SPEAKERS

Prevention & Education Manager
Recover Alaska
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Marlene M Adams, I am Inupiaq, born in Kotzebue raised in Fairbanks and Kenai Alaska. I am grateful to be in recovery. My family relations span across the North with many residing out of state. I have one adult child who I raised as a single Mom and she resides in Anchorage. When asked about why I love Prevention I say it started when I gave birth to my child because I wanted a different world for her that included education around healthy choices, breaking the cycles and advocating for herself. Some of my favorite things to do include hiking year-round, berry picking, yoga, traveling to new places and spending time laughing with family and friends.

Jose Arellano
Co-Director of Navigation and Case Management
Homeboy Industries
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Jose Arellano is Co-Director of Navigation and Case Management at Homeboy Industries, training individuals how to transition out of gang culture and regain their lives. Arellano’s family was in gang culture. Despite excelling at school, Arellano got involved with a gang by age 12. Three years later, he was in jail for the first time. Arellano said there was always someone to give him hope even in the darkest times, including when he was facing a life sentence in prison. He started as a trainee himself and now today helps trainees make those life changes.

Carlos Diaz
Peer Support Specialist
Volunteers of America
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Charles “Carlos” Diaz is a 2018 graduate of Anchorage Therapeutic Court, is a certified Peer Support Facilitator and Board Chair for the Alaska Therapeutic Court Alumni Group. Carlos facilitates Peer Support groups for AKTCA and also leads the AKTCA Victim’s Impact Panel for the State of Alaska, using Therapeutic Court Participants as presenters to help first time DUI offenders see the impacts of addiction. He is extremely active within the local recovery field and works tirelessly to be come more involved in Recovery at both the state and national levels. Carlos lives in Anchorage and works in his family business and has also recently accepted a job in the recovery field with Volunteers of America. Carlos’ vision and passion has led to the continued expansion and development of the AKTCA.

Jennifer Douglas
Peer Support Specialist
Alaskan AIDS Assistance Association (Four A’s)
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Program Director
Ionia & MUSKEG Wellness
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Eliza Eller is a founding mother of the bustling peer support village of Ionia – a cooperative eco-village in Kasilof (see www.ionia.org). Eliza’s recipe for staying sane and well includes wholesome plant based foods, close family and peer support, and simple seasonal activities such as gardening, natural building and berry picking. She is a peer support trainer who has practiced a holistic macrobiotic lifestyle for thirty years, and has thirteen beautiful, talented children as well as six young grandchildren, with whom she loves to cook, go sledding and read books. Eliza manages non-profit grants, and directs MUSKEG Wellness – for wellness and peer support trainings and workshops around Alaska. She is interested in projects underlining the connection between nature, self and community.

Jenifer Galvan
Peer Support Program & Training Manager
Alaska Behavioral Health
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Jenifer Galvan, BA, CPC-S, CPSP III, CDC I is a trauma survivor and has been in recovery for sixteen years. For the last fourteen years, she’s worked as a peer support professional on ACT (assertive community treatment team), IOP (intensive outpatient), transitional housing, and inpatient teams, as well as manning the suicide hotline. Today, she is the Peer Support Program & Training Manager at Alaska Behavioral Health, serves on multiple committees and boards, and over the last two years has trained nearly six hundred peer support professionals across the great state of Alaska. It has been her honor to serve her fellow peers and she looks forward to many future opportunities.

Naturopathic Physician
Head to Toe Holistic Healthcare, LLC
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Tara Kern
Cultural Peer Support Specialist
Cook Inlet Tribal Council
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Sarah Koogle
Director of Adult Services
Alaska Behavioral Health
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Keyda Lampkin
Lead Peer Support Professional 2
Alaska Behavioral Health Fairbanks
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“My goal is to help as many people as I can to gain and maintain recovery. I aspire to obtain my PSP3-S and become a manager with my current company by this time next year. I’m a kid at heart and love to color and paint abstract art”.

Ptery Lieght
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Ptery Lieght is a long time activist for mental health rights and has also spent a great deal of time with learning alternative medicines. He now supports mindfulness as a deep level of healing and is driven to grow community.

Chief Operating Officer
Kiva Centers
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Sean Morton
Mobile Crisis Team Program Manager
Wasilla, AK
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Sean Morton has 14 years clean and sober, and his sober date being July 20, 2008. Initially he served as a youth and family pastor for a variety of churches and denominations for a decade. Specifically serving youth that struggled with addiction and/or that had family members in addiction. I came to AK in January of 2020 to work at True North Recovery as an OP Peer Support Specialist. I served in that role for 2 years before transitioning into crisis services. I then became the Mobile Crisis Team Program Manager in December of 2022. He has been featured in many podcasts on peer support and shares his experiences with others. “What I want people to know about people suffering from SUD is that we are in fact people. It’s easy to box someone in and vilify them as a junkie, addict, or drunk and hold those labels over them, forgetting that we are people, hurting, scared, trying to survive people. And the best way for a person to overcome their addiction is to be part of a community, a loving, boundary-setting, generous community.”

Access to Care Program Manager
Recover Alaska
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Ryen Richards
Peer Support Specialist
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Ryen Aavurauq Richards is a Traditional Peer Support Specialist, Peer Support Trainer, and Usui Reiki Master/Teacher, currently working as a Case Manager with Henning Inc. She is a proud single mother and Iñupiaq woman born at Qikiktagruk (Kotzebue), and raised in the Mat-Su Valley Alaska. Ryen has lived experience in many challenging areas of life; surviving suicide attempts, domestic violence, alcoholism/addiction, sexual assault, sex work, homelessness, and symptoms of mental illness. She identifies as a person in recovery, with 2.5 years sober from alcohol and 6 years sober from other substances. Her work experience proves over 1.5 decades in effective communication with a wide range of peoples. With a successful early career in sales, 4 years ago she transitioned into social work as a peer navigator, and has since served as a peer support specialist, reiki master practitioner, peer support trainer, parent advocate, case manager, housing specialist in the homeless community, and more. She enjoys spending time in nature, hiking, cold water immersion, breathwork, meditation, berry picking, and fishing. Ryen is dedicated to serving her communities in a good way, no matter the challenge.

Sasha Tsurnos
Peer Support Specialist
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Sasha was born and raised in Northern California, building her career as a peer through lived experience. 10/11/ 2007 she chose a different journey and has been free from mood- and mind-altering substances since. Moving to Anchorage Alaska in 2009 Sasha was introduced to opportunities where her lived experience offered support to other like- minded individuals and professionals. This was the catalyst that created her passion for creating platforms for individuals and communities to be heard and validated through peer support services. Sasha uses her personal and professional lived experience to offer support and training to organizations that are integrating and implementing peer support specialists across all continuums of care, professional development, and program development. Sasha’s education includes: Masters in Social Work, Peer Support Professional III Certification, and Chemical Dependency Counselor Supervisor Certification.

Sarah Weber
Family Support Coordinator
Volunteers of America, Alaska
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Sarah Weber is a lifelong Alaskan. Alongside her husband of 21 years has raised their 4 children right here in Anchorage. After a long battle with addiction that brought her to the edge of death, Sarah sought recovery and has been sober since October of 2017. Sarah joined a recovery program in early 2018, during her 8 months in treatment is where she learned the power of peers. It was this experience that lit a fire in Sarah, to be the resource she wished she’d had when she was struggling. She used the covid closures to find trainings and educational opportunities, earning her Peer Support Specialist certification in January of 2021. In June 2021 Sarah became the Family Support Coordinator for VOA AK, where she works alongside youth struggling with substance misuse and their families. As a Peer Support with a focus on the family she works to help families reconnect, recover, heal, and break the cycle of addiction. “It wasn’t just me that needed recovery, it was my whole family.

Venus Woods