Tribal Youth - Training and Technical Assistance Center

Stephanie Autumn - Project Director

Stephanie Autumn has 25 years of experience in grant administration for urban and reservation American Indian tribes and community agencies in the areas of social services; housing and homelessness; criminal justice; and culturally-based education projects integrated within public and alternative schools. She has extensive experience working with school administrators, social workers and teachers to implement prevention programs that target truancy and educational neglect, violence prevention, substance abuse and culturally-based education strategies and services for American Indian students. For the past ten years, Autumn's professional work has concentrated on violence reduction/crime prevention and restorative justice strategies in rural and reservation communities. She has worked to create partnerships between court services, legislators, public defense, law enforcement, schools, and community based agencies and has testified before legislative committees and sub-committees on effective culturally-based services for incarcerated American Indian youth and adults in Minnesota and South Dakota. Ms. Autumn holds a B.S. in Elementary Education and is currently working on a Masters degree in Public Policy.

Deborah Haber - Senior Expert in Design & Management of T/TA Centers

Deb Haber has extensive experience in managing national technical assistance centers, designing training programs for practitioners to implement evidence-based programs, and developing creative training seminars and materials on issues of health, mental health, and violence prevention for youth. Ms. Haber brings 10 years of experience leading a major national training and technical assistance center, The National Training Partnership (NTP), for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As NTP director, she designed and delivered technical assistance (TA) services to every state department of education in the country and 18 of the largest urban districts. Services aimed to strengthen the capacity of school and community-based agencies to implement CDC's “Programs that Work”, one of the first initiatives to translate research into practice. As director of curriculum development and training and TA for the Reach for Health project, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Ms. Haber worked with multiple stakeholders to adapt and implement a research-based health risk behavior curriculum to meet the needs of 3,600 students in three Brooklyn middle schools. Ms. Haber has provided training and TA to local school communities, state agencies, and national organizations. Ms. Haber worked with Dr. Ron Slaby to train school, community, and law enforcement practitioners to adapt Aggressors, Victims, and Bystanders, EDC's nationally recognized violence prevention curriculum, for use in their communities. Ms. Haber holds a masters of education in health from Boston University.

Rebecca Osburne-Rothstein - Research Assistant

Rebecca Osburne-Rothstein is responsible for providing research and writing support to the Center's SS/HS and TYP technical assistance teams. She assists in identifying resource information, researching new topic areas, product development, and event coordination. Previously, Rebecca worked at the National Center on Family Homeless, where she was involved in a mental health and nutrition program for homeless children. She received her Bachelor's degree in Politics and American Studies from Brandeis University, where she wrote a thesis comparing Tribal sovereignty rights in the United States with those in Canada and New Zealand. Rebecca has been involved with political campaigns and volunteer work with children.

Erin Tackney - Research and Technology Assistant

Erin Tackney currently provides technology support for both the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention as well as the Tribal Youth Program Training and Technical Assistance Center. She recently redesigned the www.promoteprevent.org web site and will be designing and implementing the new TYP website. On a daily basis, Ms. Tackney manages the various technologies available to the grantees and center staff as well as provides design services to several centers at EDC. Prior to coming to EDC, Ms. Tackney worked on revenue development and events at several San Francisco Bay area museums. Ms. Tackney has a B.A. in Studio Art and B.S.C, Marketing from Santa Clara University.

Anne Wang - Associate Project Director

Anne Wang is the internal evaluator for the National Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention. She brings her experience in research design, survey development, and statistics to oversee the evaluation activities for the Center including developing center evaluations, redesigning and managing the technical assistance database, and collecting and analyzing data. Dr. Wang also serves as an Evaluation Technical Assistance Specialist for the Center, coordinating advanced evaluation TA support, developing evaluation tools, and providing advanced evaluation TA to grantees. Other evaluation projects in which she is currently involved include serving as the internal evaluator for the Technical Assistance and Training Program for Mentoring System Involved Youth, evaluating the effectiveness of the CARICOM HIV/AIDS peer education program, and evaluating the effectiveness of the St. Francis House Whole Health Care Program. She holds a B.A. in psychology and Chinese studies from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in social psychology from Harvard University.

Consulting Technical Assistance Specialists

Susan Balbas is currently an independent consultant based in Seattle, Washington, specializing in non-profit organization and community development, facilitation, and planning and fundraising, and her clients include artists, community-based, Tribal, and philanthropic organizations. Susan is a founding member of the Potlatch Fund and the co-founder of Tierra Madre Fund for Indigenous Women where she is currently Board Chair. She is the past Chief Development Officer at United Indians of All Tribes Foundation in Seattle; Development and Donor Education Coordinator at Changemakers Foundation in San Francisco, and Executive Director of the Native American Family Center in Portland, Oregon. Susan holds a Bachelors degree in Business Economics and a Masters in Teaching. She is a mother and grandmother of Yaqui (Arizona/Mexico), Cherokee (Oklahoma) and mixed European ancestry. She has held various positions in corporate and not-for-profit management, and has served on boards and committees locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Marlin Farley is from the White Earth Reservation in northwest Minnesota. He has over 27 years of experience in working in the fields of adolescent treatment of emotional/behavioral disorders, family based social work, chemical dependency, restorative justice practices, and as a trainer/consultant in the wellness field. He is the president of Black Stone Consulting. Marlin is also a film producer/director and is the principal owner of Painted Sky Productions. Marlin is a board member and trainer for White Bison Inc. and is a leader in the national Wellbriety Movement.

Jacob Flores has worked extensively with Hispanic, African American, and American Indian communities throughout the United States and Canada. He is an experienced training and technical assistance provider with a background in the fields of education, violence prevention, gang prevention, mental and behavioral health, community mobilization, strategic planning, and the provision of therapy in individual and group settings.

Mr. Flores is the founder and president of Jacob Y. Flores Training and Consulting. In this role he has designed and coordinated various national on-site adult/youth conferences; facilitated training seminars for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Departments of Justice and Education, law enforcement and community organizations on juvenile justice issues; and designed and implemented programs that meet the needs of culturally diverse communities, specifically a mentoring curricula for children of incarcerated parents in the Oglala Sioux tribe. He has recently served on the Governor's Council on Health, Physical Fitness, and Sports for the state of Arizona. Mr. Flores hold a Master's degree in Counseling Psychology from Arizona State University

Dr. Nakken is a consultant and trainer with thirty years experience as a leader, educator, author, innovator and change agent in the field of addictions treatment. As a former executive vice president of the world-renowned Hazelden Foundation, she earned an international reputation for her leadership in the addictions treatment field, particularly in the treatment of young adults and women, and for her national leadership on public policy issues. Notably, she designed and championed Hazelden's Women Healing Conference Series and the Women & Children's Recovery Community, and received ADPA's Award for Service to Women in 2000. Dr. Nakken has 17 published books and articles, and serves on the faculties of Rutgers University's Institute on Addiction Studies and Hazelden's Graduate Program in Addiction Counseling. She holds a BA degree in child and adolescent psychology from the University of Minnesota, her MA in human and health services administration, from St. Mary's College, and a doctorate in organization change from Pepperdine University.

Gabrielle Strong

Gabrielle Strong has over twenty five years of experience in the tribal, non-profit and philanthropic sectors. In January 2008, she began independent consultant work within those arenas. Gabrielle’s most recent work includes serving as the Tribal Administrator for the Lower Sioux Indian Community (2006-2007) and five years as Program Officer with the Grotto Foundation. In addition to administering tribal government programs, she also administered key foundation initiatives, including the Grotto Foundation’s Native Language Revitalization Initiative and American Indian Family Empowerment Program. Gabrielle is an enrolled tribal member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Oyate, and Minnesota Mdewakanton lineal descendent. She is an honorary Board member of Ain Dah Yung (Our Home) Center, a local shelter and human service agency for American Indian youth, where she served as executive director for sixteen years and was part of the founding community effort. Ms. Strong has a B.A. in Sociology and a minor in Education from Macalester College and a M.S. in Social Work with a Human Service Management Concentration from the University of Minnesota.

Frances Wise

Frances Wise is the Director for the En-Tre-Nah Program (English translation-The Children) and the Family Violence Prevention Program for the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. Ms. Wise is a long time advocate for the rights of women and for Indian rights. She believes that communities must be healthy in order for society to be strong. To that end, she has held positions as the Tribal Administrator for the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes, Instructor for Women's Studies and Counselor at the Guadalupe Alternative School in St. Paul, Minnesota, Case Manager/Outreach Worker for the Oklahoma City Community Action Agency's Homeless Project, Director of the Oklahoma City Native American Center's Youth Services Project and the Social Services/Public Relations Coordinator for Tie-Aum, Inc, Oklahoma City Native American Centers Legal Program. Also, she served as the Coordinator for the Rita Silk-Nauni Defense Committee, Board member for Oklahoma Indian Legal Services Inc., Member-Site Planning Committee World Council of Churches/National Council of Churches-International Ecumenical Hearings on Racism, Delegate-Presentations on Findings from International Hearings on Racism to the United Nations Human Rights Commission on Racism, Geneva Switzerland, Board Member-Oklahoma State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights and a founding member and co-chair of the Southwest Oklahoma Tribal Voters League. Her academic credentials include a Bachelor's Degree in Social Work and a Master of Human Relations degree from the University of Oklahoma.