Tribal Opioid Technical Advisory Group

Additional Titles: The National American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (AI/AN MHTTC) Program Director, The National American Indian and Alaska Native Prevention Technology Transfer Center (AI/AN PHTTC) Program Director, The National American Indian and Alaska Native Child Trauma TSA Center

Dr. Skinstad was the chief psychologist for the first in-patient treatment unit for women with substance use and mental health disorders and their children at the Hjellestad-Clinic in Bergen, Norway. Her research and clinical interests have been on SUD in women with co-occurring mental health disorders. Over the last 20 years, she has overseen the development of different workforce development initiative in Native communities, as well as training curricula on prevention, treatment and assessment of substance use and mental health disorders with different populations. Furthermore, she has directed the cultural adaptations of different curricula to Native American tribal communities.

Dr. Arredondo worked in mental health treatment and research in San Francisco and Stanford University and has worked in inpatient care, outpatient care, and emergency care. She received her BA in Psychology from Carleton College, her MD at University of Washington, and Psychiatry Residency and Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Yale University.

David Begay, Ph.D. is currently working with several federally-funded health research projects. David is a former adjunct faculty at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. He is also a former professor and academic dean for Dine’ (Navajo Nation) College. He is currently VP for the Indigenous Education Institute, Friday Habor, WA. He has worked with NSF and other federal projects including NASA for 20 plus years, JPL, and Goddard Space Flight Center on Heliophysics educational outreach. David is considered a tribal elder and provides cultural consultant services to many organizations and corporations both in the United States and internationally.

Dawn Lee has been working in the field of substance use disorders since 1999.  She is licensed in Washington State as a Substance Use Disorder Professional (SUDP). She has been working in tribal communities since 2004 and was the visionary for the didgʷálic Wellness Center for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.

In addition to her work as a SUDP, she developed multiple programs within the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community which increased her staff from 6 employees to 90. For her work at didgʷálic her team won the Portland Area Indian Health Service Leadership Award, Recognition of Excellence Award, and the Indian Health Service Directors Awards.

Dr. Donovan has over 35 years’ experience as a direct service provider, clinical trainer/supervisor, treatment program administrator, and clinical researcher. He served for 25 years as Director of the UW Alcohol & Drug Abuse Institute and Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Psychology, Health Services, and Global Health. He also served as Associate Director with UW Center for AIDS Research Behavioral Sciences Core, Principal Investigator of the Pacific Northwest Node of the NIDA National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network, and Co-Director of the Information Dissemination Core and the Pilot Project Core for Native Center for Alcohol Research and Education (NCARE). He also served on the External Advisory Committee for the Center for American Indian and Rural Health Equity (CAIRHE) at Montana State University.

Dr. English is the director of AASTEC, which serves 27 Native American communities in the Southwest. Current AASTEC services are organized around four priority areas— epidemiology, health research, training, and public health practice. He has been working with tribal communities across the country since 1995 as a researcher, public health practitioner and a clinical pharmacist. Dr. English received his doctorate in public health from Columbia University in 2013.

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Matthew Town, PhD, MPH, is an Indigneous/multiracial scholar committed to interrupting legacies of trauma that affect marginalized communities. His work centers culture and diversity science to the health and well-being of people. Dr. Town received his MPH in Global Health from Oregon State University, and his PhD in Sociology from Portland State University. Before joining Portland State University's School of Social work, Dr. Town was an Assistant Professor at Pacific University, a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona, and briefly held a postdoctoral position at the University of California, San Diego.

Nathan Billy serves as Director of Behavioral Health Programs for the National Indian Health Board. Mr. Billy is a tribal member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and has previously served his nation as both a Licensed Professional Counselor and Deputy Director of Behavioral Health. Mr. Billy's therapeutic and administrative experience includes a specific focus on substance use disorders; opioid prevention, treatment and recovery initiatives; suicide prevention, screening and assessment; and integrating behavioral healthcare in both clinical and tribal law enforcement settings. Mr. Billy is currently completing his PhD dissertation, which focuses on Choctaw cultural identity as a source of strength and resilience in recovery from substance use disorders.

Dr. Momper’s research interests include substance abuse, suicide prevention and intervention, and reducing health disparities among rural and urban American Indians/Alaska Natives.

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Dyani Bingham (Assiniboine/Blackfeet/Little Shell) is a graduate of North Dakota State University, earning an MPH with a focus on American Indian health. She has a background in public health, tourism, tribal health policy, peer to peer recovery support, obesity prevention, physical activity promotion, breast and cervical health, commercial tobacco use prevention, native art marketing and development, media relations, and historic preservation. She currently works in project management at the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council Epidemiology Center, which serves the Tribes in MT and WY and is in Billings, MT through epidemiology and public health infrastructure. Dyani has worked on Indigenous-focused evaluation, obesity prevention, evaluation for the arts, and recovery related initiatives. She is the Vice-Chair of the MT Public Health Institute and Secretary/Treasurer for the MT-WY Native American Chemical Dependency Directors Association. Ms. Bingham is a proud mother, grandma, auntie, and daughter who enjoys spending time with family and friends, baking, gardening, listening to music and visiting hot springs. She is extremely interested in research and policy reforms that are rooted in healing to advance wellness for Native people and communities.