Frank Grijalva, MSCC, MSPH
Director and founder

Frank came through the California system as a child adopted into a family challenged with mental health and substance abuse issues. Raised in the East Bay area of Northern California Frank attended 9 different schools in his first 9 years. Raised in a challenging home in a challenging environment both geographically and historically, Frank has a unique perspective that translates for many of our most traumatized communities, families and children. Frank negotiated his way into the military and his first professional training was as a special warfare diver attached to the Marine Mammal program of the United States Navy where he spent 8 years honing behavior modification skills, stress management and understanding the dynamics of nonverbal communication. Later, as a stay at home dad for 2 kids and a student of psychology he became aware of and struggled with development, his own trauma exposure, and behavioral progressions and sequencing. This led to a journey of self-exploration and an academic focus on psychological trauma.

Frank has worked with the International Trauma Center since 1999 and deployed to Ground Zero to manage a team of clinicians working with a federal agency in “the dig” to stabilize them ongoing as they did their difficult work. Frank also worked extensively throughout Louisiana and Mississippi in the aftermath of Katrina. Frank has worked abroad in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, Nepal, Jordan, Haiti and several other countries for agencies, like Save the Children, USAID, the World Bank and the International Center for the Protection of Victims of Torture to develop interventions, and trained clinicians working with children.

As director of the Midwest Trauma Services Network and senior vice president of programming for the International Trauma Center, Frank has spent the last several years introducing and training selected trauma-informed evidence-based practices as well as designing and implementing innovations specific to people from at-risk environments through the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Frank currently consults in several states for trauma in schools, foster and adoptive parents, community change through trauma-informed care, and provides direct psychoeducation and coaching to complexly traumatized children and families. Frank has a BS in disaster psychology with an emphasis on mental health, an MS in Public Health with a focus on child mental health and an MS in clinical counseling with trauma theory as the primary theoretical framework. Frank is the proud father of two gifted and resilient college students who are also interested in human services. His mission is to create a world that understands the impact of trauma and abuse on children, families, communities and culture by teaching, challenging and learning everywhere he goes.

Email Frank directly at frank@socialcapitallogistics.com

Dr. Robert Macy
Co-Director

 Dr. Robert Macy was trained as a dance movement therapist, traumatologist, and neuroscience researcher with over 30 years practice in the field of psychological trauma response, intervention development and trauma informed care development and dissemination. Dr. Macy is a Founder, Director and the President of the International Trauma Center - Boston, as well as the Founder and Executive Director of the Boston Children’s Foundation. He is also a Founder and Director of the Midwest Trauma Services Network operating in numerous states in the Midwest. Dr. Macy is a member of the SAMHSA DTAC or SAMHSA Disaster Technical Assistance Center and works nationally to assist SAMHSA in disaster response and recovery. Dr. Macy is one of only 13 experts nationally to be selected to sit on the Barack Obama commissioned Attorney General’s National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence as part of the Attorney General’s broader Defending Childhood Initiative.

Dr. Macy is a tireless pioneer in the field of psychological trauma, psychosocial recovery and resiliency in research, interventions and violence prevention initiatives for children, youth, their families, and adults and their communities exposed to traumatic events including large-scale disasters, terrorist events, and political, school-based, community and armed conflict violence. Dr. Macy co-directs the Division of Disaster Resilience at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) – a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, and is an Instructor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Macy designs, implements and evaluates trauma focused psychosocial resiliency initiatives, violence prevention programs, and trauma-informed care initiatives in the United States and internationally.

Robert P. Sheehan, MSW
Co-Founder

Sheehan has served in an administrative role in two large human service agencies that have driven children’s mental health and child welfare agencies in Iowa for the last 40 + years. For the last 16 years he has worked to bring a trauma focus to all of child welfare and children’s mental health programs across Iowa, Nebraska and Alaska. In his administrative role, he helped create, nurture and grow MTSN. MTSN is a leading force in bringing purpose and vision and has demonstrated the powerful and transformative force trauma informed care can have in all service delivery systems. In the past four years, he has focused at the micro level and with the help of the entire MTSN team, operationalized TIC principles and therapeutic interventions into critical children’s services with tremendous results. This dynamic is seen both in individual agencies and individual programs, as well as efforts to engage the entire State of Iowa.

As a former CEO and Program Administrator, Sheehan has had the opportunity to transform agencies belief systems, operational systems, and clinical systems to fully embrace a TIC culture. These are the values and beliefs needed to fully embrace a trauma approach to all those an organization chooses to serve.

Sheehan role as a part of the MTSN team is to continue to move TIC beliefs and principles across organizations, so its total system is connected to the integrity of TIC. These organizational values then can penetrate through all an agencies treatment programs, and therapeutic interventions, and touch every life that an organization reaches out to and serves. The organization that has fully integrated these principles and values also cares for their staff who serve those clients, and the business practices that govern the entire agency.

Matthew Vasquez, PhD, LMSW Consultant

Dr. Vasquez is the co-founder of the Gulf Coast Trauma Institute, an Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Northern Iowa, and former trauma therapist. For the last 10 years, he has taught, conducted research, and provided consultation services on the effects of trauma, its treatment, and trauma-informed care practices all over the country.

In his work, Dr. Vasquez strives to help educate others in understanding the complexities of trauma and its impact on individuals, families, and communities. He has won numerous teaching awards across multiple universities for his dynamic and innovative teaching style, including two Teacher of the Year awards during his time at the University of Southern Mississippi. His current area of research focuses on the effects of body-based interventions (e.g., Chen Style Tai Chi, Trauma-Sensitive Yoga, KINNECT, and Rainbowdance ®) on trauma and other mental health disorders. Other research includes the effects of chronic neglect on child mental health and development. His research has been published in numerous academic journals, and featured on National Public Radio and in the Washington Post. Dr. Vasquez has provided consultation services on trauma-informed care practices across a variety of settings, including school districts, residential treatment centers, outpatient mental health practices, child welfare agencies, along with regional and national entities such as Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Midwest Trauma Services Network, and the International Trauma Center.

Email Dr. Vasquez directly at matt@gulfcoasttrauma.com

Christy Lynn Anana, M.Ed., NBCT, RYT

Anana has extensive experience working with schools and children who have experienced trauma. For the last 10 years, she has worked at a school on a Native American Reservation. Because of her work at this school, she was named Washington State School Counselor of the Year.  Anana has served as an acute responder for a tragedy that impacted her school and district. She is trained in EMDR, Rainbow Dance, CBITS, and Psychological First Aid. Christy is a yoga teacher, has extensive training in mindfulness, and wrote a book for children to help them use the strategy of Tapping or EFT. Her background is as a teacher and in special education. Anana is passionate about helping teachers stay healthy in their careers. She promotes a system of self-care as protection from vicarious trauma. Anana has had the opportunity to train school counselors from across Washington State and North Carolina on compassionate strategies to help students and teachers. 

Chris (Vu) Gandin Le

 Vu has dedicated himself to creating innovative programs that link public health and technology at an international level.

He has helped launch many of the nation's largest suicide prevention programs, overseeing projects and grants ranging from $80,000-$5,000,000 per year. These include the Suicide Prevention Resource Center, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, Veterans Crisis Line (the documentary about which won an Academy Award), Games and Online Harassment Hotline, All Nations Native Hotline and CrisisChat.org. He established the initial suicide prevention partnership Facebook and co-wrote the Facebook policy on suicide in 2005. He has since helped Google, YouTube, Twitter and Pinterest create similar policies.

Chris has served on the advisory board for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the Crisis Text Line, the National Domestic Violence Hotline, Connect Safely and the Games and Online Harassment Hotline, and through his company Emotion Technology, he continues to link social media companies and non-profit organizations. Chris is also a speaker with the Fresh Speakers Bureau.

In all of these efforts, Chris takes a profoundly personal approach to large-scale public health issues. His mom fled Vietnam in 1978 when he was four months old, making him one of the first “boat people.” After a year in a refugee camp, they were sponsored by an American family to come to the U.S. Chris spends his life trying to provide others with the same kind of refuge that he felt in that moment.

He was a TED Prize finalist, an Aspen Challenge presenter for the Aspen Institute, a Fellow at SPACE on Ryder Farm and a Born This Way Foundation Launch Scholar.

Education M.A., Communication and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, 2003 B.F.A., Design and Technology, Theatre Studies, University of Evansville, 1999

Matt Freel KINNECT Interventionist

Matt Freel is a Behavioral Interventionist for grades 5-12 at Mid-Prairie Community School District. Over the last 10 years, Matt has worked with at-risk youth in both school-based and residential settings in Iowa, California, and Hawaii. In each location and setting, Matt has found reaching our at-risk youth begins with a foundation of relationships and trauma-informed practices. Matt is a designated KINNECT facilitator and has been using KINNECT as a primary tool for student skill building for the last 5 years.

Matt trains school personnel in ACEs, practical trauma-informed care for the classroom, and function-based behavior plans. In 2018 Matt led a group of his 13 students to Florida to provide relief for those affected by Hurricanes Irma and Michael.

Matt was voted the Wellman Rotary Outstanding Educator of the Year in the 2018-2019 school year.  Outside of school, Matt is married with two children. He enjoy being with his family, sports, and spending time by his grill.

Aspen Olsen, LISW (she/her/hers)

Administrative Assistant

Aspen Olsen is a licensed independent clinical social worker in the state of Iowa. She graduated with her Master of Social Work with a Specialization in Trauma-Informed Care from the University of Northern Iowa in May of 2020. She has experience working with youth with complex and developmental trauma and early childhood neglect in residential and school-based settings. She has an understanding of the natural healing abilities of the body, the impact of trauma and neglect, and the significance of healthy relationships. She has a passion for working with youth, and helping them heal through creating a safe and consistent environment, providing psychoeducation on mind-body connection, building resilience, teaching skills, and processing trauma utilizing an integrated approach. She believes strongly in the principles of trauma-informed care and MTSN's mission. As part of the MTSN team, Aspen assists members of MTSN with administrative tasks. She is learning how to effectively implement trauma-informed practices in organizations to create systemic change.

Email Aspen directly at aspenlisw@gmail.com

nick dalton

Often recognized as the face of DirecTV bills, nick spent the past 20 years in the Broadway community while spearheading international community-based initiatives as a sought-after award-winning interdisciplinary artist, education innovator, cultural traumatologist, and spiritual activist. As a two-spirit mixed blood of Creek and Cherokee descent, nick’s work holistically explores the intersection of culture as healing, transcultural Social Emotional Learning techniques, and the (un)colonization of public health and education through the arts.

nick served as a teacher/trainer for the non-profit Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP) for close to a decade. Their work included launching the national Artist as Citizen movement with The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, collaboration with the International Refugee Committee (IRC) and Refugee Youth Coalition (RYC) in New York Public Schools, programs with the Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project in Tamil, India (as seen in NETFLIX’s Daughters of Destiny), and a 2 year experiment integrating culturally responsive arts and trauma informed care into the national curriculum and engagement pedagogy of Teach For India’s classrooms.

nick has spent the last 5 years launching and leading the Hanna Institute, a trauma informed care and resilience training institute based in Sonoma, CA. Hanna Institute provides immersive trainings and dynamic consultation to individuals, organizations and systems seeking to build AJEDI (Access, Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) and trauma-responsive practices into social networks and communities most impacted by trauma and exposure to violence. In that time, nick has served as co-chair of PACEs Connection and the Equity In Education Initiative of Sonoma County, a member of the Sonoma Valley Interfaith Council; a member of the Safety Committee at the Boys and Girls Club of Sonoma Valley; led full school district transformations around Trauma Sensitive Schools in collaboration with the Sonoma County Office of Education; led Trauma Informed Care trainings for a cross-sector of professionals (education, government, health care, non-profits); directed community events spanning a social justice film series, a quarterly speaker series and community wide arts festivals; and more. In that time, nick has also served as the co-founder and artistic director of Heart Without Borders, a non-profit that combines arts and wellness into all of its pay-as-you-can programming.

nick is a certified REIKI master, Trauma Informed Specialist through the International Trauma Center, Restorative Practices trainer through the IIRP, Beat The Odds facilitator, Trainer in an expressive arts therapy for children called RAINBOWDANCE, and holds a graduate certificate in Restorative Practices from the IIRP as well as an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts from Goddard College - as the first student to graduate with a concentration in Indigenous & De-colonial Arts focusing on Native American Performance Pedagogy. nick is also a member of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAIS) as well as the Association of Tribal Archives, Libraries, and Museums.