Members

More Members:

Joel A. Dvoskin

Co-Founder

For more than a decade, Joel Dvoskin managed the forensic and correctional mental health systems for the State of New York, and later served as New York’s Acting Commissioner of Mental Health. He is the former Chair of the Governor’s Advisory Council on Behavioral Health for the State of Nevada. He is former President of two Divisions of the American Psychological Association (18 and 41) and served on the APA Policy Task Force on Reducing Gun Violence, and on the APA Blue Ribbon Commission on Ethical Processes.

He has provided consultation and expert testimony to forensic mental health, law enforcement, and correctional systems in more than 40 states, and has provided consultation to a wide array of organizations, including the U.S. Secret Service, the National Basketball Association (NBA), the NBA Players Association, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and numerous corporations, organizations, and government agencies across the US and Canada.

He previously taught at the University of Arizona Law School, and currently teaches at the U. of A. Medical School.


Karen Collins Rice

Co-Founder

Karen Collins Rice, M.S. is an organizational development and curriculum design specialist with twenty-five years of experience in the private sector. Karen has transitioned her professional focus to policing and is primarily concentrated on the transformation of organizational culture. She is the curriculum designer for Georgetown Law’s Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project and the Chief Program Architect for the innovative police leadership development program, 21st Century Police Leadership (21CPL), which was developed in partnership with the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, and focuses on developing emotional intelligence, effective communication practices and building a healthy agency climate in police organizations.

Karen is also an experienced facilitator and has worked with the National Police Foundation and the Behind the Badge Foundation in developing their strategic plans using a streamlined process that enables strategic planning to become an ongoing, internal process that drives values, vision, and strategic goals into daily work.

Karen is one of three co-founders of Heroes Active Bystandership Training, LLC.


Abigail S. Tucker

Co-Founder

Abigail S. Tucker, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist in Denver Colorado. In her current role as trainer, consultant and in private practice she works directly with emergency responders, veterans, victims of crime, criminal and juvenile justice entities and behavioral health providers. Dr. Tucker serves as Adjunct Faculty at Colorado State University Global in their Emergency Responder and Military Psychology Program and at her alma mater Nova Southeastern University in their College of Psychology and for the Fischer College of Education and Criminal Justice. Abigail is a certified instructor for Adult & Youth Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) and for the Public Safety module of Adult MHFA, and is a proud national training instructor for the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project.

Abigail is one of three co-founders of Heroes Active Bystandership Training, LLC.


Liza Aronie

Director of Operations

Liza Aronie supported the Georgetown Law Center’s Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project from July 2020 to March 2022. The ABLE Project has become a nationwide best practice in policing that seeks to prevent misconduct, reduce mistakes, and promote officer health and wellness. ABLE is supported by law enforcement, the civil rights community, and businesses across the U.S. Liza served as the ABLE Project’s Quality Assurance Associate for the national instructor team and was an integral member of the core team that implemented, coordinated, and expanded the nationwide training program. During her time with ABLE, Liza ran close to 80 Train-The-Trainer classes, instructed, facilitated small-group learning sessions, hosted professional development sessions for law enforcement instructors, coordinated all scheduling, and served as one of the Project’s primary liaisons to the more than 300 agencies in the program.

Prior to joining ABLE, and prior to raising two now-teenaged daughters, Liza served in a number of different policy and project management capacities for three different aerospace and defense contractors, including lobbying the US Congress and writing position papers for contracts under the US Department of Energy.


Gregory Hanna

Retired Captain

Captain Gregory Hanna, Jr. retired in 2020 from the Metro Transit Police Department in Washington, D.C. after 27 years of service. During his tenure with the department, he served in numerous leadership and command roles, which included leading the Honor Guard Unit, Commander of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team, Section Commander of the K-9 Unit, Precinct Commander, Commander of the Criminal Investigations Division, Watch Commander, and Commander of Internal Affairs. He was instrumental in the design and implementation of the agency’s internal investigation tracking and accountability system (IAPro and Blue Team). His strategies led to a comprehensive departmentwide early warning system to proactively identify emerging issues for early intervention. In 2016, he was instrumental in the development and implementation of the department’s first Summer Crime Initiative. The introduction of this program integrated weekly COMPSTAT crime strategies and the use of GIS technology to identify emerging crime patterns, crime hot spot mapping, resource allocation for crime reduction, and opportunities for community outreach events.


Ian Edwards

Certified Trainer

Ian Edwards is passionate about the health and wellness of those working to serve others.  After proudly serving as a correctional officer, training sergeant, and Assistant Commander at  Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission, Ian took his skills and integrity to full-time training and consultation.  Based out of Texas now, Ian is a certified trainer for many nationally recognized organizations, including but not limited to Blue Courage, Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement, HearthMath, and now a National Instructor for Heroes.  Ian’s expertise includes resiliency training and leadership development.


Bernadette DiPino

Chief of Police

Bernadette DePino worked in law enforcement for over 35 years, starting in 1985 as a Baltimore County Police Officer. In 1988, she joined the Ocean City (MD) Police Department and worked every shift and every unit in the department, including Commanding the SWAT team. She was appointed Chief of Police in 2003. In 2012 DiPino was selected to be the Chief of Police in Sarasota, Fl. She retired in January 2021. Ms. DiPino earned her bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Salisbury University in 1995 while working full time. She graduated from the elite FBI National Academy’s 204th session in 2001. DiPino has been a certified instructor for community policing, defensive tactics, firearms, leadership, suicide prevention, mental health, SWAT, domestic violence, and many other topics. Over her career, DiPino received 16 commendations and was named officer of the year 3 times. The agencies she led as Chief won numerous international Chief awards, including a human and civil rights award.


Virginia Barber

Ph.D.

Dr. Virginia Barber Rioja obtained her Ph.D in clinical forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. Over the past 6 years, she has served as clinical director and co-chief of mental health for NYC Health + Hospitals/Correctional Health Services, which oversees mental health treatment in the NYC jail system, as well as all court ordered forensic evaluations throughout the NYC court system (fitness to proceed and pre-sentencing evaluations). She is currently the assistant chief of forensic & related mental health services for CHS. She is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Psychology Department of New York University where she teaches in the graduate program, and a clinical instructor at Columbia University, where she provides supervision to clinical psychology doctoral students. She has over 15 years of experience working in correctional and forensic contexts. She worked as an attending psychologist in the forensic inpatient unit of Bellevue Hospital Center, as the clinical director of several mental health courts, diversion, and reentry programs in NYC, and as a consultant for the juvenile correctional facilities in Puerto Rico.


Graham Goulden

Retired Officer

Graham Goulden is a retired Scottish police officer of 30 years’ service, including eight years in the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). With the VRU, he harnessed the power of the active bystander developing school-based programs to help reduce violence in Scotland. There he led the development of the Mentors In Violence Prevention (MVP) Program, a leadership program that utilizes a creative bystander approach to prevention.

Now in retirement, Graham runs his own leadership and training organization working within Universities, schools, workplaces, sports teams and in prisons. Despite being based in Scotland Graham is also one of the national trainers supporting US Law Enforcement deliver and embed the Active Bystander in Law Enforcement (ABLE) Program. A self confessed ‘Bystander Geek’ Graham believes in the power of the active bystander in reducing harm in society. He is a much sought-after speaker and trainer both nationally in the United Kingdom, as well as internationally.


Erin Nelson

Professor

Dr. Erin Nelson the Assistant Dean of Physician Communication at the Texas Christian University Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine, where she is also the Director of the Psychological and Behavioral Science curriculum and an Associate Professor of Medical Education. Dr. Nelson is also an AssociateProfessor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix in the Departments of Psychiatry and Bioethics and Medical Humanism. Dr. Nelson is a consultant to the Phoenix Police Department and was a member of the Department’s “Baseline Killer” task force. Dr. Nelson was also a member of the First Responder Traumatic Incident Support and Response Task Force for the City of Phoenix. Among her many publications, Dr. Nelson has authored articles and chapters on topics such as firesetting and the nature and structure of correctional mental health services. Dr. Nelson has worked at state and federal correctional facilities treating mentally ill offenders across security levels.