Senior Center Summit: Mental Wellness Session 3

Marina Keers is a committed advocate for individual self-sufficiency. Marina was hired as the Executive Director of Hendricks County Senior Services in February 2012. Marina is a champion for the needs and desires of vulnerable people and aging adults in her community. She has a degree in Advertising and Public Relations from Franklin College and a Master’s in Public Affairs from Indiana University. Marina serves on the board of Leadership Hendricks County and the Senior Center Coalition of Indiana.  

Melanie Lachman is the Program Coordinator for the award-winning UPSLIDE program at the Tallahassee Senior Center where she helps connect older adults with activities and programs with the goal of enhancing mental, emotional and physical health to provide a gateway for people to become socially engaged within the community and connected to other people.

Melanie, a licensed clinical social worker who holds a level II certification in trauma and resilience, has 24 years of experience doing individual and group counseling and community outreach. She has a special interest in trauma and is trained in EMDR. She came to the Senior Center from Big Bend Hospice where she worked for 14 years as a grief counselor in rural Wakulla and Franklin counties. Prior to that, Melanie worked as a substance abuse counselor in a women’s program and with at-risk youth at DISC Village.

In addition to her strong clinical counseling background, Melanie’s project development and public speaking skills make her an excellent fit to administer the UPSLIDE program and interface with local agencies to help identify at-risk adults in the community who might benefit from participation. Melanie is passionate about helping people realize their worth and reach their full potential regardless of age

Patrick J. Raue, PhD is Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington. He received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from SUNY Stony Brook in 1995.

Dr. Raue conducts NIMH-supported research on training non-specialists in behavioral interventions; digital mental health interventions; patient preferences and shared decision-making approaches for depression; and the effectiveness of psychotherapy for older adults.

Dr. Raue is Associate Director for Evidence-Based Psychosocial Interventions at the AIMS Center, and Director of the National Network of PST Clinicians, Trainers & Researchers. In these roles, he develops and leads implementation and training programs in a variety of behavioral health interventions.      

Amber Gum, Ph.D., is Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Mental Health Law and Policy at the University of South Florida in Tampa. She is also Professor and Psychologist in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine, at USF Health. Dr. Gum conducts research to integrate mental health services and behavioral interventions into healthcare and aging service settings, and she provides integrated behavioral health services in adult primary care. She obtained her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Kansas in 2002, and she completed a postdoctoral fellowship in mental health services research at the University of California, San Francisco in 2004. She has received research funding as Principal Investigator from the National Institute of Mental Health, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, Research Retirement Foundation, and other sources, with current funding from NIMH and PCORI. In 2016, she was a U.S. Fulbright Scholar at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. To date, she has authored or co-authored 66 peer-reviewed journal articles and 16 book chapters.