Get to know the Speakers
Town Hall Three
Raul Almazar, RN, MA
Mr. Almazar has many years of experience as direct care provider, administrator, organizational and clinical consultant, trainer, and speaker. Prior to working as a full-time consultant in 2009, he served as Deputy Director for the State of Illinois Division of Mental Health.
He is presently the Senior Public Policy Advisor at the National Association of State Mental Health Program Director’s Center for Innovations in Behavioral Health Policy and Practice. He provides consultation and technical assistance for large systems like California Department of State Hospitals, Ohio Department of Mental Health, Crestwood Behavioral Health, etc. He also serves as Subject Matter Expert for SAMHSA’s Transformation Transfer Initiative. He served as Senior Consultant to SAMHSA’s National Center for Trauma-Informed Care and Promoting Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraints through Trauma-Informed Practices. He provides consultation, training, and technical assistance to organizations and large systems and communities in the areas of leadership, workforce development, consumer empowerment, organizational planning, and changing organizational cultures to effect systems transformation. He has expertise in working with youth and adult serving, institutional and community-based, publicly and privately –funded programs across service systems.
Contact Info: Raul.Almazar@nasmhpd.org
Mylan Barnes
Mylan Barnes is a passionate emerging leader in the District of Columbia and a proud native
Washingtonian. She currently serves as an Administrative Assistant for the Department of Behavioral Health, supporting services for transitional -age youth. She previously served as a youth development specialist at DC Doors, a drop-in center for young adults, where she connected young people to resources and supports in the community.
Mylan is also a student at the University of the District of Columbia, working towards her goals of earning a liberal arts degree and becoming a social worker.
Mylan is also an advocate for her community, focused on using her voice to heal from her past struggles,
sharing her lived experiences to advocate for change and uplifting the voices, needs, and hopes of the
community and young people she serves.
She is a guiding light for her community and roots her work in the idea that we are all divine beings walking in our truth and seeking to break generational curses one step at a time.
Contact Information: MylanBarnesoa@gmail.com
Joan Gillece, Ph.D.
Dr. Joan Gillece, Director of the Center for Innovation in Health Policy and Practice at the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, has over forty years of experience dedicated to public mental health. Working in institutions and community-based initiatives, Joan has provided direct service, leadership, training, and support as an innovator in numerous contexts. Her focus is the implementation of trauma-specific, peer-led, strength-based support across systems through a social justice lens.
Joan and colleagues developed the nationally-used TAMAR program while at the Maryland Department of Behavioral Health and funded by SAMHSA, which is internationally used through faith communities.
Contact Info: Joan.Gillece@nasmhpd.org
Dolores Jimerson
Dolores Jimerson (Seneca, bear clan) lives on the Olympic Peninsula and is licensed in both WY and OR as a clinical social worker (LCSW), She is certified by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) as an acu-detox specialist (ADS.) She also trains others in using the NADA protocol. She is an advocate of "nothing about us without us" and the importance of growing our own to bring healing to tribal communities.
Her passion for behavioral health comes from witnessing the impact of boarding schools and trauma on her own family. Her 33-year career includes national service NICWA, working directly with the Quileute, Northern Arapaho, Eastern Shoshone, and CTUIR; and now leading BH workforce development at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB). Her clinical services always make room for spirit and the use of Indigenous healing ways.
Contact Information: dolojaye@gmail.com
Randy Killings
Randy Killings was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, and is the Director of Peer Services at Rainbow Heights a psychosocial club that provides advocacy and support to LGBT-identified mental health consumers. At the age of 8, he was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.
The combination of Randy’s mental health disorder and the trauma he experienced led him to use drugs and alcohol, which, unfortunately, brought him down a road of criminal activity, and he was sent to prison many times. His last arrest garnered him ten years in a New York State prison facility. Randy swore that when he was released from prison, things would be different. He got clean and sober while in prison and now has almost 17 years of sobriety. Today, he is flourishing and understands that he will never be recovered; he will always be recovering. He embraces life today, and that makes all the difference in the world to him.
Contact Information: randykillings@yahoo.com