Together With Veterans

Lisa A. Brenner, PhD
Title: Principal Investigator
Bio: Lisa A. Brenner, Ph.D., is a Board-Certified Rehabilitation Psychologist, a Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R), Psychiatry and Neurology at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. She is also Vice Chair of Research for the Department of PM&R. Dr. Brenner is a Past President of Division 22 (Rehabilitation Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA) and an APA Fellow. She serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. Her primary area of research interest is traumatic brain injury, co-morbid psychiatric disorders and negative psychiatric outcomes, including suicide. Dr. Brenner has numerous peer-reviewed publications, participates on national advisory boards and has recently co-authored a book titled: Suicide Prevention After Neurodisability: An Evidence-Informed Approach.
Email: Lisa.Brenner@va.gov

Nazanin H. Bahraini, PhD
Title: Principal Investigator
Bio: Dr. Bahraini is the Acting Director at the Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) for Suicide Prevention and Associate Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine. Her work focuses on designing and evaluating system-level strategies to improve implementation of evidence-based practices in suicide prevention. Her clinical research interests include application of acceptance and commitment therapy for suicide prevention and understanding the impact of social determinants of health on suicide risk.

Kelly Stearns-Yoder, MA
Title: Co-Investigator
Bio: Ms. Kelly Stearns-Yoder is the Laboratory and Research Program Director for the Brenner Lab (Lisa Brenner, PI) at the Rocky Mountain MIRECC and Research Instructor at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Research Psychology. Her training in research and organizational psychology is focused on the data-driven approach to organizational development. This includes the process of continuous diagnosis, action planning, implementation and evaluation, with the goal of transferring knowledge and skills to organizations to improve capacity for solving problems and managing future change. Specific areas of research include programmatic outcomes and evaluation at the patient and organizational levels.

Joanna R. Sells, PhD
Title: Project Director and Clinical Research Psychologist
Bio: Dr. Sells is a Clinical Psychologist at the VA Rocky Mountain MIRECC, an Affiliate Assistant Professor at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and a civilian graduate of Uniformed Services University. Her work across the federal government, academia and in the community has focused on producing research and leveraging health policy to support and develop equitable systems of care. Her experience in VA, Department of Defense, NIH, Office of National Drug Control Policy and University of California San Francisco and Berkeley informs her systems-focused approach. She is committed to improving access to quality health care for Veteran and military communities at increased risk for suicide including those with chronic pain and substance use conditions.

Linda Sajbel, LCSW, BCD
Title: Clinical Researcher
Bio: Linda Sajbel, LCSW, BCD has been a VA employee in Mental Health Service since 2000. She joined the Rocky Mountain MIRECC October 2022 to work on the Together with Veterans Project. She received a MSW at Smith College School for Social Work. Linda has over 27 years of clinical experience as a psychotherapist providing outpatient therapy services in the VA Mental Health Clinic, as well as in community mental health clinics. She is experienced in the delivery of multiple evidenced based therapies (treating PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, and Insomnia) and is an Approved Consultant for EMDR Therapy. Linda has extensive training and experience in providing suicide prevention services to military Veterans and has witnessed the lifesaving benefits of intervention firsthand. She is excited to partner with Together with Veterans community members towards better understanding the unique needs in their respective rural communities around adopting suicide prevention programming to address and reduce military and Veteran suicide risk.

Selena Kalapatapu Cruz, MS
Title: Program Coordinator
Bio: Ms. Cruz is the Program Coordinator for the Together with Veterans rural Veteran suicide prevention program. She received a B.A. in Human Biology with an emphasis in Applied Behavioral Science from the University of Kansas in 2017, and an M.S. in Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas in 2021. Prior to joining the Rocky Mountain MIRECC in 2022, Ms. Cruz worked in behavior management with children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and in research with individuals with acquired brain injury. Ms. Cruz has been a Certified Brain Injury Specialist since January 2020 and has experience working in nursing as a therapy aide during inpatient neurorehabilitation for individuals with brain and spinal cord injury. Her research interests consist of investigating the chronic effects of brain injury and advocacy for survivors and caregivers.
Email: Selena.KalapatapuCruz@va.gov

Molly E. Penzenik, MPH
Title: Data Analyst
Bio: Molly Penzenik, MPH has been a member of the Rocky Mountain MIRECC Data and Statistical Core since 2015. She completed an MPH in biostatistics at West Virginia University School of Public Health. She has supported program evaluations and numerous research studies focusing on mental health and suicide prevention, including traumatic brain injury, PTSD, upstream suicide prevention interventions and complementary and alternative medicine. She has extensive experience with online data collection methods.
Links: PubMed

Christin N. Miller, MPH
Title: Data Analyst
Bio: Christin Miller has worked for the Rocky Mountain MIRECC for four years as a data analyst. She studied at the University of Colorado Anschutz where she received her MPH in Epidemiology and Global Health. She has extensive experience with cleaning and analyzing large datasets, database management, data quality and data security. Specifically, she has worked with data regarding mental health and suicide in the Veteran population in a variety of settings.

Alexandra L. Schneider, MPH
Title: Data Analyst
Bio: Alexandra has extensive experience working with large healthcare administrative databases and survey research data. This has given her a unique understanding of data sources and how they can be utilized to understand and improve health outcomes. She is also a passionate advocate for ensuring adherence to best practices for data storage and security. Alexandra is excited to be part of the Together with Veterans project as the study team gathers important, novel data that can be used to help Veterans.

Dennis F. Mohatt, MA
Title: Vice President for Behavioral Health for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE)
Bio: Dennis received his undergraduate training at the University of Oregon, and received an NIMH Training Fellowship in rural mental health while at Mansfield University in Pennsylvania, where he received a Master of Arts in rural community-clinical psychology. He has been a member of the Board of Directors for the National Association for Rural Mental Health since 1987, and served as the association's President from 1992-1995. In 1996, Dennis was awarded the Victor I. Howery Award for outstanding contributions to rural mental health. His professional work has primarily focused on rural and remote issues of prevention and treatment, and integration of mental health with other systems of care (e.g., primary care, school health, military/Veteran). In his role at WICHE, he leads the mission to improve systems of behavioral health care and build a highly competent behavioral health workforce for the West by promoting innovation, cooperation, resource sharing and data driven public policy formation.

Jason Alves, MPA
Title: Director for Veterans Initiatives
Bio: Jason Alves, is the Director of Veterans Initiatives at WICHE, bringing to the Behavioral Health programs over 13 years of service to Veterans in public and community led mental health. He serves as implementation manager for the Together with Veterans rural veteran suicide prevention program, in partnership with the Rocky Mountain MIRECC. Previously, he served as president of Washington State Chapter for the Farmer Veteran Coalition, Programs Manager for the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs. Alves utilized his G.I. Bill and received his B.S. in Political Science from the University of Oregon and M.P.A. in Public Non-Profit management from The Evergreen State College.
Email: jalves@wiche.edu

Mikayla Nelson
Title: Administrative Assistant III
Bio: Mikayla Nelson believes in getting back to the basics of human connection, which drove her studies of Psychology at Western Washington University. She has over 10 years of customer support experience in various industries including manufacturing, human resources, animal care and financial services. She is thrilled to be working with Together With Veterans as an Administrative Assistant III at WICHE, as she has the opportunity each day to play an influential part in helping support unique communities.