Adrienne Allen, MSW, LCSW
Adrienne has been practicing MI since 2015 and training MI since 2016. She joined the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers in 2020. Adrienne has worked in health care settings for over 15 years, including long-term care management, health promotion and organizational development. She completed additional coursework in coaching and coding of MI. In addition to training numerous health care professionals in Motivational Interviewing, she participated in peer learning implementation and facilitated a MI coding evaluation and feedback program. Adrienne is a certified professional coach, receiving her ACC from the ICF in 2022. Currently, she trains MI in a variety of settings, provides coding and coaching to MI learners, and is a social work field faculty instructor at the UW–Madison Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work.
Ali Hall, JD
Ali has designed and facilitated thousands of Motivational Interviewing workshops for behavioral health and substance use recovery providers, mental health practitioners, health care providers, child and family services providers, wraparound providers, senior service providers, criminal justice professionals, psychologists and psychiatrists and provides training for trainers in evidence-based practices. Ali regularly provides skills development coaching for interdisciplinary health provider teams and is the codeveloper of the Motivational Interviewing Competency Assessment (MICA), a coding and coaching tool for MI skill improvement. Ali is the coauthor of the book Motivational Interviewing for Mental Health Clinicians: A Toolkit for Skils Enhancement (2021).
Amy Gunderson, CSW, LPC
Amy is a clinical mental health counselor at Catalpa Health, a large pediatric behavioral health organization in northeastern Wisconsin that provides mental health services for three major hospital systems in the area (Ascension, Children’s Wisconsin and ThedaCare). Amy has worked in the human services field throughout her career as a social worker and licensed professional counselor. In addition to providing direct care to children and their families, Amy is a supervisor within Catalpa’s training program for masters-level clinicians earning hours for licensure. She is also a clinical manager helping to oversee licensed providers in Catalpa’s general outpatient clinic as well as the Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy specialty clinic. Amy has been certified in TFCBT since 2014, with invitation to advance this specialization through participation in a small national cohort of supervisors facilitated by the developers of TFCBT. She has participated in the Region 2 Anti-Human Trafficking Advanced Training in Motivational Interviewing. Amy finds MI to be a powerful and impactful form of intervention and would like to one day join the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT).
Amy Parins, DMSc, PA-C
Amy has clinical experience in addiction medicine, internal medicine and behavioral health. She is the medical director of Salvation Army MEDiC clinic and is passionate about caring for the most vulnerable patient populations. Amy has over 10 years of experience using Motivational Interviewing in clinical practice and in training healthcare professionals in MI at the state and national level.
Beth Martin, RPh, PhD, FAPhA
Beth is a professor (CHS) and chair in the Pharmacy Practice and Translational Research Division, and Assistant Dean for Teaching & Learning, at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy. Her work combines her strong passion for well-designed educational programs and assessments with principles of health behavior change. Both influence her clinical practice and professional teaching where she promotes the optimal use of motivational interviewing to improve patient outcomes. Her clinical expertise is in the areas of migraine headache, tobacco cessation, and older adult medication management and fall prevention.
Brittney Fair, MSW
Brittney Fair works at Rogers Behavioral Health as a training specialist. In this role she facilitates trainings for leaders in the nonprofit, education and health care sectors across the country. Brittney also facilitates programming for staff at Rogers Behavioral Health and with parents in the community. Brittney is the newest member to the Community Learning and Engagement Team at Rogers. Prior to joining the team, Brittney worked for Meta House as a senior residential support specialist and a lead care coordinator for Wisconsin Community Services with the mental health and AODA population. Brittney earned her BSe in psychology and BA in sociology from the University of Wisconsin–Parkside. Brittney received her Master of Social Work from Concordia University Wisconsin and is an advanced practicing social worker, working towards becoming a licensed social worker in Wisconsin.
Erika Karger-Gatzo, LCSW
Erica is the program coordinator for the education department at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in St. Joseph, MN. As a licensed clinical social worker, she has more than 15 years of experience in higher education, predominantly in student mental health and health promotion. Erica has recently been invited to complete the Motivational Interviewing Training of New Trainers in October 2023 and is honored to be joining MINT.
Gail Kowalkowski
Gail has over 34 years of experience in the field of trauma, working in varying roles within the field of social welfare. Gail worked in corrections for 18 years as a probation/parole agent and corrections program specialist. Additionally, Gail has experience in the field working at Sinai Hospital and West Allis Memorial Hospital for nine years as a crisis counselor at the Sexual Assault Treatment Center. For the past seven years, Gail has worked specifically with adolescents in the field of youth justice and child protective services serving as a youth justice social worker and mental health counselor. Presently, Gail is a certified advanced practice social worker in the State of Wisconsin, working on her clinical hours post-graduate to become a licensed clinical social worker. In addition, Gail is working on a dual licensure for substance use counseling hours as a substance abuse counselor in training in the State of Wisconsin at Sheboygan County Health & Human Services. Gail has served as an instructor for Sheboygan County Health & Human Services Agency training crisis prevention since 2018. Gail participated with a group of professionals in the Region 2 Anti-Human Trafficking Advanced Training in Motivational Interviewing from August 2022 until March 2023.
Jen Waletzko Johnson
Jen is the director for health promotion, prevention and recovery at St. Cloud State University in St. Cloud, MN. She has 13 years of experience in higher education and utilizes Motivational Interviewing in her work with college students. Her passion is helping students find and strengthen their “why” to enhance their purpose and focus in life.
Jennifer Patterson, MSSW, APSW, CPC
Jennifer is currently a care management education specialist at My Choice Wisconsin. She has worked in the social work field for 25 years and facilitated MI trainings for social workers and nurses for five years. Jenny is an experienced coder, trained in the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity instrument (MITI V4.2.1), providing feedback and coaching to learners. She is also a certified, experienced life coach. Jenny became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) in 2020.
Jenny Rodefeld, MSW, LCSW
Jenny has over 20 years of experience working in health care and is passionate about empowering practitioners and leaders with the tools they need to support consumers. Throughout her career, she’s held roles in social work, leadership and organizational development. She currently works for UnityPoint Health as a senior talent management and organizational development consultant. She’s gained experience in implementing Motivational Interviewing programs (including training, coding and peer learning), supporting equity and inclusion efforts, facilitating Lean Six Sigma process improvement, leading leadership development workshops and guiding/overseeing organizational training and educational efforts. Jenny joined the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) in 2016.
Jesse Jonesberg
Jesse is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) with a focus on compassion, holistic mental health and equity. He became a member of MINT in 2015, and in 2016 cofounded what would become the Inclusion and Diversity Advisory Committee (IDAC) in MINT. He has over a decade of experience serving folks in community mental health settings through a variety of roles. During his career as a social worker, Jesse has served as a community support specialist, intake specialist, supervisor, manager, academic advisor and professor, trainer and even executive director of a small nonprofit. Jesse has been trained in a variety of helping and therapy approaches and is currently working towards certification in self-compassion in psychotherapy (SCIP) and brainspotting (BSP). Jesse currently provides therapy to individuals in mental health and substance use recovery, and he offers trainings in MI, Cultural Humility, and Mindful Self-Compassion.
Laura Saunders, MSSW
Laura is the Great Lakes Addiction, Mental Health and Prevention Technology Transfer Center state coordinator. Her position is housed at UW–Madison, where she’s worked since 1998. Since 2001, Laura has designed and facilitated more than 300 Motivational Interviewing trainings in multiple formats. Laura is an experienced coder and has provided feedback and coaching to hundreds of learners. She joined the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) in 2006 and is an active member of the Wisconsin MINT group.
Lauren Hollie, APSW
Lauren Hollie is a certified advanced practice social worker in the State of Wisconsin. Lauren has worked extensively with youth and families over the past 10 years within the child welfare system serving in roles such as: residential treatment center case manager at Rawhide, Inc.; youth justice social worker at Waupaca County; and youth justice social work specialist at Outagamie County. Lauren served in the role of Region 2 Anti-Human Trafficking Specialist from January 2020 to April 2023. Lauren participated in and led a group of professionals through advanced training in Motivational Interviewing and has demonstrated proficiency in the use of Motivational Interviewing based on the MITI coding tool.
Lee Wintraub, MPH, CHES
Lee is a coordinator of wellbeing at University of Wisconsin–Madison Recreation & Wellbeing. She oversees UW–Madison’s peer-to-peer wellness coaching program and trains student coaches on how to integrate Motivational Interviewing skills into their coaching practices. Lee has a passion for teaching inside and outside of the classroom and especially loves working with the college student population.
Maurice Bulls, MEd
Maurice Bulls is the executive director of Behavior Change Consulting and also serves as lead trainer, program developer and MI coach. He is an active member in the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. His current focus is on adapting MI to map on to the language of minority clients and staff. Maurice’s graduate work focused on cooperative learning, an evidence-based system for teaching students in small group settings, using highly specified instructional strategies to encourage students to work together in teams towards a common goal while helping each other learn. He has expanded the MI workshops to incorporate these strategies as well as fun, interactive training activities. In addition, Maurice has over 22 years of experience in inner city school settings and has been involved in manual development for new interventions. He is currently working on a book concentrating on the areas of cultural humility and antiracism strategies to assist counselors and therapists to better understand their clients.
Melody Cole, MS, RDN, CD
Melody is an experienced clinician and consultant who provides Motivational Interviewing for a variety of professionals at UW Health. In addition to clinical training, Melody integrates MI-enabled content into strategic initiatives and organizational change. Throughout her career, she has been instrumental in championing MI-informed leadership skills that support process improvement and lean management. Melody enjoys developing and coaching others in an MI-consistent communication style that builds trust and establishes person-centered relationships. Melody became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) in Berlin, Germany, in 2015. She has a keen interest in MI in Leadership and MI in Medical Groups and is an active member of the Wisconsin MINT community.
Mia Croyle, MA
Mia is a behavioral health project specialist with MetaStar, a quality improvement organization that works with health care providers to continually improve the quality of care. Mia has worked in a variety of behavioral health and primary care settings and is a sought-after trainer in Motivational Interviewing. Mia has an MA in clinical mental health counseling from Valparaiso University and joined the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) in 2011.
Michelle L. Drapkin, PhD
Michelle is a licensed psychologist who has worked as a trainer and clinician for nearly 20 years. Her prior experience includes serving as national Motivational Enhancement Therapy training program coordinator for the Department of Veterans Affairs. She is currently the owner/director of the CBT Center of Central NJ LLC, where she sees a limited number of patients in private practice. Michelle has been a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers for over 15 years. She has conducted MI training in a variety of settings and is an author of an upcoming client-facing book for New Harbinger publications using Motivational Interviewing to support positive behavior change.
Monica Caldwell
Monica is a school mental health consultant with the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and a MINT trainer. She has been a social worker for 37 years, with half of her career in child welfare/mental health positions and the other half in schools. She is a strong advocate for youth- and family-driven practices that encourage us to have greater impact through collaboration at all levels. She is excited about DPI’s updated School Mental Health Framework, which guides districts and their partners to provide a comprehensive continuum of support that will enhance the well-being and resilience of children, families and educators in the communities where we live, work and play.
Scott Caldwell, MS, MA, CSAC
Scott’s three decades in human services have been intertwined with MI. First learning about the practice as a counseling psychology graduate student (2000), Scott began submitting practice samples for MI fidelity reviews based on his work with adolescents in outpatient behavioral health treatment (2005), then became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (2008). Since being at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services in the Bureau of Prevention Treatment and Recovery (2010), Scott has delivered over 350 multiday MI workshops touching thousands of professionals across Wisconsin. He provides consultation on MI implementation with several provider organizations and is honored to be a member of the Rock County Comprehensive Community Services MI Implementation Team.
Susan Cushman, MPH, CHES
Susan has been practicing MI for over 10 years in her facilitation of brief screening and interventions with college students who are at risk for problems with alcohol and other drugs. She became a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers in 2015 and has provided MI training and coaching for graduate students and professionals in social work, public health, psychology, counseling, health education and higher education/student affairs to help them have more effective conversations about behavior change with the people they serve. Susan is currently the director of health promotion and advocacy at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. With over 20 years in college health, Susan attributes her longevity in the field to her integration of MI into conversations about change.
Yasyn Lee, MD
Yasyn is a psychiatrist with over 30 years of experience in office, nursing home and hospital consultation private practice in Dubuque, Iowa. After medical school at The Ohio State University and psychiatry residency training at the University of Minnesota, Yasyn was transformed by Motivational Interviewing in her care of patients in 2015 when she took courses with Laura Saunders and better applied the spirit of collaboration, combined with the technical skills of OARS. In 2022, after more study with advanced MI classes, Yasyn was accepted to the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) Training of New Trainers. She has retired from medical practice and continues to share her passion for MI as a MINT trainer.