Hillary Bolter, LCSW, LCAS

Hillary Bolter has been a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) since 2011. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker & Addiction Therapist, and absolutely delights in helping individuals, groups, and organizations learn the essential skills of Motivational Interviewing. Hillary has worked as a helping professional for 20 years, ranging from working in wilderness therapy to community mental health, providing in-home & school based services, and as a therapist with specialties including working with anxiety, trauma, addiction, and veterans.

Hillary Bolter is Chair of the Committee on Continuing Education for the BAP Professional Network. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Benjamin Buchholz, MPH

Benjamin Buchholtz is currently the Program Manager of the Sickle Cell Center of Excellence and the Center for Sickle Cell Disease at Howard University and the Howard University Hospital. His current role regards working with the District of Columbia’s Health Department to improve care for individuals living with Sickle Cell Disease.

Prior to Howard University, he worked at the American Psychiatric Association on a variety of topics including Serious Mental Illness, Substance Use Disorder, and BAP/BAP-MI training. Formally trained in Public Health and Medical Spanish, Ben is an experienced researcher, project manager, and public health professional dedicated to advancing mental and physical health for all.

Benjamin Buchholtz is Chair of the Executive Committee and Director of Operations and for the BAP Professional Network. He also serves on the Committee on Research and Development.

William Carroll, MD

Dr. William Carroll is an internist who practices both traditional primary care and complex medical care for the UCLA Extensivist program specializing in care for individuals with frequent hospitalization. Dr. Carroll received his medical degree from St. George’s University. He completed his internship and residency training in internal medicine at New York’s Stony Brook University Hospital, where he went on to complete his chief medical residency. He received his undergraduate degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Currently, Dr. Carroll is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California – Los Angeles, where he is site director of the Early Authentic Clinical Experience – Hotspotting program course and University of Southern California – School of Pharmacy Introduction to Pharmacy Practice course introducing students from various disciplines of health science to collaborate on the delivery of care for vulnerable patient populations. Dr. Carroll services as associate medical director of the UCLA Extensivist Program and medical director of the UCLA Anticoagulation Clinic. Dr. Carroll engages in clinical research to improve the quality and safety of opioid prescription for the use of non-cancer related pain, the development of novel primary care models for those with frequent hospitalization and integration of social determinants of health in the delivery of health care. Dr. Carroll is a strong advocate for improving patient care and graduate medical education through his involvement in advocacy in collaboration with the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Carroll is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Steven A. Cole, M.D., M.A.

Steven Cole, MD, MA (Sociology) is a Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus at Stony Brook University School of Medicine, and Clinical Professor of Scientific Education at Hofstra Northwell School of Medicine. Trained at Harvard, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dr. Cole is Board Certified in Adult Psychiatry and has attained Added Qualifications in both Geriatric Psychiatry and Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He has received grants and contracts from the Jonathan D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and many others, most related to depression in primary care or in the medically ill.

Dr. Cole has achieved wide recognition as an expert on medical communication. He published a premier textbook on the medical interview, first published in 1990, with its fourth edition now in press, entitled, The Medical Interview: The Three Function Approach to Relationship Centered Care, Elsevier 2022. Dr. Cole is a member of MINT, (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers) and with contributions from three MINT colleagues, developed Brief Action Planning (BAP), a pragmatic, evidence-informed, and versatile MI-consistent tool designed to support patient self-management and facilitate health behavior change (www.bapprofessionalnetwork.org). He has published more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, 35 book chapters, and 150 scholarly posters and presentations nationally and internationally.

Dr. Cole is the Founder and current Director of the BAP Professional Network. He is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Robert O. Cotes, MD

Robert O. Cotes, MD, is an Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He serves as Physician Expert for SMI Adviser (www.smiadviser.org), which is funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and administered by the American Psychiatric Association. SMI Adviser provides evidence-based resources to clinicians, individuals with serious mental illness, and their families. He is Director of the Clinical & Research Program for Psychosis at Grady Health System, which comprises of three clinical programs. The PSTAR Clinic provides evidence-based, recovery-oriented care for individuals with persistent symptoms of psychosis, specializing in the use of clozapine. Project ARROW is a coordinated specialty care team for people experiencing early psychosis, offering comprehensive, person-centered care using a multidisciplinary approach. Youth and Family TREE provides care to adolescents and young adults with a mental health condition and substance use. Dr. Cotes has conducted research on clozapine, early psychosis, and implementing psychosocial interventions for people with serious mental illness. Dr. Cotes is a co-investigator of a study that is examining the feasibility of incorporating Brief Action Planning into the ACT model.

Laura DeLuca, Ph.D.

Dr. Laura DeLuca is a clinical psychologist working within Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PMCH-I) at the Northport VA. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2022 from Yeshiva University studying Clinical Psychology with a Health emphasis. She completed her internship and Postdoctoral fellowship at the Northport VA, focusing on primary care mental health integration, health promotion and disease prevention, and geriatrics. She has extensive experience and training in Motivational Interviewing, applying it to clinical and non-clinical mHealth settings. She is trained in coding the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI).

Dr. DeLuca is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Richard M. Frankel, Ph.D.

Dr. Frankel is Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics and a Core Investigator in the VA Health Services Research & Development Center for Health Information and Communication and Senior Research Scientist at Regenstrief Institute. Dr. Frankel’s research is focused on clinician-patient communication and its effects on quality and safety, the effects of exam room computing on physician patient communication and effective organizational change strategies. Since joining Regenstrief Institute in 2002, he has devoted his career to nurturing the social and emotional contexts of the doctor-patient relationship, and the researchers who study it, to improve medical care and outcomes. In 2015 he wrote, “Medicine is fundamentally a human enterprise that is still practiced one conversation at a time.”

Dr. Frankel’s authorship spans more than 250 research and review articles, books, and book chapters and he has received both the American Academy on Physician and Patient’s George Engel Award and the Lynn Payer Award for his contributions. He serves on a number of editorial boards including the Journal of General Internal Medicine, The Permanente Journal, BMC Education, and Communication and Medicine.

Deirdra Frum-Vassallo, Psy.D. ABPP

Deirdra Frum-Vassallo, Psy.D., received her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology with a concentration in Health Psychology from LaSalle University in 2011. She completed her clinical internship at VA Hudson Valley Health Care System and her Postdoctoral Fellowship in Primary Care Mental Health at the Manhattan VA. She worked in Primary Care Mental Health at the Northport VA Medical Center (VAMC) for almost a decade and is board certified by the American board of clinical psychology in Clinical Health Psychology. Currently, Dr. Frum-Vassallo is the Health Behavior Coordinator (HBC) for the Northport VAMC, as part of the VHA Health Promotion/Disease Prevention (HPDP) Program to facilitate transformation of health care delivery to support patient centered care and to increase self-management of health behavior. She is also the Director of Postdoctoral Training at the Northport VAMC and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).

Dr. Frum-Vassallo is Chair of the Committee on Content, Curricula, Standards and Credentialing for the BAP Professional Network. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). She is certified in BAP Core Competencies and also certified as a BAP Coach-Evaluator.

Arielle Gerard, MD, MS, MPH

Dr. Gerard is a board-certified preventive medicine and public health physician who recently completed her addiction medicine fellowship at HMH Jersey Shore University Medical Center. She earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in psychology from UCLA, a Master of Science (MS) in bioethics from the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College, a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Stony Brook University, and a Distinction in Advocacy (with an emphasis on cannabinoid medicine and policy) upon graduation from medical school from Albany Medical College. She also completed an internship year in family medicine at the Institute for Family Health/Mount Sinai in New York City, remains engaged in continuing education to maintain a broad knowledge in general adult primary care, and is additionally certified as an HIV Specialist through the AAHIVM.

Dr. Gerard has a broad interest in matters of biopsychosocial-spiritual health and quality-of-life improvement, especially centered on prevention, harm reduction, and an ethics of care (EoC) based in a systems-focused approach. She is a volunteer Board Member of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation (DFCR, the first and only national US physicians’ association dedicated to the legalization and regulation of cannabis for adults), the lead revision author for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine’s substance use guidelines across occupational categories, and new Contributor to the Motivational Interviewing Brief Action Planning (BAP) Network. She holds training as a yoga teacher at the 200-hour level, earned a Certificate in Spirituality, Health, and Healing from the University of New Hampshire, and plans soon to complete coursework to obtain her final Master’s degree in Theology/Pastoral Care.

Beginning in July 2022, Dr. Gerard will have a full-time position in the Northwell system in New York at Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH). She will be the medical director for the Brooklyn methadone clinic and lead addiction physician on the CATCH (Consult for Addiction Treatment and Care in Hospitals) team at SIUH’s north/Ocean Breeze campus. She will also have academic appointments in the departments of medicine and psychiatry at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.

Dr. Gerard is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Yuri T. Jadotte, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H.

Yuri T. Jadotte, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H. is Assistant Professor and Associate Program Director of the Preventive Medicine residency at Stony Brook University (SBU). Board certified in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health, he also serves as associate professor and assistant director of the Northeast Institute for Evidence Synthesis and Translation at Rutgers University. Dually trained as a physician and social scientist, Dr. Jadotte actively conducts research addressing health equity for disadvantaged populations, with a focus on interprofessional collaboration, cancer prevention and control, and systematic review and meta-analysis. He has been engaged in several funded projects, including as principal investigator for a completed R03 methods research study focused on developing novel meta-analytic methods to measure the impact of having multiple chronic conditions on health outcomes, and as co-investigator and lead project curriculum developer and evaluator for a 5-year Health Resources and Services Administration training grant awarded to the residency program in General Preventive Medicine and Public Health at Stony Brook. He currently serves as the Founding Editor-in-Chief of AJPM Focus, the official open access journal of the American College of Preventive Medicine and the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, and an ex officio member of the governing board of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. He practices clinical preventive medicine in the SBU Hospital Employee Health and Wellness Service, co-directs the SBU Tele-Preventive Medicine Service, and serves as Head of the Generalist concentration in the SBU Master of Public Health. His long-term professional goal is to continue working in academic Preventive Medicine and advance population health through research, teaching, clinical practice and policymaking.

Dr. Jadotte is Vice-Chair of the Committee on Research and Development for the BAP Professional Network and is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Igor Koutsenok, M.D.

Igor Koutsenok, M.D., is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, Director of the UCSD Center for Criminality and Addiction Research, Training and Application, Director of the International Addiction Technology Transfer Center-Ukraine. He is also a Vice-President of the International Consortium of Universities on Drug Demand Reduction. He also served as Director of the International Addiction Technology Transfer Center – Ukraine and co-director of the similar center in South-East Asia. He completed his graduate degree as a medical doctor in 1983 from the National Medical University in Kiev, (Ukraine). In 1986, he completed his psychiatry residency training and received degree as psychiatrist from the Medical University in Sofia (Bulgaria). In 1993-1996 he completed the addiction psychiatry training and obtained a degree in addiction psychiatry at the University of London, Department of Addictive Behavior and Psychological Medicine at St. Georges Hospital Medical School. In 1996, he was recruited by the University of California San Diego, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and since then he serves as faculty member of the Department. In 2013-2016 he served as Chief of Prevention, Treatment, and Rehabilitation at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, United Nations Office in Vienna. Over the last 25 years Dr. Koutsenok led the design and implementation of multiple training and technical assistance programs for mental health and addiction treatment practitioners, primary health care and social work practitioners, criminal justice professionals in the United States and around the world. For many years, Dr. Koutsenok teaches general and addiction psychiatry to medical students, psychiatry residents, psychology trainees, social workers, criminal justice professionals, and policy makers around the world. He is a recipient of numerous national and international awards. He has authored and co-authored over 50 scientific publications, one monograph, and contributed to 4 book. Dr. Koutsenok has been invited as a presenter and trainer to hundreds of conferences and workshops in the USA and more than 40 countries around the world. He is a proud father of three and a professional jazz saxophone player.

Dr. Koutsenok is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).

Heidi MacAlpine, OTD, M.Ed, OTR/L, CTP

Heidi MacAlpine is a certified trauma practitioner, and trauma-informed yoga practitioner certified in Fall Prevention and Tai Chi for Arthritis. She has special expertise in working with children and adults with special needs and their families as well as 30+ years of experience working in various community settings. Her most recent community project is as an advisor to a mental health advocacy group called Listen to Lead (L2L), which provides a think tank for teens and young adults giving them a platform to voice themselves creatively. She has developed a program called Sensory Alignment Therapy, where she uses the body’s senses and the various body systems to awaken, integrate, and align the nervous system and body for improved everyday functioning and emotional and physical well-being.

Heidi MacAlpine is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Christine Miles, LCSW

Christine Miles received her Master’s in Social Work degree from Arizona State University. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Mental Health Therapist specializing in behavior change and Lifestyle Medicine. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and the lead MI trainer for MI Center for Change, LLC. Chris is an experienced speaker and has provided Motivational Interviewing training to a wide variety of healthcare providers and social service agencies. She currently works for HCA Mission Healthcare System in Asheville, N.C. where she provides education and counseling support to patients in their outpatient pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation programs. She has years of experience as a facilitator for the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease as well as the Pritikin ICR program.

Christine Miles is Co-Chair on the Committee on Content, Curricula, Standards and Credentialing for the BAP Professional Network. She is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). She is certified in BAP Core Competencies and also certified as a BAP Coach-Evaluator.

Justin Palanci, MD

Justin Palanci, MD, is an Assistant Professor at Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He received his medical degree from George Washington University and completed his residency at Emory University. He serves as medical director for the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) program within the Grady Health System in Atlanta, GA. The Grady ACT program is comprised of three multidisciplinary teams that provide community-based services to adults with serious mental illness and comorbidities in a person-centered, recovery-oriented manner. Dr. Palanci is the PI of a study that is examining the feasibility of incorporating Brief Action Planning into the ACT model. He is also a certified trainer in dialogic practice and has been involved in clinical and research initiatives implementing the Open Dialogue approach.

Patricia Ng, MD, FACP

Patricia Ng, MD, FACP is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Department of Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine of Stony Brook University and is a practicing General Internist at the Stony Brook Primary Care Center. She currently serves as the Primary Care Track Director and is an Associate Program Director of Stony Brook’s Internal Medicine Residency Program. Prior to joining Stony Brook’s faculty in 2016, Dr. Ng received her Bachelors of Science and Medical Degree at Stony Brook University. She completed her General Internal Medicine residency training at Brown University/Rhode Island Hospital and was a chief medical resident from 2015-2016. Her research interests include innovations in ambulatory education, women’s health, and resident financial wellness. Her work has been awarded the 2022 American Geriatrics Society Outstanding Junior Clinician Education Manuscript Award and 2018 Innovation Grant from the Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine.

Dr. Ng is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Jenna Palladino, PsyD

Dr. Jenna Palladino is a clinical psychologist and an associate professor at Mount Sinai Health Partners. She serves as the primary care behavioral health program director. Prior to her time at Mount Sinai, she worked as the Director of Adult Behavior Health within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. She obtained her PsyD at Adler University. Her fellowship training was with the Northport VAMC on Long Island, NY. Her fellowship had an emphasis on health promotion disease prevention and primary care mental health integration. She is currently the principal investigator on the Step into Health project, a collaborative quality improvement project between the departments of psychiatry and behavioral health, family medicine, endocrinology, and surgery. She is currently certified in Comprehensive Behavioral Intervention for Tics (CBIT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) and is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).

Dr. Palladino is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Camila X. Romero M.D., M.P.H.

Camila X. Romero M.D., M.P.H., DipABLM is Associate Clinical Professor at University of California San Diego (UCSD) in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health & Human Longevity Science where she precepts residents in primary care and lifestyle medicine and co-facilitates the Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum for the Preventive Medicine residents. She is a primary care physician at a community health center (CHC) in the Linda Vista neighborhood of San Diego where she has an active practice, managing chronic diseases and incorporating behavioral health counseling through supervised virtual visits with Preventive Medicine residents. She is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. She has had varied projects and research endeavors including asylum shelter health at the US-Mexico border in San Diego, diabetes prevention program in CHCs. and socio-economic cardiovascular health research in Chile. Currently, she is interested in implementing and researching lifestyle medicine in underserved communities.

Dr. Romero is certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Deepa Sannidhi, MD

Deepa Sannidhi, MD is Associate Clinical Professor in the Division of Family Medicine at UC San Diego Department of Family Medicine and Public Health where she teaches public health students, medical students and residents in Preventive Medicine and Family Medicine. She is board certified in Family Medicine, Obesity Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine, and trained in Preventive Medicine. She is past Secretary on the board of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and currently the Chair of the Research Committee. Through her experience in leadership and via her networks, she advocates for systems change that allows men and women in healthcare to practice in alignment with their values and help patients prevent and reverse disease via behavioral and Lifestyle change. Her main areas of research are clinical models addressing high health-care utilizers and obesity, (in particular, shared medical appointments), and behavioral change in Lifestyle. She has specific expertise in addressing maternal-child health using lifestyle at all phases of the life-cycle, and has specific interests in addressing PCOS using lifestyle change.

Dr. Sannidhi is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) and certified in BAP Core Competencies.

Kelley M. Skeff, M.D., Ph.D.

Kelley Skeff, MD, Ph.D. (Education), is the George DeForest Barnett Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Stanford University, and Co-Director of the Stanford Faculty Development Center for Medical Teachers (SFDC). Dr. Skeff was the internal medicine residency program director at Stanford for 2 decades. He received his MD from the University of Colorado and his PhD from the Stanford School of Education. Dr. Skeff’s academic career has focused on methods to assist faculty and residents internationally to improve their teaching effectiveness, resulting in the development of the Stanford Faculty Development Center (SFDC) Stanford Faculty Development Center . The Center’s teaching improvement course is now available online.

He has received several awards including the Stanford-wide Gores Award for Outstanding Teaching Contributions, AAMC/AOA Glaser Distinguished Teacher Award in the Clinical Sciences, the first national award for Career Achievement in Medical Education from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine’s Distinguished Medical Educator Award, the AAMC Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education, and alumni awards from the Stanford School of Medicine and the Stanford Graduate School of Education. He has served as an ACP Regent, the Macy Scholars Advisory Board, and is a Master of the American College of Physicians.

Roy Stein, M.D.

Roy Stein is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry in the UNC School of Medicine and Associate Professor Emeritus at Duke. He completed medical school at Duke, medical internship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, and psychiatry residency at Duke. He is board-certified in general and addiction psychiatry. He served for 10 years as a consultant in VA’S national MI/MET training initiative.

Dr. Stein is a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).

Mariana Wingood, PT, DPT, PhD, MPH

Mariana Wingood is an implementation scientist and a physical therapist who is a Board-Certified Specialist in Geriatrics. Dr. Wingood’s research focuses on developing and testing solutions to clinical barriers faced when healthcare providers try to assess and address patients’ inadequate physical activity levels. The primary tool she recommends healthcare providers use for addressing inadequate physical activity levels is Brief Action Planning (BAP). Her research is conducted across Wake Forest University’s Learning Health System consisting of Advocate, Aurora Health, and Atrium Health. Dr. Wingood is also actively involved with the American Physical Therapy Association, where she serves on the board of the Academy of Geriatric Physical Therapy; and American College Sports Medicine’s Exercise is Medicine initiative, where she is an appointed member of their Older Adults Committee.

Dr. Wingood serves as Chair of the Committee on Research and Development for the BAP Professional Network. She also serves on the Committee on Content, Curricula, Standards and Credentialing.

Oliver Cornell

Oliver Cornell is the Design & Marketing Associate for Oak Grove School, a private pre-k through high school  in Ojai, California. For over a decade, Oliver has assisted Dr. Cole in developing websites, online courses, and graphic design projects.  He is the website developer and IT support for the BAP Professional Network and all online courses. He is a member of the Executive Committee for the BAP Professional Network.

Janelle MacPherson

Janelle MacPherson, an undergraduate student at the University of Oregon, is Assistant Director of Operations for the BAP Professional Network. She is also Operations Assistant for the MI-MED Interest Group, a loosely organized, non-exclusive working group promoting diffusion of Motivational Interviewing in healthcare. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the BAP Professional Network.