BNM Leadership

We are a community of volunteers working as staff and members of the board.

Tamara Olt

Executive Director
Tamara Olt  M.D. is a board certified obstetrician-gynecologist in private practice in Peoria, Illinois. She lost her 16-year-old son Joshua to an accidental heroin overdose in 2012.  Since that time she has devoted her time to advancing harm reduction practices throughout central Illinois. She and her husband Blake started Jolt Foundation which focuses on awareness of the opiate epidemic and overdose prevention. Tamara is the medical director for Jolt Foundation’s naloxone distribution program which has distributed 3500 naloxone kits throughout 20 counties in Illinois with multiple overdose reversals. She has trained and is the medical director for 20 law enforcement department’s naloxone programs in Illinois. Multiple community organizations and treatment providers have also been trained and given naloxone through Jolt Foundation.
Tamara is a former GRASP Chapter Leader and now is a facilitator for new GRASP chapters. She has spoken publicly advocating for drug policy reform in person and through multiple media outlets. She continues to fight for the rights of people who use drugs and to eliminate the shame and stigma that society places on this group of individuals.

Darleen Berg

Chairperson

After graduating from Georgetown University with a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Service in 1987, Darleen worked as a financial analyst and advisor for the Central Bank of Norway for 19 years. She was an executive committee member of the bank’s national trade union federation, president of the regional NBFF chapter, and Editor-in-Chief of the national publication, Forbundsnytt.

Concurrently, Darleen was the administrative director of an intensive care daycare/preschool, served on the town council and its executive board, the school committee, the preschool committee and numerous other boards, committees, ad-hoc and project groups. She has published articles, guest spoken at conferences, and has been a special delegate for numerous civic conventions.

During her 26 years abroad, she lived in Norway, Ireland and Japan, and traveled extensively throughout Europe and Asia for professional, academic and personal reasons.

At present, she is a social worker for the Kennedy-Donovan Center, Inc in New Bedford, MA while working on her thesis for her master’s in public administration at Agder University and her thesis for her master’s in management from BI Executive School in Oslo.

Darleen knows all too well the ramification of substance use. She lost her father from a heroin overdose in 1972; her sister from a drunk driving accident in 1990; a close friend from an overdose in 1989; and her partner from a substance-related death in 2011.

Denise Cullen

Co-founder/Board Member

Denise has worked as a Clinical Social Worker in the medical field since graduation from USC’s School of Social Work in 1993.  Her expertise has been in HIV/AIDS and working with terminally ill patients.  Because of this work, and efforts to learn how to be more effective through continuing education classes and seminars, she has a special ability in the area of death, dying and grief.

Her patient population included a large number of Intravenous Drug Users, and so she has professional experience working with patients suffering from addiction as well as personal experience.

She has also become certified by the Grief Recovery Institute as a Grief Recovery Specialist.

By nature of being a social worker, advocacy is sort of “built in”.The work necessary to effect the changes Broken No More is about is not easy; but through professional training and personal characteristics, Denise is well suited for the challenges.

You can reach Denise directly at:
bnm.grasp@gmail.com

Sam Snodgrass

Board Member

Sam has a Doctorate in Biopyschology from the University of Georgia (1987) and, after graduation, received a three year National Institute on Drug Abuse Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Pharmacology and Toxicology Department at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). After finishing his post-doctoral fellowship, he was asked to remain as faculty and served as a research assistant professor until 1995. During this time he conducted research in an area of science known as Behavioral Pharmacology, which is the study of how drugs of abuse produce their effects on behavior, and published a number of research articles in scientific journals on the pharmacological and behavioral aspects of these drugs.

After leaving UAMS he served as an instructor in the Psychology Department at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for 13 years. Among the classes he taught were those concerned with the actions of psychotherapeutic drugs and drugs of abuse on brain and behavior.

Sam has also experienced the effects of opioid addiction in his personal life. For many years he struggled with this disorder. During this time he experienced, first hand, the damage that the stigma and the criminalization of opioid use and addiction produces, not only on those who suffer from this disorder, but on their families and loved ones.

Sam is currently employed at Stockton Medical Group, a Buprenorphine clinic, and is actively engaged in establishing a Needle Exchange Program and Naloxone distribution in his home state of Arkansas.

Sam will be leaving his advisory board position to become part of the Broken No More Board of Directors effective February 16, 2016.

You can email Sam at: samphd87@gmail.com

Laura Cash

Board Member/Chapter Coordinator

Laura is a wife, mother, grandmother and former educator.  She has a M.A. degree in Elementary Education and Educational Administration.  During Laura’s teaching career, she was active in her local professional organization holding various positions including Co-President. In 2014, after a hard fought battle with addiction, Laura’s son, Mark, died of a heroin overdose.  Through this loss, she found GRASP and Broken No More. GRASP helped her survive her grief and BNM helped to educate her and lead her into advocacy.  She speaks at OD awareness events to promote Harm Reduction Practices and advocate for ending the stigma against people who use drugs. She has written several op-ed letters to bring awareness to this epidemic. Laura has also testified for a 911Good Samaritan Law in Ohio that will have a positive effect on those who overdose.

Laura recently took on the responsibility of being the coordinator of GRASP face to face chapters that are located across the country.  She volunteers at Safe Point in Columbus, Ohio’s needle access program.

Laura is a member of GRASP, Broken No More, the advisory committee of Ohio CAN (Change Addiction Now), Mom’s United to end the War on Drugs, and A New Path (Parents for Addiction and Treatment Healing),

Aimee Dunkle

Board Member

You can reach Aimee at adunkle@cox.net.

Aimee lost her 20-year-old son Ben to a heroin overdose in 2012.  In June 2015 she established the first naloxone distribution program in Orange County.  She travels around local drug treatment facilities, sober living homes, and detox centers training both staff and residents in overdose prevention and naloxone education.  In February 2016 her small non-profit  partnered with the Orange County Needle Exchange Program (OCNEP) and began naloxone training and distribution among those in active drug use.  Since this partnership began SFOC have recorded 128 overdose reversals.

Aimee is currently working with the Orange County Sheriffs Department Inmate Services Division to establish a Pilot Program to conduct overdose prevention and naloxone training in all Orange County jails.  Aimee is a Board Member of the OCNEP, on the Steering Committee of the Orange County Collaborative on Prescription Drug Abuse (OCCPDA), and a committee member of the Orange County Prescription Abuse Prevention Coalition (OCPAPC).

Mary Stafford

Board Member

Mary Stafford holds a Juris Doctorate with a concentration in Tax Law from the Villanova School of Law and the Loyola University College of Law, is a Fellow of the Institute of Politics, Loyola University, and a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Louisiana.

Originally from New Orleans, the Staffords moved after Hurricane Katrina to the northeast in 2005.  Her son, Clayton, died of a heroin/fentanyl overdose on February 4, 2018 after a 13-year battle with mental illness and drug addiction. Since that time, Mary has worked as an advocate for drug policy reform, public awareness of Medicated Assisted Treatment for opioid users, and the distribution of Naloxone.

A former political campaign manager and Chief of Staff in New Orleans city government, she hopes to offer her skills and experience to help in the fight to revolutionize our society’s criminal justice and health care systems in the elimination of prohibition and the drug war, the resulting stigma that plagues the very fabric of our communities, the evolution of safe consumption sites in the United States, and the proliferation of any and all harm reduction based on compassionate, evidence-based solutions.

Mary has enjoyed volunteerism as President of the New Orleans Children’s Hospital Guild and in various neighborhood and civic organizations, at the Harm Reduction headquarters in New York City, is a member of the local New York City Chapter of GRASP and assisting in the formation of a Los Angeles Chapter, has been a guest speaker at and travels to conferences and coalition meetings where like-minded individuals convene to strive for a better world for those afflicted with the disease of drug addiction.

BNM Advisory Board

Stephen is the Deputy Executive Director for Programs at the Drug Policy Alliance, the nation’s leading organization promoting alternatives to the war on drugs. The Drug Policy Alliance fights for drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights and seeks to promote dialogue on cutting-edge drug policy issues around the country. Based in Los Angeles, California, he has served as DPA’s California director since 2008, overseeing the organization’s statewide legislative agenda, “model city” initiative in San Francisco, and marijuana policy reform efforts, including advocacy on behalf of Proposition 19 on the 2010 ballot. His wide-ranging media appearances include include NCB Nightly News, CNN, Telemundo, and Fox News as well as in the New York Times, Newsweek, Time, the Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, Huffington Post and dozens of other outlets. Stephen has worked for cultural and social change organizations in Boston, New York and Los Angeles,. Prior to joining DPA, he served for 8 years as executive director of Outfest, the L.A. based nonprofit devoted to nurturing, exhibiting, and preserving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media. He also previously served as director of develop-ment and communications for the Labor/Community Strategy Center, the L.A based social and environmental justice organization best known for organizing low-income, transit-dependent bus riders. He has served since 2006 on the Community Funding Board of the Liberty Hill Foundation, the leading social change grantmaker in Los Angeles.

Emily Winkelstein is a radical social worker and harm reductionist. She (weirdly) has a BA in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland and obtained her Masters of Social Work in 2001 from Hunter College School of Social Work in New York City. Emily has been working in the field of harm reduction and public health for more than 10 years. She spent five years working as Program Manager for the SWAN Project in New York City, an epidemiological study investigating the behavioral and biological correlates of hepatitis C infection among a cohort of younger IDUs. At SWAN, she also conducted field interviews, met wonderful people and managed a drop-in center. Emily is currently working for the Harm Reduction Coalition, where she worked from 2001-2003 as National Training Coordinator. In her current role as Publications Coordinator she writes training curricula and educational materials, policy reports and dabbles in graphic design.

Eliza Wheeler is the Drug Overdose Prevention and Education (DOPE) Project Manager at the Harm Reduction Coalition, where she oversees the project’s efforts to prevent overdose deaths in the San Francisco/Bay Area. The DOPE Project began providing overdose education in San Francisco in 2001, and introduced naloxone distribution in 2003. In 2009 Eliza moved to the Bay Area from Massachusetts where she ran the Cambridge Needle Exchange and overdose prevention program for eight years. Working to prevent overdose deaths was the reason that Eliza first starting doing harm reduction work, and it is her main passion to this day. The work of the DOPE Project was a great inspiration to her as she helped develop the overdose prevention program in Massachusetts and she is honored to be able to work with the project in California. Eliza recently received two Masters degrees from Suffolk University in Crime and Justice Studies with a concentration on drug policy,and Public Administration with a concentration on non-profit management. Her academic studies focused on examining the ways that drug policy, the criminal justice system and public health intersect. She also studied the structure and impact of the public sector on community health issues and focused on ways to improve the effectiveness of non-profit organizations in the community. In her current role, Eliza’s primary focus is on expanding access to naloxone, creating a strong network of overdose prevention programs in the US and increasing awareness about preventable overdose deaths.

Julia has been an advocacy trailblazer in drug policy and prison and sentencing reform for more than a decade. Her passion is harm reduction, decriminalization and ending the mass incarceration of drug offenders.

In personal recovery since 1985, she found a career in substance abuse treatment counseling and is a Certified Addiction Specialist. She knows the ravages of drug addiction well, as she lost both her mother and her sister to drug overdoses. Her youngest son has struggled with heroin dependence for most of his adult life.

Julia is a Board Member of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing) and Floridians For Recovery, founder of The Suncoast Harm Reduction Project, and a co-founder of Moms United to End the War on Drugs.