Heroes Team

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Our Team Joel

Joel A. Dvoskin

Original Co-Founder, now Advisory Board Member

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.

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Our Team Karen

Karen Collins Rice

Co-Founder

Karen Collins Rice, M.S. is the co-founder of Heroes Active Bystandership Training, LLC. With over 30 years of experience in organizational development, curriculum design, and leadership development, she has played a pivotal role in shaping effective, values-driven approaches to public safety leadership.

Karen served as the curriculum designer for Georgetown Law’s Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project, and is the Chief Program Architect of Trust-Centered Leadership—an innovative police leadership development program focused on cultivating emotional intelligence, effective communication, and the ability to foster healthy organizational cultures. She has facilitated the program for hundreds of police leaders at all levels across the country.

Karen has also partnered with organizations such as the National Policing Institute and the Behind the Badge Foundation, guiding them through strategic planning processes designed to integrate values, vision, and strategic goals into day-to-day operations through sustainable, internally driven frameworks.  She is a member of the teaching faculty in the California Chiefs of Police Executive Leadership Program, in the University of Virginia’s National Criminal Justice Command College,  and a Fellow of the Future Policing Institute.

Karen holds a Master’s Degree from Florida State University in Instructional Systems Design and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.

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Our Team Abigail

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.

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Our Team Liza

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.

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