Bonnie Cook, MAS

Executive Director

Bonnie is the Executive Director of Mental Health America of Greater Dallas. Prior to assuming this role in April, 2018 she was the Executive Director of Mental Health America of Kentucky. Bonnie has over 17 years experience working in the mental health field. She also serves on the Board of Directors of Mental Health America in Alexandria, Virginia.

You may contact Bonnie at BCook@mhadallas.org.

Marine Jackson

Marketing and Communications Director

Marine, a French and English bilingual professional, has 10 years of marketing and communications experience. She loves helping others with her organizational and time management skills, attention to detail, and creativity.

You may contact Marine at MJackson@mhadallas.org.

Megan Victor

Community Outreach Coordinator

You may contact Megan at MVictor@mhadallas.org.

Ayra Charania 

Intern

Ayra is a community education intern at Mental Health America of Greater Dallas. She is a junior at Duke University majoring in biology with a concentration in pharmacology and global health. She has a strong interest in public mental health and scientific communication, and she has served as a crisis counselor for the Crisis Text Line, a community resource navigator in Duke Hospital’s Emergency Room, and senior editor of Duke University’s student-run newspaper, The Chronicle.

You may contact Ayra at ACharania@mhadallas.org.

Tracy Curts

Chair

Description coming soon

Jennifer Erasime

Co-Chair

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. 

Jeremy Hardy

Secretary

Description coming soon

Tanya Browne

Treasurer

Tanya Browne brings more than 25 years education experience to her role as Treasurer of the Mental Health America of Greater Dallas Board.  In particular, as a public school executive, Ms. Browne led a staff of 400 staff to serve for more than 14,000 students with disabilities across 230 schools while managing the efficient use of a department budget of over $67 million. 

Ms. Browne attended the University of Texas at Austin and holds a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership.   In 2017, she was recognized by the Dallas Business Journal as a Woman in Business Honoree.  When she’s not ramping up a 2nd career in real estate, Ms. Browne can be found singing and gardening. 

Ka Cotter

Board Member

Following a successful career with The Staubach Company, a commercial real estate services firm, Ka Cotter leverages her knowledge and experience to the benefit of high growth companies, small and large businesses, community organizations and individuals.  She has a degree in Business Education and post graduate classes in finance, management, corporate governance, commercial real estate and professional coaching.  Her skills include corporate real estate, construction, sales and sales management, growth strategies for service firms, corporate governance, corporate culture, and professional coaching.   

Alexandra Cribbs

Board Member

Description coming soon

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.  

Dr. Sylvia Lopez

Board Member

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.

Alex Martin

Board Member

Description coming soon

Zach Noblitt

Board Member

Description coming soon

Sue Schell

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.