Dan holds a PhD in psychology, an MFA in writing, and graduated from the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program from the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. He is an assistant instructor for Martin Seligman in the MAPP program and recently co-published an article on the use of stories to promote positive interventions with James Pawelski, Director of Education and Senior Scholar at the Positive Psychology Center.

He writes for Psychology Today as an expert on group therapy and authors the daily column, Ask the Therapist, for PsychCentral.com as well as their Proof Positive blog on practical applications of positive psychology. Recently honored by Sharecare as one of the top ten online influencers on the topic of depression he is also the creator of Interactive-Behavioral Therapy and the Dare to be Happy experiential workshops at Kripalu. He is an Associate Professor of Psychology at New Jersey City University and created the first Positive Psychology course to become a permanent full-term offering in New Jersey.

Confessions of a Former Child: A Therapist’s Memoir is his latest book by Graywolf, and his plays Sticks, Stones and the R word, and Negatively Oriented Therapy won the 2010 and 2012 International play competition for RETHINK Theater Challenge, both premiered in New Zealand.

He recently joined the staff of ANSWERS.com as their expert on depression and is currently working on his next book: Dare to be Happy: Lessons from Unlikely Heroes.

Dr. Perry is the Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, TX (www.ChildTrauma.org), and adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago. He serves as the inaugural Senior Fellow of the Berry Street Childhood Institute, an Australian based center of excellence focusing on the translation of theory into practice to improve the lives of children (www.berrystreet.org.au).

Dr. Perry is the author, with Maia Szalavitz, of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog, a bestselling book based on his work with maltreated children and Born For Love: Why Empathy is Essential and Endangered. Over the last thirty years, Dr. Perry has been an active teacher, clinician and researcher in children’s mental health and the neurosciences holding a variety of academic positions.

Dr. Perry was on the faculty of the Departments of Pharmacology and Psychiatry at the University of Chicago School Of Medicine from 1988 to 1991. From 1992 to 2001, Dr. Perry served as the Trammell Research Professor of Child Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. During this time, Dr. Perry also was Chief of Psychiatry for Texas Children’s Hospital and Vice-Chairman for Research within the Department of Psychiatry. From 2001 to 2003, Dr. Perry served as the Medical Director for Provincial Programs in Children’s Mental Health for the Alberta Mental Health Board. He continues to consult with the government of Alberta on children’s issues and serves as a founding member of the Premier’s Council of Alberta’s Promise.

Dr. Perry has conducted both basic neuroscience and clinical research. His neuroscience research has examined the effects of prenatal drug exposure on brain development, the neurobiology of human neuropsychiatric disorders, the neurophysiology of traumatic life events and basic mechanisms related to the development of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain. His clinical research and practice has focused on high-risk children. This work has examined the cognitive, behavioral, emotional, social, and physiological effects of neglect and trauma in children, adolescents and adults. This work has been instrumental in describing how childhood experiences, including neglect and traumatic stress, change the biology of the brain – and, thereby, the health of the child.

His clinical research over the last ten years has been focused on integrating emerging principles of developmental neuroscience into clinical practice. This work has resulted in the development of innovative clinical practices and programs working with maltreated and traumatized children, most prominently the Neurosequential Model©, a developmentally sensitive,

neurobiology-informed approach to clinical work (NMT), education (NME) and caregiving (NMC). This approach to clinical problem solving has been integrated into the programs at dozens of large public and non-profit organizations serving at-risk children and their families.

His experience as a clinician and a researcher with traumatized children has led many community and governmental agencies to consult Dr. Perry following high-profile incidents involving traumatized children such as the Branch Davidian siege in Waco (1993), the Oklahoma City bombing (1995), the Columbine school shootings (1999), the September 11th terrorist attacks (2001), Hurricane Katrina (2005), the FLDS polygamist sect (2008), the earthquake in Haiti (2010) and the tsunami in Tohoku Japan (2011).

Dr. Perry is the author of over 400 journal articles, book chapters and scientific proceedings and is the recipient of numerous professional awards and honors, including the T. Berry Brazelton Infant Mental Health Advocacy Award, the Award for Leadership in Public Child Welfare and the Alberta Centennial Medal.

He has presented about child maltreatment, children’s mental health, neurodevelopment and youth violence in a variety of venues including policy-making bodies such as the White House Summit on Violence, the California Assembly and U.S. House Committee on Education. Dr. Perry has been featured in a wide range of media including National Public Radio, The Today Show, Good Morning America, Nightline, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC and CBS News and the Oprah Winfrey Show. His work has been featured in documentaries produced by Dateline NBC, 20/20, the BBC, Nightline, CBC, PBS, as well as dozen international documentaries. Many print media have highlighted the clinical and research activities of Dr. Perry including a Pulitzer-prize winning series in the Chicago Tribune, US News and World Report, Time, Newsweek, Forbes ASAP, Washington Post, the New York Times and Rolling Stone.

Dr. Perry, a native of Bismarck, North Dakota, was an undergraduate at Stanford University and Amherst College. He attended medical and graduate school at Northwestern University, receiving both M.D. and Ph.D. degrees. Dr. Perry completed a residency in general psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at The University of Chicago.

Creator of the multi-day charitable event industry. Bestselling author of Uncharitable – How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential

Alicia Smith specializes in public behavioral health policy and reimbursement. She is currently assisting several states obtain federal approval of Medicaid health home services and has worked successfully with the first two states in the nation to receive approval of their Medicaid health home state plan amendments.

With more than 15 years of health care experience, Alicia draws from her considerable knowledge of federal Medicaid regulations to assist clients in devising appropriate behavioral health coverage strategies. As a former Medicaid policy analyst, she utilizes her expertise in benefits design to develop compliant and sustainable behavioral health programs. With the advent of federal health care reform, Alicia has been called upon to assist state Medicaid agencies, state and local mental health authorities, managed care organizations, trade associations and others understand the challenges and opportunities under the Affordable Care Act.

Prior to joining HMA, Alicia operated a consulting practice and assisted state and local behavioral health authorities and providers with advancing their efforts to improve access and financing for behavioral health services.
As deputy director of Resources for Recovery, a national grant program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Alicia assisted states with identifying and implementing strategies for the expansion of alcohol and other drug treatment resources. She served as a health care consultant with one of the nation’s largest law firms specializing in behavioral health care. She also worked as a Medicaid health services administrator for the Ohio Medicaid program, developing programs and policies for a variety of community-based and institutional services.
Alicia earned her master’s degree in health administration from The Ohio State University and her bachelor’s degree from Central State University.

Alicia has served on the board of trustees of Community Housing Network, a supportive housing provider, and as a member of the Rebuilding Lives Update Strategy Committee which plans and addresses homelessness in Franklin County, Ohio.

A healthcare architect and reformer advancing care for people with mental illnesses and substance use disorders.

Linda Rosenberg is a national leader in the development, design, and delivery of mental health and substance use policy and services. Under her leadership, the National Council for Behavioral Health spearheads advocacy, practice improvement, and public education initiatives for 750,000 staff in more than 2,000 healthcare organizations that serve 8 million adults, children, and families with mental and addiction disorders. She helped secure passage of the federal mental health and addiction parity law and played a critical role in ensuring that the Affordable Care Act addresses the needs of individuals with behavioral health disorders. Her vision helped to expanded financing for integrated behavioral health and primary care services and built an array of organizational, clinical and workforce development initiatives. Rosenberg introduced Mental Health First Aid in the U.S. and has led the National Council in training approximately 150,000 citizens across the country.

Prior to joining the National Council, Rosenberg served as Senior Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Health. She is a certified social worker, family therapist, and psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner with more than 30 years of experience.

Dr. Jeffrey Brenner, MD is a family physician that has worked in Camden, NJ for the past fifteen years. Dr Brenner owned and operated a solo-practice, urban family medicine office that provided full-spectrum family health services to a largely Hispanic, Medicaid population including delivering babies, caring for children and adults, and doing home visits. Recognizing the need for a new way for hospitals, providers, and community residents to collaborate he founded and has served as the Executive Director of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers since 2003. Through the Camden Coalition, local stakeholders are working to build an integrated, health delivery model to provide better care for Camden City residents. Dr. Brenner’s work was profiled by the writer and surgeon Dr. Atul Gawande in an article in The New Yorker entitled “The Hot Spotters” (1/24/11) and in an episode of PBS Frontline (7/27/11). In 2013 he received a MacArthur award. Dr Brenner, is the Medical Director of the Urban Health Institute, a dedicated business unit built at the Cooper Health System focused on improving care of the underserved. Using modern business techniques they are redesigning long-standing clinical care models to deliver better care at lower cost.

Congressman Patrick Kennedy served 16 years in the U.S. House of Representatives and is predominantly known as the author and lead sponsor of the Mental Health Parity & Addiction Equity Act of 2008. This dramatic piece of legislation provides tens of millions of Americans who were previously denied care with access to mental health treatment.

Now, Congressman Kennedy is the co-founder of One Mind for Research, a newly formed national coalition that is seeking new treatments and cures for neurologic and psychiatric diseases of the brain that afflict one in every three Americans. One Mind for Research is dedicated to dramatic enhancements in funding and collaboration in research across all brain disorders in the next decade. This historic grassroots endeavor unites efforts of scientists, research universities, government agencies, industry, and advocacy organizations across the country. Congressman Kennedy is bringing everyone together to map out a blueprint for the first plan of basic neuroscience that will become the roadmap leading to the off-ramps to cures for of all neurological disorders that affect 1 in 3 Americans.

Congressman Kennedy has authored and co-sponsored dozens of bills to increase the understanding and treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders, including the National Neurotechnology Initiative Act, the Genomics and Personalized Medicine Act, the COMBAT PTSD Act, and the Alzheimer’s Treatment and Caregiver Support Act.

Congressman Kennedy is a winner of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Distinguished Service Award, the Society for Neuroscience Public Service Award, the Autism Society of America Congressional Leadership Award, the Depression and Bipolar Support Paul Wellstone Mental Health Award, and the Epilepsy Foundation Public Service Award. He is also founder of the Congressional Down Syndrome Caucus and the 21st Century Healthcare Caucus.

Administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Advocate of behavioral health as a critical public health issue. Health reform leader.