Team
Meet the BrainWise Team
Founder
Dr. Barry is the developer of the BrainWise Program and founder of the BrainWise nonprofit organization. Her background as a public health, psychiatric, and school nurse exposed her to the lasting effects of poor decision making, and the need to teach thinking skills to the underserved, as well as to the general population. She has conducted marketing research studies for Fortune 500 companies, taught research to nursing students as an adjunct professor, and been the principal investigator or co-investigator, of more than 50 research studies on topics ranging from marketing issues to domestic violence. Since 2007, her research efforts have focused on the behavioral outcomes of BrainWise graduates. She has worked with independent evaluators, government researchers, and university professors whose results have been published and presented at national and global conferences. The findings have consistently found that BrainWise graduates show significant improvement controlling emotions, inhibiting impulses, and coping with problems. BrainWise is taught in schools, youth organizations, church groups, businesses, jails, homeless shelters, mental health services, and health agencies throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, China, India, Taiwan, and other countries. The U.S. Indian Health Services has approved BrainWise as a program that benefits Alaska Natives and American Indians.
Telecommunications Attorney, Founding Director of the BrainWise Program
Telecommunications Attorney, Founding Director of the BrainWise Program
A Telecommunications Attorney and former State Legislator, Eberle is active in the community, having served as Chair of the State Board of Equalization, Head of Colorado’s Task Force on Homeless Youth, and as a member of the Colorado Council on the Arts. Eberle also served on the Civic Ventures Board of the Downtown Denver Partnership and is the immediate past Chair of the Denver County Cultural Council. Mr. Eberle is a Founding Director of the BrainWise Program and has served on the Board since 1995.
Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Worldwide Partners Inc.
Former President and Chief Executive Officer of Worldwide Partners Inc.
Patricia Fiske brings her experience as President and Chief Executive Officer of Worldwide Partners Inc., global network of entrepreneurial marketing communications firms, to the BrainWise board. She is a past President of Denver Mile High Rotary and her Rotary activities include serving as the past Assistant Governor of District 5450, the Coordinator of Zone 25 Literary Resource Group, the head of a GSE team to China, a Board member of Rocky Mountain Youth Leadership Award (RYLA), and the Chairman of Young RYLA. She was named District 5450�s Rotarian of the Year. She also organized and staffed a health fair in China. In her involvement with BrainWise she has worked as a course instructor with elementary school students, teen mothers, other at-risk teens, and low-income parents and has been a BrainWise mentor and supporter of numerous BrainWise projects. She has been a Board member since 2010.
School Based Mental Health Specialist and Prevention Coordinator
School Based Mental Health Specialist and Prevention Coordinator
The newest member of the BrainWise board, Sarah graduated from Texas A&M with a specialization in reading and health and received a Masters in school counseling from the University of St. Thomas. As an elementary school teacher with a gifted and talented endorsement, Sarah move to the Denver area where she received a professional teaching license and special services provider/school counselor license in Colorado. As a Teacher, School Counselor, School Based Mental Health Specialist and Prevention Coordinator, she has had the opportunity to lead various educational programs, events and initiatives. She encountered BrainWise at the Jefferson Center for Mental Health, where she was in charge of all aspects of the prevention program, including training school staff, training and supervising prevention specialists, curriculum selection, alignment and implementation and data collection and evaluation. With a particular interest in social emotional learning, positive youth development and meeting the behavioral health needs of students, she has presented on topics such as impulsivity in school aged children, the teenage brain, creating a trauma informed classroom, anxiety in teens, stress, mindfulness in the classroom, as well as the BrainWise program. She is also a national trainer for Youth Mental Health First Aid and has experience in training hundreds of government employees and other community members in the program.
Co-founder and Principal of Dispute Management, Inc.
Co-founder and Principal of Dispute Management, Inc.
Dan is a co-founder and has been a principal of Dispute Management, Inc. since 1990. He received a J.D. from the University of Denver College Of Law in 1976. Dan has practiced law in Colorado since 1976 with an emphasis on litigation and business matters. He received training in negotiation, mediation and arbitration from Harvard Law School in 1990 and advanced negotiation training from Harvard Law School in 2004. Dan is on the arbitration panel and mediation panel of the National Association of Securities Dealers and has served on the mediation and arbitration panels of the AAA. He is past chair of the Colorado Bar Association ADR Committee and has served as the co-chair of the Denver Bar Association ADR Committee. He has also served on the Colorado Bar Association Board of Governors. Dan has an undergraduate degree in chemistry. He served with the U.S. Army Special Forces and was an officer in the Army Corps of Engineers.
Regional Account Manager at Ping Identity
Regional Account Manager at Ping Identity
Doug is a Regional Account Manager at Ping Identity, a software company established in 2002 providing federated identity management and self-hosted identity access management solutions for online entities. Doug was a Senior Executive at ServiceNow, a Cloud-Enabled Service Management organization. He was a former Enterprise Account Manager at Blackboard, which provides education, mobile, communication, and commerce software and related services to clients including education providers, corporations and government organizations. Previously he was a Senior Account Executive for eCollege, where he was responsible for managing the educational partners for K12- including product development, marketing, sales, service and future development. He has more than 15 years of sales and sales management with companies such as Raindance Communications, OraLabs Inc. and his own international distribution company Bridgeway® International LLC. Mr. Kinney is also an advisor to eSciencelabs.com and has been a volunteer for Junior Achievement, Big Brother, Whiz Kids, Denver Sports Commission and Mile High Ministries.
Former Foundation President and Health System CEO
Former Foundation President and Health System CEO
Patricia Peterson has over 25 years of experience as a nurse, attorney, and foundation executive with a strong background in foundation management and fundraising. Peterson formerly served as President and CEO of the Colorado Cancer Research Program, President and CEO of the Kempe Foundation for the Treatment and Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect in Denver, as Executive Director of the Rocky Mountain Children’s Health Foundation in Denver, and as President and CEO of the Memorial Health System Foundation in Colorado Springs. She received her nursing degree from Stanford University Medical Center in California, and her law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in Maryland. She is a member of the Maryland, Delaware and Colorado Bar Associations, and has practiced law in all three states.
Master BrainWise Trainer, Counselor, HOPE Counseling Center
Master BrainWise Trainer, Counselor, HOPE Counseling Center
Matt Sena, M.A. is a master BrainWise Instructor in Fairbanks, Alaska, using the program in his work with at-risk families and adolescents. Sena was the Fatherhood Program manager for Chugachmiut Inc., in Anchorage, AK. where he taught BrainWise to adolescents and families beginning in 1998. For the last six years, he also has trained and supported Alaska Native leaders to use the 10 Wise Ways to help youth and families living in rural tribal villages make good decisions. Sena is involved with the Fatherhood and Families coalition, a consortium of agencies serving youth and young families. In addition to his teaching and counseling with Chugachmiut, he is a doctoral candidate in clinical community psychology at the University of Alaska at Anchorage, where he is completing his thesis on the use of educational technology in the delivery of the BrainWise Program.
Doctoral Candidate, BrainWise Trainer, BrainWise Board Member, Counselor, HOPE Counseling Center, Fairbanks, Alaska.
Doctoral Candidate, BrainWise Trainer, BrainWise Board Member, Counselor, HOPE Counseling Center, Fairbanks, Alaska.
Matt Sena was instrumental in introducing the BrainWise Program to Alaska natives. He began this work with the Chugachmiut on the Kenai Peninsula, and has since been active in training native populations in both Alaska and in Canada. In addition to his teaching and counseling with Chugachmiut, he is a doctoral candidate in clinical community psychology at the University of Alaska at Anchorage, where he is completing his thesis on the use of educational technology in the delivery of the BrainWise Program. It was due to his efforts that BrainWise was listed on the Indian Health Service’s registry of programs approved for use with Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
Professor, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO
Professor, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO
Marilyn Welsh, PhD is a professor of education and psychology at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, and a recognized national expert on measuring the brain’s executive functions. She is co-author, with Dr. Barry, of the chapter on BrainWise in the book by D. Romer and E. Walker called “Adolescent Psychopathology and the Developing Brain: Integrating Brain and Prevention Science.” Dr. Welsh currently conducts research on outcomes of students who receive text reminders on their cell phones to “Be BrainWise.” She and her graduate students have devoted countless hours to evaluating BrainWise outcomes, and have presented papers and poster sessions at psychology conferences nationwide. Dr. Welsh continues to dedicate her time and expertise to BrainWise because, as she explains, “After more than 25 years of conducting research on executive functions, I was so impressed when I read Dr. Gorman Barry’s BrainWise curriculum. Here was a program that took the theoretical concepts of executive processes and put them into a language that everyone can understand, relate to, and use in their daily lives. From the youngest child who invariably has difficulty controlling emotions and planning ahead, to the at-risk teenager, who may be lacking the role models and practice needed to optimize these skills, BrainWise empowers them to engage their ‘Wizard Brain’ to more effectively deal with problems that confront them in our increasingly complex world.”
RN, Director, Nursing Research, Cook Children’s Medical Center, Fort Worth, Texas
RN, Director, Nursing Research, Cook Children’s Medical Center, Fort Worth, Texas
Mary Cazzell, a professor for the School of Nursing at the University of Texas at Arlington, joined the BrainWise team in 2009. With her nursing background and expertise in neurobiology and adolescent risk behavior, Dr. Cazzell adds a cutting-edge evaluation component to BrainWise Program research projects. According to Cazzell, “I am a BrainWise advocate because BrainWise addresses the neurobiological basis of decision making and that has been the focus of my research on adolescents. BrainWise offers 10 excellent modules that incrementally teach how to make better decisions, which will result in less impulsivity, better emotional regulation, better working memory for difficult situations, and increased ability to inhibit unhealthy responses.” Cazzell’s expertise regarding neuroscience research on the brain’s plasticity will help the team better measure the impact of behavioral interventions on specific targets and processes. Her contributions to federal grant applications have increased funding opportunities to evaluate and expand BrainWise.
DNP, RN, BrainWise Trainer, BrainWise Board Member
DNP, RN, BrainWise Trainer, BrainWise Board Member
Persing is collecting pre- and post data, and helps write grants for the program. She promotes BrainWise in many ways, including nominating Dr. Barry for Jefferson County Public Health’s 2009 Public Health Champion of the Year award. According to Persing, “BrainWise has enabled our Human Services clients to have both the belief and the skills they need to overcome the patterns of family functioning and environmental factors that led them to involvement with Human Services.” As the primary nursing intervention, BrainWise gives nurses tools to teach clients skills that will help them make better choices and decisions. Persing says the program “allows nurses to address multiple problems with clients of all ages simultaneously and provides a common language.” She notes that, “Clients readily relate to the curriculum’s lessons on the brain and appreciate its non-judgmental approach to help them overcome barriers to being self-sufficient.”
Doctoral Candidate, University of Northern Colorado
Doctoral Candidate, University of Northern Colorado
BrainWise Trainer, Director, Colorado Parenting Matters
BrainWise Trainer, Director, Colorado Parenting Matters