the award-winning Ultimate Guide to Getting into Nursing School and New Nurse’s Survival Guide, as well as two Robert Wood Johnson New Careers in Nursing awards.
Rahul Bhat leads a team of interdisciplinary professionals who support the learning of students with disabilities in the following areas: academic skills, resilience, self-advocacy, communication, and leadership. From 2015 until 2017, Rahul served as the Project Lead for the University of Toronto’s Resilience Project. The Project aimed to build a resilience framework and curricula that would inform existing student life programming and staff training with the overall goal of fostering academic and psychological resilience among students. The Project informed programs and services through a Program Design Institute, a Service Design Institute, and student staff training. Rahul has over 11 years of experience as a student life professional, previously working as a Learning Strategist for the University’s Academic Success office, where he spearheaded programming for students on academic probation and those who had experienced academic setbacks. He also founded the University of Toronto’s Mentorship Resource Centre, which provided centralized training and resources to the University’s many peer mentoring programs. In 2010, he started the St. George campus’s First in the Family program, designed to support the transition and learning of first-generation students. Rahul received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Toronto.
Dr. Daphne C. Watkins is a Professor at the University of Michigan, with faculty appointments in the School of Social Work, the Department of Psychology, and the Institute for Social Research. Broadly, her research cultivates a deeper understanding of the influence of gender role socialization on health over the life course for marginalized boys and men. She is the immediate past president of the American Men’s Studies Association; the first woman and person of color to ever serve as president in the organization’s 30-year history. She also serves on several committees and boards aimed at improving men’s health domestically and globally. For example, she serves as the Senior Scientific Advisor for the Campaign for Black Male Achievement and a member of the Movember Foundation Global Men’s Health Advisory Committee. Dr. Watkins has received federal and private foundation funding for her research, and has produced several peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and volume sections. In addition to her scholarship, Dr. Watkins is the Founding Director of the Gender and Health Research (GendHR) Lab and the Young Black Men, Masculinities, and Mental Health (YBMen) project. She is the Director of the Vivian A. and James L. Curtis Research and Training Center at the […]
Dr. Jamie Patton is responsible for developing, implementing and managing new programs and initiatives that advance diversity and inclusion at Cal Poly. As a division-wide leader and diversity officer, he provides direction and consultation for services and policies to ensure inclusive practices across all Student Affairs departments. In addition, he helps provide campus-wide support for diversity and inclusion efforts in partnership with the Office of University Diversity and Inclusion. A native of north Philadelphia, Dr. Patton is a first-generation college graduate with more than 15 years of experience as a higher education administrator. Prior to Cal Poly, he served as the Assistant Dean of Students for Ohio University, where he directed the Parent and Family Program, co-initiated programming to increase graduation and retention rates among African-American male students and implemented social justice development workshops for Student Affairs staff. He later served in several positions during a nine-year period at Northern Arizona University, including Director of the Student Learning Centers and Director of Inclusion and Multicultural Services.
In addition to his role as vice provost and chief diversity officer, Dr. James L. Moore III is also serving as the first executive director of the Todd Anthony Bell National Resource Center on the African American Male. Additionally, he is the inaugural EHE Distinguished Professor of Urban Education in the College of Education and Human Ecology. From 2015 to 2017, James served as a program director for Broadening Participation in Engineering in the Engineering Directorate at the National Science Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia, and, from 2011 to 2015, he was an associate provost for Diversity and Inclusion at The Ohio State University, where he managed numerous programs and units. James is internationally recognized for his work on African American males. His research agenda focuses on school counseling, gifted education, urban education, higher education, multicultural education and counseling, as well as STEM education. He is often quoted, featured, and mentioned in popular publications, such as the New York Magazine, New York Times, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Columbus Dispatch, Spartanburg Herald, Cincinnati Enquirer, Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. From 2018 to 2021, he was cited by Education Week as one of […]
Dr. Derrick Brooms is Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies and a Fellow in the Center for the Study of Social Justice at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; he also serves as a youth worker and is an award-winning educator and scholar. In addition, Derrick is an Early Career Scholar in the Scholars Network on Masculinity and the Well-Being of African Men and is a Research & Faculty Affiliate with Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success). His research and activism primarily focus on educational equity, race and racism, diversity and inclusion, and identity and representation. His education research primarily centers on Black men and boys’ pathways to and through college as well as on their engagement on campus and identity development. He also examines the collegiate experiences of Black and Latino men in addition to Black boys’ and men’s lived experiences and representations in the media. His research has been published in a range of education, sociology, and cultural studies journals, he has published numerous book chapters from his research on education and teaching, and he has contributed his writing to outlets such as Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Derrick is the author of several books, including Stakes […]
In his previous role, Best served as the second University Associate Director for CUNY BMI from September 2014 until April 2018, and as a Project Coordinator for the Black Male Initiative at Hunter College from January 2012 until September 2014. As the Associate Director, he co-developed and implemented the site visit structure, a re-branding overhaul and a best practices model for 31 CUNY BMI projects serving over 4,000 students CUNY-wide. He also managed and provided technical assistance to approximately 100 administrators/faculty members throughout the CUNY system who run BMI projects. He comes to the Central Office with over 20 years of experience working in Residence Life, Student Affairs, Academic Affairs, Athletics, and Admissions. Best received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont in May 2000. He received his Master of Arts degree in Higher Education Administration from New York University in May 2004. Best’s passions lie in helping college students experience holistic success and receive mentorship. In particular, Best’s journey to his current career was paved with mentorship from some of the top African American male college administrators in the country including Douglas Samuels and Allen McFarlane. At New York University, Best worked with […]
The BRaIN Program is composed of over 120 scientists and 350 graduate students and postdocs across six research sites. In her role, Sabine coordinates multiple neuroscience initiatives and facilitates all aspects of the program including financial, scientific, training, and administrative. In her previous role at McGill University, she served as the Interdisciplinary Programs and Academic Affairs Officer, overseeing and facilitating the development of innovative multi-faculty, multi-disciplinary research and academic programs. As a subject matter expert for interdisciplinary and collaborative initiatives, her broad portfolio includes the review and development of policy and university-wide guidelines, as well as international partnerships. Sabine has served on a wide variety of academic and professional organizations, often in a leadership capacity, and is the recipient of several prestigious awards including prizes from organizations such as the New York Academy of Sciences, The Endocrine Society, TD Canada Trust Scholarships for Outstanding Community Leadership, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from McGill University and a Bachelor of Science Honours from the University of Toronto (Victoria College) in Biology, Physiology and English Literature.
Dr. Kustra stepped down as president of Boise State University in July 2018 after serving for 15 years at the helm of Boise State, the largest public university in Idaho. During his presidency, he led the university in a time of dynamic growth in student enrollment, graduate college and doctoral programs, new construction, fundraising, and research. The creation of the College of Innovation and Design was a notable achievement of his presidency. Boise State received classification as a national doctoral research university in 2017 and was recently named one of the most innovative national universities in the West by US News and World Report, joining fellow western universities Stanford, Cal Tech, University of Washington, and UCLA. With a long and distinguished career in public service in Illinois, Dr. Kustra served two terms as Illinois lieutenant governor following ten years in the legislature. He also chaired the Illinois Board of Higher Education, responsible for funding and oversight of the state’s nine public universities. Prior to joining Boise State, Dr. Kustra served as president of Eastern Kentucky University and the Midwestern Higher Education Commission. He has held faculty positions at the University of Illinois-Springfield, Loyola University of Chicago, the University of Illinois-Chicago, […]
