Keynote Speaker

Dr. Regalena "Reggie" Melrose is a clinical and school psychologist as well as author of the ground-breaking books, You Can Heal Your Child and Why Students Underachieve. She is a

sought-after international speaker and consultant specializing in the application of current neuroscience to educational practice and parenting. Dr. Melrose maintains a successful private practice in Long Beach, CA as a stress and trauma-healing specialist for children, adolescents and adults.

Workshop Presenters

Barbara E. Berger, MS, is a health and nutrition specialist with Las Cruces Public Schools (LCPS) in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  She is currently a member of the American Dietetic Association as well as the New Mexico Dietetic Association (NMDA).  Ms. Berger was the 1991 recipient of the Young Dietitian of the Year Award from the NMDA.  In addition to being a health and nutrition specialist, Ms. Berger is the coordinator for both the School Health Advisory Council and the District Nutrition Advisory Council with LCPS.  Ms. Berger holds a bachelor of science in dietetics from State University College at Oneonta and a master of science in public health nutrition from the University of Tennessee. 

Dr. William Blair is an assistant director in the School and Family Support Bureau of the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED) in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Dr. Blair received a PhD in education from the University of New Mexico in 1980.  After 20 years of employment at the post-secondary level, Dr. Blair joined PED and has completed 31 years in the agency.  He has served in a variety of capacities in instruction, accreditation, assessment, accountability and coordinated school health.  He is currently the PED lead for the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey Initiative.  Dr. Blair has held leadership positions at the state and national levels and has presented at numerous events.

Dominic Cappello works as a safety promotion specialist, instructional designer and learning management system developer for the New Mexico Department of Health, Office of Injury Prevention. He developed the youth injury, violence and substance abuse initiative called the Resiliency Corps in 2009 in Valencia County and co-teaches the UNM Valencia course Youth Safety, Health and Resiliency. He is also the author of Ten Talks Parents Must Have With Their Children About Violence, and co-author (with Pepper Schwartz, PhD) of the New York Times bestselling Ten Talks Parents Must Have With Their Children About Sex and Character, and (with Xenia Becher, MSW) Ten Talks About Drugs and Choices. Dominic’s work in youth safety received national attention when Oprah built an entire show about his Ten Talks book series. He has also discussed family health and safety on The Today Show, CNN, NBC News and ABC News and has conducted more than 100 training institutes around the nation on youth safety for the National Education Association - Health Information Network. He resides in his live-work studio on historic Canyon Road in Santa Fe.

Nancy J. Cathey, MS, is the Nutrition Services Director for Las Cruces Public Schools (LCPS) in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  She has a bachelor of science in commercial food management and dietetics from New Mexico State University and a master of science in administrative dietetics from Oklahoma State University.  Ms. Cathey is a current member of the American School Food Service Association Student Nutrition Association, School Health Advisory Council (LCPS), District Nutrition Advisory Council (LCPS), nutrition chair for the New Mexico SNA and is a Navy representative for the Military Officers Association. 

Nick J. Costales is the supervisor of the South East Unit of the Juvenile Probation Department in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Mr. Costales has a bachelor of arts in criminal justice from the University of New Mexico.  He has worked in Juvenile Probation Department for the past seven years and has worked in the area of gangs for the past 13 years.  Prior to his current position he worked in the adult probation division for 12 years.  Mr. Costales is the former chairman of the New Mexico Gang Task Force as well as a former executive board member for the New Mexico Gang Task Force.

Nikita M. Correa is a trainer for Answer's Sexuality Education Training Initiative. She provides sexuality education training for teachers and professionals nationwide. Ms. Correa has been a sexual health advocate for Rutgers University, where she provided outreach education for college students to prevent sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy. Prior to joining Answer, Ms. Correa was a community health educator for Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey, providing medically accurate reproductive health education to schools, community-based and faith-based organizations. She was also faculty advisor and coordinator for HiTOPS Teen Council in Princeton. A graduate of Douglass College at Rutgers University, she holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology.

Daniel R. DePaula, MS, has been with the New Mexico Public Education Department for the last 5 years. He currently serves as the coordinator for the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Grant pertaining to afterschool programs.  He is a member of the New Mexico Afterschool Alliance Leadership Council. In addition, he holds multiple certifications from the New Mexico Department of Health qualifying him to work with the Developmental Disabilities Waiver Program. Mr. DePaula graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor’s of science in elementary education and a master’s of science in sports administration /physical education. His previous employment has included experiences in human resources, finance, management, analytical work (programmatic), customer service and operational management.

Kristine Perry Gracey has been a health educator for 29 years.  She has been recognized numerous times for her innovations in health education and has been nominated for the Crystal Apple Award, the Golden Apple Award and Disney’s American Teacher’s Award.  She was recently selected for the National Honor Roll for Outstanding Teachers.  In 2006, she was named as the Claes Nobel Educator of Distinction by the National Society of High School Scholars.  Highly respected by her students, she has been included in Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers numerous times.  Ms. Gracey has her bachelor’s degree in education from Central Michigan University and her master’s degree in health education from the University of New Mexico.  She currently teaches health education at La Cueva High School.

Dan Green received a master of public health degree from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center at Houston, with an emphasis in epidemiology, survey methodology, and the use of geographic information systems in public health. From 1999 until 2002, he was the director of the Center for Border Health Research (CBHR) in El Paso, Texas. While with the CBHR, he was responsible for implementing a Youth Risk Behavior Survey in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. His current position is with the Epidemiology and Response Division, New Mexico Department of Health, where his duties include implementation and analysis of the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey, a survey of risk behaviors and protective factors among New Mexico high school and middle school students.

Jasmin Hendrickson is currently a health educator with the New Mexico Public Education Department, Student Nutrition Bureau.  Ms. Hendrickson serves as the coordinator for Team Nutrition, Breakfast After the Bell and the Administrative Review and Training Project grant as well as monitoring School Food Authorities in the National School Lunch Program.  She graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s of science in gender studies and sociology.  Previous experiences include curriculum development, peer education training and positive youth development.

Lisa Henry began her teaching career in 1975 at Cibola High School.  She has taught biology, health and Future Farmers of America.  Mrs. Henry is currently a health teacher at Eldorado High School.  She has been at Eldorado since 1992 after taking a 13 year hiatus to raise her children.  Mrs. Henry has assisted in writing benchmarks for health and has been an attendee of the School Health Educator Institute for many years

Dr. Judith W. Herrman has a passion for adolescents, nursing education and creative teaching strategies across the lifespan. She has experience in pediatric staff nursing, nursing management and nursing education all of which have provided contexts for her current practice as a nurse educator, nurse researcher and national speaker. Dr. Herrman is actively involved in research related to adolescent brain development, sexuality, interpersonal violence prevention and teaching strategies focusing on age-related learning.  She is currently the chair of the Delaware State Teen Pregnancy Prevention Advisory Board, a member of the Senate Appointed Teen Dating Violence Task force, and is the chair of the Delaware Girls Initiative, an advocacy group dedicated to the needs of girls at risk in the State. 

Carol Hilderbrandt has been the program director for the Street Outreach Program in Santa Fe, New Mexico since May 2010.  The Street Outreach Program provides services to homeless and runaway youth in Northern New Mexico up to the age of 22. She oversees a day service drop-in center where youth can come in and take showers, do laundry and have something to eat.  Ms. Hilderbrandt received her bachelor of science in education from Southern Illinois University and is working on her master’s level course work to become a licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselor. She strives to increase public awareness around the youth homeless population and to help understanding as to why young people are on the streets and often times choose homelessness. 

Dean Hopper is the assistant director of the School and Family Support Bureau and has worked in various capacities within the New Mexico Public Education Department (NMPED) for 15 years.  Prior to working at NMPED, Mr. Hopper worked for the New Mexico Department of Health and was both a middle school and high school instructor.  Mr. Hopper has received national recognition from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the expansion of HIV education programs in New Mexico.  When not working at a frenzied pace, he sits at home and stares at his dog.

Jenn Jevertson, MS, is a program manager at the Santa Fe Mountain Center.  She has over thirteen years’ experience providing experiential programs to treatment, adjudicated, at-risk and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth, and has developed anti-bullying curriculum and programs for elementary through high school students. Ms. Jevertson is well versed in issues of diversity, oppression, gender identity and sexual orientation. She has presented at local, national, and international conferences as well as been contracted to provide multiple school-wide and district-wide staff trainings.

Tracy Longwill, MA, currently works with Albuquerque Public Schools as the safety resource counselor.  Ms. Longwill has been involved with education for over 30 years as a teacher, counselor and parent.  Bullying prevention and creating a safe, respectful school culture has been her major focus during her ten years as a school counselor for Albuquerque Public Schools.  As the safety resource counselor, she has implemented initiatives to inform parents, school staff and students on strategies for preventing and dealing with bullying situations, as well as empowering the bystander population and community members to be proactive in making our school campuses safe and respectful.  Ms. Longwill earned her bachelor’s of science in education from Miami University of Ohio and her master’s of arts in counseling and educational psychology from New Mexico State University.

Master Sergeant (MSGT) Raymond Martinez is employed by the New Mexico National Guard Counter Drug Task Force and enlisted with the New Mexico Air National Guard. His experience includes overseeing the day to day execution of drug testing, prevention, treatment and outreach for the NM National Guard Joint Substance Abuse Program for both Army and Air. During this time he was able to partner with Behavior Health Services Division and resource benefits for returning soldiers and airmen along with their families. He is currently in charge of the coalition development with the Civil Operations Section of the NM Counter Drug Task Force. MSGT Martinez is decorated with 15 medals from the United States Air Force and is working towards his degree with the community college of the Air Force. 

Kari Meredith is the teen dating violence project coordinator with the Office of the New Mexico Attorney General. Prior to this position, she was part of the legal team that secured the first two human trafficking indictments in New Mexico. She currently sits on the Intimate Partner Death Review Team, which reviews facts and circumstances surrounding intimate partner and sexual violence related deaths in New Mexico and leads a statewide program, which offers training and technical assistance to law enforcement, social service providers, school staff and students about issues surrounding teen dating violence.

Ron Meurer was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and grew up in Corrales, New Mexico.  He graduated from the first graduating class of Cibola High School in 1976.  Mr. Meurer went on to study at the University of New Mexico from 1976 - 1980 for his undergraduate degree and later returned in 1981 to work towards his masters in health education.  He has been a health teacher at West Mesa High School (WMHS) since 1980 and was the athletic trainer at WMHS from 1980 - 2001.  Mr. Meurer was elected the health education department chair and has served in that capacity since 1988.  He loves teaching health and looks forward to each day at work, but retirement from teaching is in the not too distant future.

Dr. Emily Moore has maintained a private clinical practice in Albuquerque since 1981, specializing in adolescent and family issues. She has over 30 years' experience in working with youth in various venues including several juvenile-justice programs, forensic psychological evaluations, and individual and family therapy. She is also a licensed school psychologist consulting with the Albuquerque Public Schools Behavior Intervention Program. Since 2003, Dr. Moore has presented programs in relational aggression, cyber-bullying, self-image and media literacy and social empowerment for students, parents and educators at public, independent and charter schools around New Mexico.

Laurie A. Mueller currently serves as the 21^st Century Community Learning Center State Coordinator for the New Mexico Public Education Department (PED). Ms. Mueller has held several positions at the department including: school health policy coordinator, ad hoc grant writer and as the National Professional Development coordinator for the Centers for Disease Control / Division of Adolescent and School Health via a cooperative agreement with PED. Her expertise includes program planning, management and evaluation that leads to quality school programming. In addition she has experience in planning, developing, implementing and evaluating professional development events for a wide variety of audiences.   For over 26 years, Ms. Mueller worked in the New Mexico Department of Health (DOH) providing and overseeing various school health programs, including school dental sealant programs and the school-based health centers. Before retiring in 2005, Ms. Mueller was the director for the Office of School Health, DOH.

JoAnne Owens-Nauslar, Ed.D; FASHA, FNAS, LBWA has spent forty-two years promoting the benefits of healthy active living and is considered one of the nation’s most vocal personalities and masterful motivators on issues of physical activity and how we can improve our health and academic outcomes.  She self-describes herself as a Wyoming woman. She has been described as Past President of almost everything including the National Association for Sport and Physical Education; the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, & Dance; Nebraska AAHPERD; Central District AAHPERD; the Society of State Directors of Healthy and Physical Education; and the Husker Athletic Fund. Dr. Jo believes we must “move to improve!”

Linda Peñaloza, PhD is a research associate professor at the University of New Mexico’s Division of Prevention & Population Sciences. She received her doctorate degree in mass communication from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has a bachelor of arts and master of arts in sociology. Dr. Peñaloza is currently principal investigator on several important research and evaluation projects in New Mexico, including coordinating the data collection, data analysis, and reporting for the New Mexico Youth Risk and Resiliency Survey (NM-YRRS) among middle schools and high schools in all of New Mexico’s 89 school districts, plus selected Bureau of Indian Education schools and state-sponsored charter schools.

Javier Ríos is currently the health services program manager at the Santa Fe Mountain Center. He manager the SFMC Harm Reduction Program as well as two non-traditional HIV prevention programs, Adventure OUT in Tesuque and N'MPower in Albuquerque.

He was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico and earned his master of arts in Spanish: Hispanic Southwest Studies History and Literature from the University of New Mexico. Mr. Ríos has been working in the field of HIV prevention and education with teenagers and young adults for almost seven years. Before that he taught Spanich as a Heritage Language at UNM in the Spanish and Portugese Department. He is currently a part of the Central New Mexico Community College's Alternative Teaching Licensure Program to teach in Albuquerque Public Schools.

Sara Robbins, RD graduated from the University of New Mexico with a bachelor of science in nutrition and completed her dietetic internship at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon.  She spent several years working in inpatient acute care and five years with the New Mexico Department of Health WIC program.  Ms. Robbins currently works for Dairy MAX, Inc. as a program coordinator for New Mexico educating New Mexicans on the benefits of dairy foods.  She was the recipient of the 2008 New Mexico Outstanding Young Dietitian of the Year, is a member of the Society of Nutrition Education and American Dietetic Association and served on the New Mexico Dietetic Association Board for seven years.

Theresa “Jinky” Romero is the culinary arts specialist for Team Nutrition, serving as a consultant to the New Mexico Student Nutrition Bureau.  As the culinary arts specialist she is responsible for assisting in the implementation of a 2011 - 2013 USDA Training Grant awarded to New Mexico Student Nutrition Bureau. Mrs. Romero is committed to developing hands-on programs to train school food service staff in preparing meals that adhere to the 2010 USDA Dietary Guidelines and ensure healthy, nutritious and appealing meals for students in all New Mexico schools.  She is a retired Family and Consumer Science educator and has 25 years of teaching experience as well as ten years as a County Extension Home Economist.  She is a native New Mexican and received a bachelor of science in family and consumer science from New Mexico State University and a master of education from Colorado State University.

Sergeant First Class (SFC) Wilbert Romero is employed by the New Mexico National Guard Counter Drug Task Force and enlisted with the New Mexico Army National Guard. He has worked as a mentorship coordinator in over six middle schools across the state and two high schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. SFC Romero implemented the Civil Air Patrol curriculum and helped start up the Junior Army Guard program.  SFC Romero is currently the Stay on Track anti-drug curriculum coordinator, civil operations noncommissioned officer in charge of coordinators throughout the state and civil operations coalition coordinator. He has served overseas in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and is a member of the 1116^th Transportation Company. Presently he serves as a platoon sergeant in Española, New Mexico. SFC Romero received his degree in liberal studies from Central New Mexico Community College.

Alena Schaim is the executive director and an instructor with IMPACT Personal Safety, a nonprofit providing seminars and experiential classes on violence prevention.  She has worked on issues of gender and violence for a decade, including work with Esperanza Shelter for Battered Families in Santa Fe. In addition to teaching IMPACT classes, Ms. Schaim enjoys public speaking about how pop culture and systems of oppression interact with individuals’ personal safety choices, and the interaction between different cultures’ approaches to safety and larger social goals. Ms. Schaim is a member of the Coordinated Community Response Council in Santa Fe and her speaking engagements include the New Mexico Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women and the New Mexico Conference on Aging.

Chris Schueler has created over 100 television programs in the past 20 years that have garnered 19 Emmy® Awards and have been broadcast worldwide.   Focusing on educational and social issues, Mr. Schueler produces youth programming, cultural and social documentaries and family series television all geared to create “Television to Touch the Heart.”  His clients have ranged from the United Nations to the PBS network to the CBS Network Foundation.  His documentaries have raised public awareness and also impacted public policy nationally and internationally.  The National Broadcast Association for Community Affairs has named Chris Schueler national “Innovator of the Year.” Additionally, Mr. Schueler is the executive director of SafeTeen New Mexico which was recently named one of the six best community outreach programs in the United States at a ceremony in Washington DC. 

Brooke Tafoya currently serves as the coordinator for the Safe Schools Healthy Students for Albuquerque Public Schools.  Ms. Tafoya has over ten years of experience working with youth in various capacities around the country.  Most recently, she was a state-wide trainer on youth violence prevention with a special focus on bullying and cyber bullying prevention.  She also coordinated a state-wide Youth Violence Prevention Advisory Board in Illinois.  She has also developed and implemented a career education program for high-risk and gang involved youth in St. Louis, Missouri and managed a community center in Orlando, Florida.  Ms. Tafoya has worked in residential treatment facilities for physically or sexually abused youth and supervised Transitional Living Programs for youth ages 17-19 in Chicago, Illinois.  Ms. Tafoya received a bachelor’s of arts in sociology from Principia College and a master’s of social work from Washington University in Saint Louis.  All of Ms. Tafoya’s work is focused on creating and integrating social change in the lives of youth.  The field of violence prevention is both her professional and personal passion.

Beth Williams-Breault is a family studies doctoral student at the University of New Mexico (UNM), whose focus is in teen pregnancy prevention.  She taught fifth grade at an Albuquerque Public School’s charter school for four years before becoming a full-time doctoral student and mother.  Along with her coursework, she has taught an undergraduate class at UNM titled Growth and Development in Middle Childhood.  Her bachelor’s of arts is in elementary education from Wheelock College in Boston, Massachusetts where she conducted practicums each semester in Boston and Cambridge public schools.  Her master’s of arts is from UNM’s Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education.  She is currently carrying out an internship with New Mexico Public Education Department’s School and Family Support Bureau.