Women's Global Recovery Roundtable
International Women's Day March 8th 2022

Dr. Dawn Nickel is a respected thought leader in the women’s recovery sphere and (along with her daughter Taryn Strong) the Founder of SHE RECOVERS Foundation, a not-for-profit grassroots organization that inspires hope, reduces stigma, and empowers women in or seeking recovery for substance use and/or mental health challenges. Dawn is a Certified Professional Recovery Coach, with a PhD and professional experience related to women and health care policy. In her work as a researcher and consultant, Dawn has focused largely on exploring how best to support women who experience substance use disorders, mental health issues and intimate partner violence, the three issues that prompted Dawn to start her own personal recovery journey in 1987.

Naetha Uren is the founder of Recovery Coach Academy (Ltd.) in the UK, specializing in CCAR Recovery Coach Academy© Training. They support the training and implementation of recovery coaching among individuals, communities and organizations.  Naetha is a Recovery Coach, trainer, facilitator, speaker and the glue to 4 generations living under one roof.  As the first CCAR Recovery Coach Professionals in the UK and CCAR facilitators, Naetha & her daughter Calliese bring a unique perspective; (professionally and personally to the people they work with.)  Recovery Coach Academy provides additional workshops, guest experts, and ongoing training and support; they have created an amazing, growing community that they support and celebrate. 

www.recoverycoachacademy.co.uk hello@recoverycoachacademy.co.uk 

Carol Cruz, she | ella, is the Director of Education and Training at Foundation for Recovery in Nevada, and identifies as a person in recovery since 1994. She is originally from Connecticut, where she received her Associates in Human Services and certification as a Peer Recovery Support Specialist. Carol has been in the field of substance use, mental health, and harm reduction,and recovery services for over 10-years, working as a peer supporter, coach, facilitator, and trainer. She is also a State Organizer with the Recovery Advocacy Project and is the RAP Inclusivity Caucus Chair, a new initiative launched at Mobilize Recovery 2020.

Jacquelyn Hunt is a caring, compassionate professional with over 18 years of experience in the Substance Abuse/Mental Health field. As a result of the day-to-day counseling services she provided, she began to notice that there were many gaps in her ability to provide resources and services in that role. It wasn’t long after that she created FOSTER. She provides culturally relevant, strength-based, and trauma-informed care. Jacquelyn knows first hand what it is like to be marginalized and in need of supportive services. Her own testimony of recovery, redemption, and restoration provides the foundation for her work and allows for just the right balance to support consumers and instill the belief in them that they too can overcome and become all that they want to be. Hunt took her program to the community where she began to provide services right there in the heart of where those who were most impacted by racial disparities dwelled.

Dr. Izquierdo is the Executive Director at Safe Project and has worked for Faces & Voices of Recovery as the Director of Advocacy and Outreach. In addition, she served as the Associate Director of Special Populations with Behavioral Health System Baltimore and as the Director of Consumer Affairs for the state of Maryland’s Behavioral Health Administration. In these leadership roles, Brandee has led advocacy efforts to expand access to behavioral health services and recovery support services while providing technical assistance both nationally and internationally, empowering others within the recovery movement. Her ability to build relationships and bridge gaps within behavioral health, community services, and criminal justice have been a catalyst for global peer expansion.

Emma Gilmour is a qualified counsellor, psychotherapist, This Naked Mind and Gray Area Drinking Coach, living in Melbourne, Australia, who created Hope is Rising. Emma worked for 20+ years in corporate marketing and ran every morning before work. A working mum fuelled by adrenalin, coffee and booze, she looked like she had it all. But on the inside, she was running on empty. As she reached her mid-forties alcohol started to take more than it was giving and so begun her long and very messy break-up with alcohol. Nothing stuck until her eldest asked her to 'stop bringing wine into their bedroom' then it finally landed for her. Emma started the process of rebuilding herself as an adult, with nurturing care. She discovered her values, stopped drinking, and had to create a whole new identity. Kicking the booze to the curb gave Emma a previously unknown level of confidence and personal power to pursue her dreams and become a qualified counsellor and coach.Still very much a work in progress, Emma is an Aussie based peri-menopausal mum of neuro and gender diverse teens. She loves stand up paddle boarding, ocean swimming and has recently purchased some gorgeous hot pink roller-skates. The focus of her coaching work is women in midlife curious as to what could open up for them and their families if they took a break from or stopped drinking.

Kristen Harper has been practicing abstinence-based recovery since March of 2001 and is grateful for her experiences with multiple pathways of recovery during the past 20 years. As the Founding Director for the Center for Addiction Recovery at Georgia Southern University’s JPH College of Public Health, Kristen connected deeply with her role of building recovery support services for communities, especially for young people. In 2011, Kristen joined Texas Tech University’s Collegiate Recovery Community team as a Research Associate in the College of Human Sciences, where she focused most of her work on supporting the Collegiate Recovery Community Replication project, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and the Department of Education. In 2013, Kristen joined the Association of Recovery Schools as the first full-time Executive Director to help amplify the creation of and sustainability of recovery high schools in the U.S. and Canada. During her time with ARS, she and the board of directors launched the recovery high school accreditation program, which has guided the development of new schools over the past 5 years. In 2016, Kristen became Executive Director for the Recovery Communities of North Carolina, a statewide recovery community organization which co-managed the Access to Recovery grant in collaboration with the State of North Carolina’s Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services. She has a B.A. in Interpersonal Communications and an M.Ed. in Collaborative Education from Mercer University. She is looking forward to being a part of the fall 2021 Innovation to Impact cohort at Yale University where she hopes to incorporate the importance of lived experience through technology and innovation when impacting drug policy. Her greatest joy in life, however, is being a wife and mother to her 3-year old daughter and 5-month old son!

Jessica Geschke is the Outreach Program Manager for Serve You Rx. She leads various projects that aim to bring awareness to substance use disorder and end the stigma surrounding it. Jessica is certified by the State of Wisconsin as a Clinical Substance Abuse Counselor. She is also certified by CCAR as a Recovery Coach.  She received a Bachelor’s of Science in Human Services from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and an Associate’s Degree in AODA from Moraine Park Technical College. Her areas of focus are assessment and treatment of substance abuse in adolescents and adults. Jessica has over fifteen years of experience providing AODA treatment services to adolescents and adults in residential, transitional, inpatient and outpatient settings. She has spent over ten years working within and supervising medication assisted therapy programs, such as Suboxone and Vivitrol. She is a Wisconsin representative of the national organizations, Mobilize Recovery and Recovery Advocacy Project, with The Voices Project. Jessica volunteers her time by holding positions as the Governor’s representative on the State Council on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse as well as an Intervention & Treatment Committee member and an Equity & Inclusion member for SCAODA. 

Grazi Santoro has been sober for more than 13 years. She is the survivor of alcoholism and many types of violence. 2 years ago, she decided to come out of anonymity and go to social media. She founded the Female Alcoholism Association, the biggest Brazilian community only for sober women or those that want to stop drinking, where she is president. In April of 2021, she gave a testimony to Época, one of the most important Brazilian magazines. She is a mother and grandmother and has a publicity degree. Instagram: @grazisantoro / @alcoolismo_feminino

Luciana Lage has been sober for more than 7 years. Telling your story from the beginning of your sobriety search. In September of 2016, she gave an interview on Altas Horas, a television show of Rede Globo, a major TV station in Brazil. After, she gained visibility, was invited to lecture in schools and companies and developed a volunteer project called "Prevention by Experience", where she talks about her personal experience with addiction. Currently, she is studying Pedagogy and participating in a scientific initiation project under the guidance of a researcher in the topic of Women in Museum Education. Member and volunteer of the Female Alcoholism Association. Instagram: @lucobertura/ @alcoolismo_feminino

Honesty Liller is a woman in long-term recovery from a Substance Use Disorder since May 27, 2007 and a Certified Peer Recovery Specialist in VA. She is the Chief Executive Officer of The McShin Foundation, a non-profit authentic peer-to-peer Recovery Community Organization (RCO), that serves individuals and families with Substance Use Disorders.  She is the recipient of the Vernon Johnson Award given by Faces and Voices of Recovery in 2015.  Honesty was also featured on “Face The Nation”, FOX News, and PBS discussing addiction & recovery in America.  In addition, she completed Stanford University’s Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders.  In 2019 she was honored with the Jean C. Harris Community Service Board Award from Hanover County. WRIC – Channel 8 News did a feature about Honesty for the “Richmond’s Remarkable Women” special in 2020.  She has been a field reviewer for SAMHSA, Faces & Voices of Recovery, and CAPRSS.  As a female entrepreneur she co-founded CARE Talks, LLC.  Honesty is able to be a voice for those with addiction and their families through countless news articles, magazine stories, and TV interviews.  To spend time with her husband, two children, and her two dogs is a gift that keeps giving! She is also the author of "Scattered Pink - A Diary Of A Woman In Recovery."

Taryn Strong is a founder of SHE RECOVERS® Foundation - a nonprofit that connects, supports and empowers women of all ages(recovering in all areas of their lives) through its virtual platforms and in-person community networks. In her healing journey, Taryn chose a more varied and embodied approach to recovery and embraced yoga as her initial healing pathway. Over the years, she has developed a recovery practice steeped in ritual, ceremony, and healing modalities born of the earth, including plant allies and medicines. As a herbalist, trauma-informed yoga instructor, certified professional recovery coach who proudly calls herself a witch, Taryn now works as a women’s empowerment mentor and offers provocative programs related to seasonal and moon cycles,  and healing from the trauma of money. Operating from a trauma-informed lens and a firm believer in anti-oppressive practices, Taryn brings an empathic and invitational approach to healing - empowering women to find and follow individualized pathways and patchworks of recovery. Taryn's courageous vulnerability and passion for recovering out-loud has made her an influential voice in the global recovery movement - smashing the stigma often associated with substance use and mental health issues. Taryn creates and lives with her beloved and two dogs within the ancestral and unceded traditional territory of the Hul’qumi’num and SENĆOŦEN speaking peoples (Saltspring Island).