Speakers - San Diego 2026
Eric Golnick
Co-Founder and Board Member, NAVFRW
A U.S. Navy veteran and advocate for veteran and first-responder wellness, Eric founded NAVFRW to build cross-sector collaboration that saves lives. Beyond Eric’s work with NAVFRW, he is the Co-Founder & Principal at Deep Current Strategies.
Deep Current is a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business offering marketing, public relations, government and business consulting, and film production. The work is grounded in honor, service, and a commitment to excellence, with solutions tailored to the needs of both industry and government clients.
From strategic planning to creative execution, Brothers Golnick brings ideas to life with precision and impact, serving as a trusted partner through complex challenges and ambitious creative visions.
Aimee Johnson, LCSW
Co-Founder and Board Member, NAVFRW
Aimee co-founded NAVFRW and leads the organization's financial stewardship, ensuring every dollar advances the mission. Beyond Aimee’s work with NAVFRW, she is a licensed clinical social worker, suicide prevention and gun safety specialist with vast experience working with veterans. Aimee is an alumna of the George W. Bush Presidential Center’s Stand-To Veteran Leadership Program and the Principal at Aimee J Consulting.
Aimee J Consulting partners with organizations advancing Veteran services, healthcare, and public sector innovation—offering consulting, project leadership, sales strategy, and marketing support to move partners from vision to measurable impact.
Dr. Peter Martin, MD, FACS
National Physician Lead, Military Health Team, Kaiser PermanenteDr. Martin served 25 years in the Navy, earned his MD from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, completed residency in Head and Neck Surgery at Naval Medical Center San Diego, and completed a fellowship in Head and Neck Oncologic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford. He participated in multiple shipboard deployments, including supporting forces in Beirut and Operation Desert Storm, and served as Director for Surgical Services at Naval Medical Center San Diego, the largest surgical enterprise in the Department of Defense, from 1998 to 2003.
After retiring from the Navy, Dr. Martin joined Kaiser Permanente as Chief of Head and Neck Surgery and Regional Lead for Head and Neck Cancer in Southern California. As Assistant Area Medical Director for Surgical Services in San Diego, he has championed programs between Navy Medicine and Kaiser San Diego, strengthening graduate medical education, operational readiness, and clinical experience for critical care staff, and still practices as an Emeritus Surgeon on complex cancer cases.
Tyler Martin
Founder, Street Tales Network
Tyler is a seasoned law enforcement professional, keynote speaker, author, podcast host, and media entrepreneur with more than 15 years of distinguished service in law enforcement and public service. His career began with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and the Maine State Police, and later included service with the United States Secret Service, where he held a wide range of operational and leadership roles alongside public safety professionals worldwide.
Drawing on that experience, Tyler is deeply committed to humanizing the badge. He founded Street Tales Network, a media platform preserving real stories from law enforcement, military, and first responder professionals, and hosts the Street Tales Podcast and the Fifty Sixin Podcast, where he leads conversations about leadership, identity, culture, and life beyond the uniform. He's also the author of Street Tales Volume 1.
The Honorable Terri Tanielian
Strategic Advisory and Policy ExpertThe Honorable Terri Tanielian has advised two United States presidents and Congress. Most recently, she served in the Biden-Harris Administration, where she drove the president's priorities on services for veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors, and on transforming how the country addresses behavioral health. She was the lead White House official on the PACT Act, which has delivered new disability benefits related to military toxic exposure to over 1.2 million veterans and 12,000 survivors, and she led the White House Strategy to Reduce Military and Veteran Suicide, which helped launch the first federally funded lethal means safety campaign.
Prior to her appointment, she was a Senior Behavioral Scientist at RAND, where she led studies assessing veterans' needs, including work in the Detroit metro area and New York State, and a large longitudinal study of military families across the deployment cycle. As the former director of the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research, she co-directed Invisible Wounds of War and RAND's Hidden Heroes, and she has testified before Congress multiple times, with over 100 peer-reviewed publications to her name.
Mishellene "Misha" McKinney, MHA, RN, OCN
Vice President of Clinical Programs, Kaiser PermanenteMisha uses implementation science to guide the integration of evidence into care delivery and designs equitable, patient-informed interventions across Kaiser's clinical programs.
She joined Kaiser Permanente in 2021 from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, where she served as Director of Clinical Pathways and Implementation Science, bringing that background in translating research into practice to her current role.
Darrell "Doc" Roberts
President, California Professional Firefighters
Doc is a 25-year veteran firefighter with the Chula Vista Fire Department, serving his sixth term as president of Chula Vista Firefighters, Local 2180. He rose through the ranks to battalion chief and paramedic, serves as a rescue team manager for FEMA's Urban Search and Rescue California Task Force 8, and graduated from the Harvard Trade Union Program.
Darrell served six years as CPF's 1st District Vice President before his 2026 election as CPF President, where he now represents 38,000 union firefighters and EMS personnel statewide. He also co-chairs the California Firefighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee and chairs the nonprofit California Fire Foundation, which supports families of fallen firefighters and awards grants for community resilience.
San Diego Area Physician Marketing Lead and Southern California Regional Physician Director for Value Demonstration, Kaiser PermanenteDr. Richard Moon, MD
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Silicon Valley, Dr. Moon attended college and medical school at Boston University before returning to California for an internal medicine residency at LA County and USC Medical Center. In 2004, he moved to San Diego to begin his now 22-year career with Kaiser Permanente, first in a blended primary care and inpatient practice and now as a hospitalist, with leadership roles in EMR adoption, quality improvement, and Care Without Delay.
For the last four years, he's served on the Physician Ambassador team, partnering with Kaiser's Sales and Marketing teams to explain how integrated care improves quality, safety, service, and access for veterans and first responders. He now leads a team of 12 physician ambassadors as the San Diego Area Physician Marketing Lead.
Vickie Speed
Founder and CEO, Blue Cancer Connect
After losing her husband, Detective Mitch Speed of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, to job-related cancer in 2018, Vickie transformed personal loss into a mission focused on officer wellness, advocacy, and career preservation. She left a 32-year career in project management and accounting, where she oversaw $10 to 20 million public works projects, after seeing the gap in cancer awareness and screening support for officers.
Recognized nationwide as a leading advocate for law enforcement cancer awareness, Vickie has led agency-level initiatives on officer wellness, peer support, and career preservation after diagnosis, equipping departments with frameworks to support affected officers while maintaining dignity and professional continuity. In 2024, Blue Cancer Connect partnered with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to launch the country's first comprehensive law enforcement cancer wellness program.
California State Director and National Training Program Director,
Firefighter Cancer Support NetworkScott Jennie
Scott leads FCSN's efforts providing critical resources, mentorship, and advocacy for firefighters, EMS workers, and their families facing cancer diagnoses. He chairs the Firefighter Cancer Awareness Month committee, collaborating with the International Association of Firefighters to produce educational campaigns on cancer prevention and best practices, and has contributed to the FCSN White Paper, "Doing It Right: Reducing Cancer in the Fire Service."
Scott also co-chairs the FRANTIC committee addressing tobacco and nicotine use in California's fire service. With over 35 years in the fire service, he recently retired as a Fire Captain/Paramedic with the Laguna Beach Fire Department and continues presenting on occupational cancer prevention at national conferences.
Lisa Gatti
Founder and CEO, Pal-O-Mine Equestrian
Lisa's lifelong love of horses and teaching inspired her to launch Pal-O-Mine Equestrian, a nonprofit that uses horses to support growth, learning, and healing for children and adults with disabilities, veterans, first responders, adjudicated youth, survivors of abuse and trauma, and individuals with Alzheimer's and their caregivers. Since its 1995 founding, the organization has grown to serve more than 400 students weekly at its 13-acre Islandia, New York campus, home to 25 specially trained horses, a therapeutic horticulture program, and a wellness and residential retreat center.
Lisa's leadership extends internationally. She served as U.S. Team Leader for the Equestrian Paralympic Team in 1996 and 2000, representing the team in Atlanta and Sydney, and she chairs the board of Eagala. She's received numerous leadership and business awards, including the 2026 Spes Unica Award from her alma mater, St. Joseph's University.
Dora Lupo, LMHC
Clinical Director, Pal-O-Mine Equestrian
Dora is a distinguished mental health professional, clinical leader, and educator specializing in trauma-informed care and equine-assisted psychotherapy, deeply committed to serving those in high-stress professions. At Pal-O-Mine, she oversees clinical operations, designs educational training programs, and facilitates wellness and team-building groups, with particular focus on military personnel, veterans, and first responders.
An internationally recognized leader in her field, Dora chairs the Ethics Committee for the international Eagala organization, is an Eagala Certified Mental Health Professional, and holds an individual Military Designation reflecting her expertise in treating service members. Prior to Pal-O-Mine, she served with the Nassau County Department of Behavioral Health, and she teaches as an Adjunct Professor at Long Island University, which named her a 2026 Health Care Hero.
Lieutenant Corey Stasch
Wellness Unit, San Diego Police Department
Lieutenant Stasch is a San Diego native who earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from San Diego State University before joining SDPD in 2007. Throughout his career, he's served on the Primary Response Team (SWAT), as a Field Training Officer, and as a K-9 Handler, holding each role as an officer and later as a supervisor.
Lieutenant Stasch was promoted to lieutenant in 2024, first as Field Lieutenant before taking over the Wellness Unit in 2025. He now oversees a staff of two sergeants, two officers, and one professional staff employee; the role also covers the Medical Assistance Unit and works closely with the city's Risk Management Division.
Sheena Bice, LCMHC, MLADC, CCTP
Sheena holds a master's degree in mental health counseling from New England College and has worked in community mental health, private practice, and the corrections system, where she developed a gender-specific wellness curriculum for female offenders to reduce recidivism. She served in the United States Marine Corps and is a proud military spouse and a trauma therapist since 2012, having worked across emergency psychiatric evaluation and crisis stabilization before finding her focus in 2017 on building outpatient and training programs for veterans, service members, and first responders that have helped reduce the stigma keeping this population from care.
She currently serves as Co-Chair of the Justice Involved Veterans Task Force, a voting member of the Joint Military Civilian Partnership Committee and the New Hampshire Provider Association Board, and a member of the Suicide Prevention Council's Military and Veteran Subcommittee and the Military Steering Committee.
Jillian Barrett
Director of Clinical Outreach, First Responder Wellness
Jillian works closely with public safety agencies, department leadership, peer support teams, wellness coordinators, and behavioral health professionals to strengthen access to culturally competent mental health resources for first responders. Her work focuses on building meaningful partnerships between agencies and behavioral health providers, improving pathways to care, and helping departments understand the full continuum of support available to their members, from prevention and peer support through clinical treatment.
With deep family roots in both law enforcement and the military, Jillian has a personal connection to the first responder community that drives her commitment to reducing barriers to care and ensuring first responders and their families know where to turn before, during, and after a crisis.
Dr. Keith Montgomery
Psychiatrist, Kaiser Permanente
Dr. Montgomery is a recipient of a Health Professions Scholarship from the United States Air Force and a graduate of Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He completed a four-year psychiatry residency in a combined Air Force and civilian program at Wright State University, then served as Medical Director of the Mental Health Flight at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, deploying to Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan, to treat active-duty members and oversee psychiatric aeromedical evacuation to Landstuhl, Germany.
After his military service, he's worked for Kaiser Permanente for 14 years across outpatient, consultation-liaison, and inpatient psychiatry, performing procedures including transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroconvulsive therapy. He's board-certified in both Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine.
Dr. Girish Srinivasan
CTO, Behavidence
Girish holds an MS in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) and a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. With 20+ years in medical technology, his career spans R&D and product leadership at Toshiba Medical, GE Healthcare, and Samsung Healthcare. His research focus is digital phenotyping for precision healthcare.
Dr. Jolee Brunton
Chief Psychologist, Focus Psychological Services
Dr. Brunton founded Focus Psychological Services in 1984 to provide clinical services to first responders in the San Diego area, and she serves as chief psychologist for both the San Diego Police and Fire-Rescue Departments. For more than 30 years she's counseled hundreds of firefighters, police, paramedics, EMTs, and civilian public safety employees and their families, and she provides consultation and training on critical incident stress management, PTSD, workplace violence prevention, organizational consultation, and conflict management.
Dr. Brunton has over 20 years of experience in the assessment, management, and treatment of acute psychiatric patients, including those at risk for violence, as the clinical supervisor for inpatient psychiatric centers. She's been an invited participant in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's symposia on police psychology and is certified in hostage negotiation through the Administration of Justice at California State University, San Jose, with extensive experience in workplace crisis and trauma intervention and alternative dispute resolution.
Paul Jenkins
President and CEO, Bancroft Architects + Engineers
Paul is President and CEO of Bancroft Architects + Engineers, one of the nation's leading design firms specializing in highly technical facilities, including hospitals, life science centers, pharmaceutical manufacturing plants, and laboratories. He founded the firm as a service-disabled veteran-owned engineering business, naming it after George Bancroft, the Secretary of the Navy who established the U.S. Naval Academy, before growing it into the merged architecture and engineering practice it is today.
Over the past quarter century, Bancroft has designed millions of square feet of behavioral health centers for clients nationwide. Paul holds an engineering degree from the U.S. Naval Academy and an MD/MBA from the University of Chicago, and recently completed dual doctorates in biomedical engineering and medical systems engineering at Colorado State University.
Leah Christensen, LCSW
Principal, Christensen Strategies LLC
Leah is a strategic healthcare leader and consultant with more than 20 years of experience designing and scaling programs that improve outcomes for veterans, families, and caregivers, providing consulting services across operations, clinical practice, and caregiving matters. Previously, she held senior leadership positions at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including more than 13 years directing the VA's Caregiver Support Program.
Leah is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Oregon and California, a George W. Bush Institute Stand-To Veteran Leadership Scholar, and has contributed to six publications in professional journals while serving on multiple boards and advisory committees. She holds a Master of Social Work from Portland State University and a BA in Psychology from Seattle University.
Christopher Heslin, MS, CNS
Administrative Director, Positive Choice Integrative Wellness Center, Kaiser Permanente
Chris leads a department of over 80 staff, educators, and physicians at Kaiser Permanente's Positive Choice Integrative Wellness Center. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Physiology and Nutrition from Penn State and master's degrees in both Nutritional Sciences and Exercise Physiology from San Diego State, and has worked in the health, wellness, and weight management field for over 25 years, helping facilitate healthy behavior change through motivational interviewing, goal setting, and accountability support.
Chris is a three-time Ironman finisher and an ex-collegiate soccer player. In his free time, he enjoys the outdoors, plant-based cooking, volunteering at a local dog rescue shelter, and his three young boys.
Wayne Sasso, M.Ed.
Cognitive Performance Specialist, O2X Human Performance
Wayne has a proven track record of working with tactical populations, improving performance through comprehensive assessments and tailored training programs that help individuals excel under pressure while building resilience and effective teamwork.
He works with public safety departments on contract with O2X Human Performance, which provides science-backed programs to hundreds of public safety departments, federal agencies, and the military. Note: his bio is carried over from a prior event and is worth a quick reconfirm with Wayne before print.
D'Juan Wilcher
Deputy Director of Veteran and Military Family Programs, George W. Bush Institute
D'Juan leads a national portfolio spanning health and wellbeing, economic opportunity, education access, and civic engagement. He convenes and supports the Veteran Wellness Alliance, a cross-sector coalition of 20 nonprofit organizations, including 10 clinical providers and 10 peer connector organizations, that collectively align and streamline wellness delivery to the veteran community. His work extends from programs to policy, including a slate of veteran workforce and education access recommendations incorporated into the Senate National Veterans Strategy Act.
A U.S. Navy veteran with three deployments, D'Juan is a Term Member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Truman National Security Project, Board Secretary of Veterans for All Voters, and a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He holds an MBA from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and is a Distinguished Alum of Indiana University. He's a Gary, Indiana native who now lives in Dallas with his wife and three sons, and away from work, he coaches his son's basketball team and mentors youth in his community.
Sam Neuhauser
Experienced Program & Operations Manager | Veteran & Youth Mentor
Sam oversees physical training and professional development at the Palomar College Regional Fire Academy. LinkedIn not confirmed. Sam is a USMC veteran and former firefighter with more than 15 years of experience in training, instruction, and personnel development across the military and public safety sectors.
Specializing in tactical medicine, technical rescue, and physical fitness, he currently oversees physical training and professional development at the Palomar College Regional Fire Academy.
Shawn Kitchell
CEO, Regal Products, LLC
Shawn leads Regal Products, formed through Salt Creek Capital's acquisition of Regal Industrial Sales and Firearm Safety Devices Corp., a company with more than 30 years of leadership in firearm safety solutions and accessories for the shooting, hunting, and outdoor sporting industries. Under his leadership, Regal was awarded a Veterans Affairs Innovation Contract to pilot SecureMe, a discreet, movement-sensing firearm storage technology developed in collaboration with UC Anschutz researchers as part of a data-driven approach to suicide prevention.
SecureMe alerts gun owners via smartphone if a stored firearm is moved without authorization, supporting lethal means safety in the home without compromising privacy or personal agency. Shawn has represented Regal's suicide prevention work at national venues including the VA/DoD Suicide Prevention Conference and SOF Week.
Dr. Erin Kelly, DrPH, MA
Director of Practice, Firearm Injury Prevention Initiative, University of Colorado Anschutz
Erin is also a Research Associate with the Colorado School of Public Health's Injury and Violence Prevention Center, bringing more than 15 years of public health expertise in firearm injury prevention, suicide and violence prevention, and upstream prevention through community-engaged, mixed-methods approaches.
In her role, she leads the initiative's firearm injury data infrastructure, translational and dissemination work, and program development, including the Safe Starts at Home and FIP-LEAD initiatives, translating evidence-based strategies into practical tools for practitioners and communities.
Dr. Kyleanne (Ky) Hunter
CEO, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
Dr. Hunter sets IAVA's strategic direction as a dedicated, lifelong servant leader committed to inspiring veterans to reach their full potential. A highly decorated Marine Corps combat veteran, she deployed multiple times to Iraq and Afghanistan as an AH-1W Super Cobra attack pilot and later served in the Office of Legislative Affairs.
Before IAVA, she led the Women, Peace, and Security Initiative at the RAND National Security Research Division, directed the Strategy and Warfare Center at the U.S. Air Force Academy, and served as Vice President of Programs at Brady: United Against Gun Violence. She holds a BS in Foreign Service from Georgetown and a Master's and PhD in International Security Studies and Political Science from the University of Denver; has testified before Congress on military and veteran issues; and co-authored Invisible Veterans: What Happens when Military Women Become Civilians Again.
Director of Data and Analytics Innovation, Office of Healthcare Innovation and Learning, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Dr. Amanda Lienau
Dr. Lienau focuses on increasing the meaningful use of information to expand access to care, improve equitable outcomes, and enhance quality of life for veterans, drawing on expertise in systems change, preventive care, and health communication.
Her professional interests center on empowerment, equity, and engagement, and she holds a PhD in Counseling Psychology from The Ohio State University.