Project Team

Ethan Dahl is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota and is an Experimental/Social Psychologist with expertise in rural health, behavioral health, and social identity/groups. Dr. Dahl works as part of UND’s Behavioral Health Strategic Initiative and is an expert in the application of social psychology in understanding rural and behavioral health. Much of his work focuses on understanding the impact of one’s social identity on health.

Dr. Brett Harris is a behavioral health specialist with over 14 years of experience developing, directing, implementing, and evaluating mental health and substance use prevention projects. Dr. Harris is an expert in suicide prevention and leads efforts in surveillance, prevention, clinical intervention, postvention, and lethal means safety. Much of her work focuses on disproportionately affected populations including rural communities, Veterans, & youth.

Chad Pitts is a Veteran of the U.S. Army with over 10 years of organization and program management experience. Chad has previously held positions within the NDUS focused on initiatives for disproportionately affected populations including youth and Veterans. While in the Army Chad served as the Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge (NCOIC) for multiple domestic and global missions with the 82nd Airborne Division.

Dr. Tracy McPherson is a research psychologist with 20+ years of experience leading evaluation, training, and technical assistance projects in behavioral health. As an expert in screening and brief intervention she works with organizations and health professionals to implement and evaluate an integrated model that addresses substance use and co-occurring risk for suicide with youth and adults in rural and tribal communities, schools, primary care, military, and other settings.

Dr. Tiffany Russell is a licensed clinical psychologist in Texas and North Dakota. Her clinical specialties include empirically-supported individual psychotherapy for serious mental illness, assessment and treatment of adolescents and adults, and forensic assessment. Dr. Russell joined the faculty of Sam Houston State in August 2020 and moved to the University of North Dakota in August 2023.

Hildie Cohen brings over 10 years of experience in research, evaluation, project management, and data governance for substance use prevention and intervention, mental health, and suicide prevention with a focus on adolescents and young adults.

Haley Kost brings over 5 years of education experience teaching in 6-12 classrooms and 2 years of non-profit grant and budget management from Northwestern's Jumpstart for Young Children program.

Dr. Andréa Kaniuka is a Behavioral Health Research Scientist at NORC. She has over ten years of experience leading and supporting behavioral health and suicide prevention research across campus, community, and government settings. Much of her work focuses on mental health promotion providing training, technical assistance and evaluation.

Katie Gallant is an experienced public health macro social worker with five years of experience working in public health and suicide prevention. Katie previously led the implementation and evaluation of the Zero Suicide and Garrett Lee Smith grants in New York State.

Misti Storie is a clinically trained psychotherapist in Atlanta, Georgia, with a specialization in addiction and trauma. She provides technical assistance/training (TA/T) consultation to individuals, non-profits, and companies regarding mental health and substance use.