Bonnie Cook, MAS

Executive Director

Bonnie is the Executive Director of Mental Health America of Greater Dallas. Before assuming this role in April 2018, she was the Executive Director of Mental Health America of Kentucky. Bonnie has over 17 years of experience working in the mental health field. Her passion for mental health drives her energy toward fulfilling the organization’s mission to lead the community in improving mental health through advocacy and education. She has an undying devotion to raising awareness and eradicating mental health stigma. Bonnie also serves on the national Board of Directors of Mental Health America, located in Alexandria, Virginia.

Bonnie holds a master’s degree in Non-profit Management from Fairleigh Dickenson University, New Jersey. Upon completing her degree, she moved to Kentucky, where she served as the Executive Director for Mental Health America of Kentucky and the Kentucky Psychiatric Medical Association. Bonnie is pursuing her MBA at Southern Methodist University, Cox School of Business, Dallas, Texas.

She is a resident of Dallas and shares their home with her husband and rescue dog, Phoebe. In her free time, Bonnie enjoys quilting and Texas Rangers baseball.

You may contact Bonnie at BCook@mhadallas.org.

Pennie Beauchamp 

Fundraising Events Coordinator

Pennie Beauchamp is the Fundraising Events Coordinator of Mental Health America of 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.

You may contact Pennie at PBeauchamp@mhadallas.org.

Whitney Mahan

WHO© Education and Community Outreach Coordinator

Whitney Mahan is the WHO© Education and Community Outreach Coordinator for Mental Health America of Greater Dallas. Whitney has varied experience in a nonprofit educational capacity in program coordination and administration and served as an urban public middle school teacher for many years. She is also skilled in marketing, design, and communications. She brings her unique experience, skill sets, dedication, and mission focus to the organization. Whitney has a passion for protecting and elevating the lives of our youth and believes successful outcomes begin with educating the whole child.

Whitney enjoys activism and advocacy, a good murder mystery, and raising her three children to be their best selves.

You may contact Whitney at WMahan@mhadallas.org.

Holly Brousseau

Mothers and Babies Program Coordinator

Holly Brousseau is the Mothers and Babies Coordinator for Mental Health America Greater Dallas. Before joining MHAGD, Holly had a career in corporate sales for the hotel and pharmaceutical industries, spent many years volunteering with various philanthropies, and non-profit organizations. She did all of this 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.

You may contact Holly at hbrousseau@mhadallas.org 

Julia Schneider

Support Groups Coordinator

Julia Schneider leads the anxiety and addiction recovery support groups. She’s a Recovery Support Peer Specialist with a passion for helping people with mental health and recovery challenges learn concrete ways to help themselves and thrive in their lives. She’s worked extensively in this area and loves working with animals, making glass and generally doing anything creative. 

You may contact Julia at jschneider@mhadallas.org

Marine Jackson

Marketing and Communications

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.

Aastha Krebs 

Public Policy Intern

Aastha is in the last year of Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program at Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, specializing as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP). She has been serving as a psychiatric-mental health Registered Nurse for over ten years. During her time as an admissions nurse in various psychiatric facilities, she recognized the barriers that prevented Texans from receiving adequate mental health services. Her interests lie in improving access to mental health services and reducing mental health disparities. As a Bill Archer Graduate Fellow, she is pursuing a semester in Washington, D.C. to participate in intellectual exchange centering on government, politics, and mental health policies. 

In her free time, she works in a small-scale sustainable farm and volunteers at local food banks to combat food insecurity in her community. She also owns and operates a dog-boarding business with proceeds supporting stray dogs rescue missions in Nepal.  

You may contact Aastha at akrebs@mhadallas.org.

Ka Cotter

Consultant

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.   

Tracy Curts

Chair

Tracy Curts is in his second year as board chair of Mental Health America Greater Dallas.  A Dallas native, he retired after 37 years of public administration locally.  He worked in several city government departments, managed the Uptown Public Improvement District for eleven years, and spent a year organizing a community health initiative for the Community Council of Greater Dallas.  He has previously chaired the board of Junior Players, been on the Executive Committee of Friends of Fair Park and served on public boards and DART task forces. 

Jennifer Erasime, MS, LCSW, LSW

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. 

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.

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.  

Sylvia Lopez, Ph. D.

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

Zach Noblitt is the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Irving. He is passionate about mental health and serves on our fundraising committee. He went to Texas Tech, School of Law where he received his law degree in 2012. In his spare time he enjoys playing corn hole. 

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. 

Alex Schnoor

Board Member

Description coming soon…

Tania Sethi

Board Member

As a litigator, Tania Sethi handles a wide range of complex commercial cases, including multi-faceted contract disputes, business disputes, trade secrets violations, technical construction and surety claims, transportation defense claims, and survival and wrongful death claims. Outside of the office, Tania serves as a board member for Mental Health America of Greater Dallas. She also serves as a board member and chief executive officer for The Sigma Sigma Rho Foundation, Inc. for which she spearheaded the corporate base, drafted the bylaws, and secured 501(c)(3) status.

Terrell Weatherl

Board Member

Description coming soon