Our Staff
Pennie Beauchamp
Executive Director
Pennie Beauchamp is the Executive Director for Mental Health America Greater Dallas. Pennie has years of professional and community experience in fundraising and event management. She is skilled at leading teams in both the business and volunteer communities. She brings creativity, relationship-building, and problem-solving skills to the organization.
Pennie enjoys living in a historic neighborhood with her husband and pets. Her favorite moments are spent with her children or traveling to new places.
Holly Brousseau
Outreach Coordinator
Mothers and Babies Program Coordinator
Holly Brousseau is the Mothers and Babies Coordinator for Mental Health America Greater Dallas. Before joining the team, Holly had a career in corporate sales for the hotel and pharmaceutical industries, spent many years volunteering with various philanthropies, and non-profit organizations; all while raising two children. Holly is passionate about helping others and serving mothers. She looks forward to assisting new mothers find their strength and confidence through the Mothers and Babies Program.
When not working or volunteering, Holly enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter and traveling to watch their son play collegiate baseball.
Anne Beckman
WHO Program Coordinator
Anne Beckman is the WHO Program Coordinator for Mental Health America Greater Dallas. Anne is passionate about the WHO mission, helping children learn how to handle potentially dangerous situations that may lead to abuse.
Anne joins the Mental Health America of Greater Dallas team after retiring from 30 years in education. She was a teacher for 15 years before moving into Educational Leadership. Prior to joining MHA, Anne had been a principal for 10 years ranging from K-12th grade. Presently, Anne is a school board trustee in the town where she lives in Navarro County. Supporting counselors, teachers, and students is right up her alley!
Julia Schneider
Communications Strategist
Peer Support Group Leader
Julia Schneider is MHA's Communications Strategist and Peer Support Group Leader. Julia has run her own digital marketing firm supporting non-profits for 15+ years. She also has extensive knowledge in grant writing and fundraising. In her free time, she loves animal rehabilitation and nursing wildlife back to health.
Avy Taylor
Data and Website Coordinator
Avy is a marketing professional for Mental Health America Greater Dallas. She brings her creative marketing, web design, and data analyst skills to MHA. Avy is passionate about developing creative marketing strategies: growth strategy, target audience study, and all things graphic design and social media management!
Outside of work, she enjoys exploring Dallas, Greek dancing, and taking comedy classes.
Tracy Brown
Financial Coordinator
Tracy Brown joins the team with a vast background in coordinating volunteers, serving as treasurer for non-profit organizations, fundraising, sales/marketing, and office management. In her free time, Tracy enjoys time with her family, sports, traveling, art, and anything that involves numbers.
Anita Valle
Mothers and Babies Spanish Facilitator
Anita is the Spanish-speaking facilitator for the Mothers and Babies program. She is passionate about helping new moms find their strength and overcome hurdles.
Anita brings to MHA her years of office management experience and previous roles as a substitute teacher working with small children. She enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom, raising her three children, and having the opportunity to volunteer in various capacities at her children's school.
In her free time, Anita enjoys spending time with her family, working out, and traveling.
Cassandra Valdez
Administrative Assistant
Cassandra joins the MHA of Greater Dallas team as a recent graduate of UNT Dallas, where she earned her BA in Psychology.
Cassandra is passionate about early childhood development, criminal justice, and psychology. She plans to earn her Master's in Childhood Development with a focus on memory.
Board Officers
Alex Martin Chair
Alex has worked for AT&T since 2009, most recently as an Applications developer on the Robotic Process Automation team in Business Solutions - a two-time Bronze Stevie Award-winning team for Information Technology Team of the Year. He develops solutions that help increase efficiencies and drive value to the business. When he’s not doing that, he serves as Vice President for an internal affinity group at AT&T called Ability, in which he advances, advocates, and educates people on persons with disabilities.
Alex has a bachelor’s in business administration and is pursuing his Master’s in Systems Engineering at the University of Texas in El Paso. He also has an Executive Certificate in Non-profit Governance, which lends him expertise in his multiple volunteer roles and capacities, especially as the chair of MHA of Greater Dallas.
Shirley Weddle Co-Chair
Shirley Weddle, a graduate of Paris Junior College and Texas A&M Commerce, is a community liaison and Mental/Brain Health and Suicide Prevention awareness advocate. After she and her husband Brad lost their only child Matthew, age 22, to suicide in 2014, she began the search for the “why” of suicide and now collaborates with multiple organizations and individuals to promote brain/mental health, prevent suicide and support those that have lost someone to suicide. She feels that her efforts provide a way to honor Matthew’s memory and allow him to continue to help others through her.
Shirley is the Charter President and co-founder of the cause-based Suicide Prevention and Brain Health Rotary eClub, a certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor, ASIST and QPR Certified, Facilitator of a Survivors of Suicide Loss Grief Support Group, Mental Health America Greater Dallas Board Co-Chair, AFSP North Texas Chapter Volunteer and prior Research Connection chairperson, Rotary District 5810 Mental Health representative, State Legislative advocate, ambassador and volunteer for the UT Dallas Center for Brain Health and team member of both the VA Mental Health Community Task Force and North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church Mental Wellness Initiative Team, building upon her knowledge and experience as a Medical Imaging and Informatics Healthcare Professional for over 35 years.
Sylvia Lopez, Ph. D. Secretary
Dr. Sylvia A. Lopez is the former Director of Counseling Services for the 2nd largest school district in Texas. She spent 41 years of her educational experience as a school counselor and as a principal in an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. She also served as the Director of Counseling Services, she facilitated the implementation of the school counseling program, coordinated district wide initiatives and actively supported and sponsored many of the College and Career Readiness Initiatives. Dr. Lopez was directly responsible for approximately 385 elementary, middle and high school counselors.
In August 2017, Dr. Lopez co-founded the Lone Star State School Counselor Association (LSSSCA) in 2017 to address the needs of school counselors and provide quality training and information for all school counselors across Texas. She also has a consultant business to help school district leaders understand the importance of a quality school counseling program by providing training and designing systems to benefit the school counselor.
Terrell Weatherl Treasurer
Terrell Weatherl is a financial and asset management professional and currently serves as Executive Director of Asset Management with UBS Realty Investors. Ms. Weatherl joined UBS in 2020 and for 29 years served as Senior Director of Asset Management with Invesco Realty Advisors. She holds both a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Texas A&M University-Commerce and is passionate about supporting both mental health and wellness.
Board Members
Steven Dunn Board Member
Steven Dunn became a licensed attorney in 1984 and has appeared as lead counsel in Texas state courts and federal courts in 20 states. In 2009, his daughter Morgan developed severe eating disorders which claimed her life at just 23 years old. She was known for the fight within her and how she inspired others, once saying “I can help everyone else, I just can’t seem to save myself.” Morgan’s fighting spirit was cemented as part of Steven’s heart and soul. He now makes presentations on the subject and combines his legal experience and eating disorder advocacy by pursuing treatment centers and others who fail to provide the necessary medical and mental health standard of care which is needed by so many.
Jennifer Erasime, MS, LCSW, LSW Board Member
Jennifer is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than ten years of clinical experience in both community and inpatient mental health settings, with a concentration on program development and service expansion. She has worked with interdisciplinary behavioral health teams to cultivate community partnerships and expand access to care in her community. In her supervisory and clinical roles, she has been committed to integrating recovery-oriented and person-centered care, in high acute clinical settings.
Jennifer has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Social Work from Saint Louis University. She currently is employed by The Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute where she works to create equitable systemic changes so all Texans can obtain effective, efficient behavioral health care when and where they need it.
Melanie Grimes Board Member
Melanie E. Grimes has been a mediator in private practice in Dallas for more than 20 years. Her practice focuses primarily on family law, in addition to a variety of civil matters. Melanie is a TMCA Credentialed Distinguished Mediator and has been recognized with the prestigious Susanne C. Adams Award by the Texas Association of Mediators (TAM) and the Louis Weber Award for “Outstanding Volunteer Mediator of the Year.” For seven years, Melanie was a Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in foster care and has served past Board of Director roles for a county-funded mediation service, a nonprofit private school, and a rape crisis center.
Sue Schell, LPC Board Member
Sue joined Children’s Health in 2014 as the Vice President and Clinical Director of Behavioral Health. In this role, she is extending behavioral health services into our community, focusing on early identification of treatment needs and preventive care. She developed and currently oversees our Integrated Behavioral Health Program, including the Behavioral Health Integration and Guidance initiative across the community, our Teen Recovery Program treating youth with both mental health and substance use disorders, the relationships with our behavioral health inpatient facilities who are part of the Children’s Health Care Network, and is currently expanding our services for children with autism.
Before joining Children’s Health, Sue held regional and national leadership positions in two managed care companies and has experience in community mental health and private practice. She earned her master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio and is a Licensed Professional Counselor.
Christian Sanford Board Member
Christian is the founder of SMBee, a corporate finance advisory firm built on over a decade of best-in-class experience within financial services. Prior to founding SMBee, Christian was an investor at Long Pond Capital and an investment banker at Barclays, both in New York.
Christian is a graduate from Texas Tech University with both a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Science in Accounting. In his free time, Christian races in triathlons, enjoys the outdoors, and is passionate about health and mental health.