Janet respectfully acknowledges the land on which she lives, works and plays on the Treaty 8 territory, the traditional lands of the Dunne-za (De-ney-za) and Metis people.

Janet joined CCMI in October 2018 and brings a varied work background in Administration Support, Sales, and Customer Service. She has gained exceptional computer and organizational skills over the years and enjoys a variety of duties that allow her to showcase her talents.

Denielle (she/her) humbly acknowledges that the land on which she lives and works is the unceded traditional territory of the Lhtako Dené Nation. 

She is dedicated to partnering with subject matter experts to design and develop learner-centred, performance-based workshop and online courses. She also manages CCMI's learning management system, supporting learners and staff and ensuring the smooth operation of online programs.

Amelia lives and works on the unceded traditional territory of the Siksikaitsitapi (the Blackfoot Confederacy of Treaty 7).

Amelia joined CCMI in August 2023 as Program Support. She has over 8 years of experience as an administrator and training support in the occupational health and safety field. She strives to continue growing and learning both professionally and personally.

Khushboo respectfully acknowledges that the land on which she lives and works is the traditional territory of the Peoples of the Mississauga's of Scugog Island First Nation, the Anishinabek, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat people and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

Khushboo joined CCMI in September of 2022. She has a diploma with high honours in Executive Office Administration. Khushboo is looking to apply her administrative skills at CCMI in order to maximize efficiency and productivity. She is always seeking opportunities for growth and development in order to reinforce her skills. 

Elena respectfully acknowledges the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (Siksika, Kainai, Piikani), the Tsuut’ina, the Iyarhe Nakoda Nations, the Otipemisiwak Métis Government of the Métis Nation within Alberta District 6, and all people who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.

Elena Viau joined CCMI in November 2022. She obtained a Master’s Degree diploma with honors in Linguistics and Translation Studies. She has over 8 years of experience as an administrative and executive assistant in the pharmaceutical field, and mastered an array of skills in project support and client service. She takes great pride in her work and is always looking for opportunities to showcase her skills.

Joe Simmons is a Professional Certified Coach, trainer, and member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, based in New York City. He partners with healthcare and human service organizations to build a team approach to motivational interviewing among clinicians, allied health professionals, and support staff. He also facilitates workshops in English and Spanish on various topics, including healthcare communication, care coordination, mental health, LGBTQ cultural competence, and burnout mitigation. Joe is committed to empowering leaders of underserved populations to collaboratively use motivational interviewing and coaching to promote health and wellness in their communities.

Verna Burden, MS, RD spent the first part of her career in nutrition research.  But after a workshop on Motivational Interviewing (MI) in 2001, she began shifting her focus to working with groups and individuals on making habit changes.  The core principles of MI struck a deep cord with Verna.  Since that time she has applied this approach in employee wellness programs, group facilitation, individual health coaching, and health promotion research.  She joined the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers in 2006 and has worked with a wide variety of organizations and professionals in learning and applying MI.  Whether in a workshop or in one-to-one coaching, Verna’s favorite thing is to witness a practitioner having an “a-ha” moment of how to make MI strategies and principles their own.

Teresa respectfully acknowledges the land on which she lives, works, and plays, the unceded traditional territories of the Eno, Tuscarora and Occaneechi peoples (band of the Saponi nation).

Teresa Donegan is a Clinical Psychologist with experience in practicing psychotherapy, teaching, and research. She was a professor in both psychology and health care programs for 31 years. She started training and consulting in motivational interviewing in 2012. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainings (MINT). She is co-founder of the MITI Fidelity Forum. She moved to North Carolina in 2019 to be closer to the ocean and dolphins.

Carol DeFrancesco, MALS, RDN has been an active member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) since completing her training for new trainers (TNT) in Quebec City in 2000 . She teaches a 12-week course in motivational interviewing to graduate level nutrition and nursing students. Carol also teaches a course in Sports Nutrition.  She has 30 years’ experience in teaching, conducting health promotion research and clinical work, counseling patients in chronic disease prevention and lipid disorders.  Carol directs health promotion research studying motivational interviewing, stress and mindfulness with wildland firefighters, long-haul truckers, bus operators, correctional and police officers and sport teams. Carol is works closely with Denise Ernst on her MITI (Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity) coding team and is also trained in the MICA (Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment) coding system.  Carol has developed and facilitated hundreds of tailored motivational interviewing workshops for doctors, nurses, dietitians, social workers, behavioral health clinicians, social workers, psychologists, health coaches, and sports coaches and provides training for trainers in evidence-based practices. Carol was a trainer for MINT sponsored TNT in New Orleans 2018, Tallinn, Estonia 2019 and support trainer for the virtual TNT in 2020.

Christina is facilitator, teacher and coach focused on assisting individuals and teams to deepen their own knowledge and ability to apply improvement principles.  She works alongside teams to support them in creating the best possible experience for those they work with and serve using a collaborative approach.

Jordan Windsor is a certified chronic care professional, a registered health coach, and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). She is an experienced MI coach and coder who has worked on multiple national-level MI training initiatives and is skilled at adapting MI concepts to practice. Proficient in multiple coding systems, including the MITI and MICA, Jordan truly enjoys mentoring clinicians as they develop their MI skill-sets.

Maureen Gecht-Silver is an occupational therapist and a medical educator.  She has worked as an occupational therapy clinician, educator, and researcher in community-based settings and in primary care.  Maureen has been training health professionals and community health workers in motivational interviewing for over 10 years and continues to be passionate about enhancing learners’ skills and growth. She was an Assistant Professor in Clinical Family Medicine and Occupational Therapy at University of Illinois Chicago and currently is Adjunct Faculty in Occupational Therapy at DePaul University and a consultant in the Chicago area.  She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. In her spare time, she loves walking her dog Nori, trying a new recipe, and gardening.

Brent Anderson is currently a Practice Coach with the Indiana State Department of Health working in the Division of ChronicDisease, Primary Care, and Rural Health. As a Practice Coach he provides hands on, on-site, technical assistance to Primary Care teams across Indiana facilitating practice transformation work and conducting quality improvement with health system teams. Prior to joining ISDH Brent worked for several years in the Supplemental Educational Services arena implementing QI with standardized testing focusing on selected schools within districts around the State. Brent worked in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry most of his career in sales and sales management. He has many years of experience working with provider teams and health systems in a number of states over his career. Additionally, Brent is a certified Brief Action Planning (BAP) trainer.

Sebastien Payan is a nurse educator specializing in harm reduction, substance use and sexual health. Originally from France, he has been working in Canada since 2007. As a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, he is devoted to improving communication in health care focusing on a person and family-centred approach.

Jenny Spring is a counsellor, clinical social worker, and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers.  She is passionate about person-centred care and collaborating around change for individuals, families, programs and organizations.

Christina Clarke BSc, MHA,  is an experienced quality and change management consultant, dedicated to helping improve systems. Believing better is always possible, she is keen to support clients to create and deliver a vision, context, and pathway for change and improvement. A natural coalition builder, she approaches her work collaboratively and with a unique blend of analytical and creative process.

Margarita respectfully recognizes and honors the original peoples of New Mexico. The indigenous peoples, past and present, that have protected and stewarded these lands since time immemorial. The 24 tribes of New Mexico, comprised of Apache, Navajo, and Pueblo nations, continue to guide and inspire our work protecting our shared natural heritage.

Margarita Avitia-Das is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in the State of New Mexico, she is a bicultural/bilingual woman with over 17 years of experience working with underserved and vulnerable populations from different backgrounds and lifestyles in the areas of mental health and healthcare. She specializes in the area of addiction treatment as a Behavioral Clinician. She is a proud member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. She believes as an MI facilitator and coach in empowering and uniting diverse communities through Motivational Interviewing, behavioral health training and education. 

Mike Hindmarsh is a healthcare quality improvement expert with 25 years of system design experience.  Mike has worked with over 100 systems in Canada, the United States and internationally.

Dr. Damara Gutnick is an internist with a special interest in depression and collaborative care for chronic disease. She is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Epidemiology & Population Health and Psychiatry & Behavioral Health at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers.  She is also the Medical Director of the Montefiore Hudson Valley Collaborative where she leads healthcare transformation efforts toward Value Based Care for medicaid patients as part of the NYS Delivery System Redesign Incentive Payment Program.

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Shawn Smith is a Master Trainer and a facilitator for Chronic Disease Self-Management programs in Washington and California. Shawn has expertise in self-managing his condition of Pulmonary Fibrosis and Hypertension on a daily basis, and is currently on the waitlist for a double lung transplant through the University of Washington.

Alexx (she/her) respectfully acknowledges the land on which she lives and works is the unceded traditional territories of the Syilx tmix w (Okanagan Nation) and Secw é pemc (Secw é pemc ú l’ecw).

Alexx is a Chartered Professional Accountant and Manager in BDO's CFO Services business line. Alexx worked in several sectors including municipal government, healthcare, technology, and automotive, learning the intimate details of how Finance and Accounting departments are run. In pursuit of her designation and to expand her industry sector experience, Alexx moved into public practice where, for three years, she specialized in audit, servicing BDO's clients across different industries.

Alexx has had the chance to gain an array of accounting knowledge including financial reporting, multi- currency translation, payroll, consolidation, and financial planning & analysis. She enjoys taking the skills she has learned over her career and using them to help BDO's CFO Services clients.

Alexx is a quick learner, a passionate accountant, and takes pride in any project on which she works. She enjoys working as part of a team, collaborating on new ideas, and broadening her knowledge base.

Alifa is a passionate patient advocate who embraces the core principles of patient and family involvement in all aspects of the patient experience. She currently engages as a patient and family member in various organizational and systemic initiatives across the health care landscape.

Liz has over 17 years clinical experience in the UK National Health Service ranging from a registered nurse to Public Health Practitioner. The latter role was part of a national project to develop the role of health visiting to focus more on public health. While working in this role she was also a member of the Professional Executive Committee of the Primary Care Trust, whose role was to direct and guide the clinical work of the Trust. Liz also collaborated with health and social service colleagues to plan and submit a bid for integrated services for Sure Start, aimed at improving the health and well-being of families and children, in partnership with local residents that was successful.

Her role as a Service Development Manager in Primary Care consisted of working with specialists and providers in primary care to provide appropriate clinical care closer to patients in their home and local clinics. Liz also led the design and application of an organizational performance management framework for North Stoke Primary Care Trust (PCT) and was the Lead commissioner for the PCT on the implementation of a new general medical contract within GP practices. The commissioning role was used to implement modernization and promote the use of best practice and evidence based medicine thereby raising standards of care through commissioning of family practitioner services.

Liz gained experience in Canada through working in the PEI health department as program analyst and, later, as a Project Manager at the Department of Wellness in Nova Scotia. She also worked as a consultant at The Quaich working with NGOs. More recently Liz has worked as a volunteer on the Quality Committee of Casey House in Toronto.

It has been an honor to be a small part of the founding and growth of CCMI. The organization has evolved to be a trusted source of valuable training and has served to attract a wonderful diversity of talented individuals. My hope is that CCMI continues to shine brightly for many years to come. I am especially grateful to have been able to work with Connie Davis. Connie’s vision and dedication inspired CCMI. I’d like to think that my moral support, external perspective and expertise provided some wind beneath her wings.