HEROES Team

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 has supported the Georgetown Law Center’s Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project since July 2020. 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 currently serves as the ABLE Project’s Quality Assurance Associate for the national instructor team and is an integral member of the core team that implements, coordinates, and expands the nationwide training program. During her time with ABLE, Liza has run close to 60 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 240 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.