Board of directors
Dr. Leon Kelly, president: Leon is a board-certified forensic pathologist and the coroner, chief medical examiner and deputy medical director of El Paso County. His statewide work as a medical expert has included service on the Child Fatality Prevention System State Review Team, and he co-founded the county’s Child Fatality Review Team to help lead local suicide prevention efforts. Leon also teaches at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
Taline (Ty) Meredith, vice president: Ty is the chief executive officer for Peak View Behavioral Health. She has over 18 years’ experience in hospital operations, business development, social services and mental health, and holds an MBA. Ty has previously served as vice chair on the board of directors at Pikes Peak Suicide Prevention Partnership and currently volunteers as a leader for the Boy Scouts of America. She believes strongly in providing needed quality mental health programs for Colorado residents and advocating for community access to care.
Rob Levis, treasurer: Rob is president of Levis Grosdidier & Associates, LLC, a Colorado Springs-based forensic accounting practice. He is a CPA and has a B.S. and Master of Accounting degrees from the University of Florida. Rob specializes in business appraisals and economic loss quantification in litigated disputes. He is a graduate of NAMI's Family-to-Family program.
Julie Papa, secretary: Julie is a mother of three and an attorney with Papa Law PLLC, where she concentrates her practice on estate planning, estate administration and business. She holds BSFS and JD degrees from Georgetown University and has served as parliamentarian of the board of the National Charity League Colorado Springs Chapter. Julie has also volunteered with Care and Share Food Bank, Junior Achievement and other local nonprofits.
Tamara Cannafax: Tamara is a marketing project manager at Pikes Peak Community College. Having lived with major depression and anxiety for over 20 years, Tamara began her recovery in 2016, when she attended NAMI’s Peer-to-Peer class and Connection Support Group. Eager to pay it forward and help others on the journey to mental health recovery, she became a dedicated volunteer and is a certified Connection facilitator and Peer-to-Peer leader and state trainer.
Monica Furey: Monica is a clinical assistant professor of social work at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, a school board member, and past president of the Colorado Association of School Boards. Prior to joining academia, she worked in Washington, D.C., with abused children, was a social work fellow at the Yale Child Study Center, and served on the faculty of the Center's HIV-Affected Children and Families Program. She also maintained a private practice.
Damian McCabe: Damian is a retired Army officer and behavioral health clinician. After 24 years taking care of service members and their families, he joined the UCHealth system as the director of behavioral health-military affairs. He has been using and supporting the resources of NAMI since the early 1990s, when he was a newly minted LCSW in rural Maine. Damian attended the University of Maine and Boston College and was previously an assistant professor at the United States Air Force Academy.
Dr. Imad Melhem: Dr. Melhem is the chief medical officer at Diversus Health and has extensive experience in developing and improving mental health services. Born and raised in Lebanon, he completed his psychiatric residency at the University of New Mexico and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Harvard’s Massachusetts General and McLean hospitals. He carries a Master-of-Medical Management from Carnegie Mellon University and the Certified Physician Executive credential through the American Association for Physician Leadership.
Billie Ratliff: Billie is the director of behavioral health at UCHealth Memorial Hospital. A licensed clinical social worker, Billie has worked in the behavioral health realm for 37 years. In 2010, Billie helped restructure Memorial’s model for delivery of best-practice care to behavioral health patients in an acute medical setting. She is active on numerous committees related to helping people with behavioral health disorders.
Juan Recinos: Juan is chief operations officer of Bright Futures Psychiatry, a private mental health practice serving children and adults in Colorado Springs. He has also served as chief strategy officer at AspenPointe (now Diversus Health) and as director of operations for Valley Wide Health System in Alamosa. Juan has a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in healthcare administration from Chapman University.
Rhea Rollman: Rhea is the Fort Carson Army Community Service (ACS) social science program specialist and a major in the Colorado Army National Guard. In her ACS role, she contributes to several prevention and risk-reduction working groups, and supervises various programs chartered with providing life skills support, quality of life improvement, community resource navigation and referral assistance to soldiers and families. A combat veteran, Rhea counts 11 years of active-duty service among her 20-plus years of military experience.
Sam Stephenson: Sam is the executive director of Converge, a Colorado Springs arts and literature nonprofit, and managing case coordinator for the El Paso County Guardian ad Litem. He has a master’s degree in social work from Metropolitan State University of Denver. Sam has a passion for the Colorado Springs community, mental health work, and creating social systems that make people feel better.
Michelle Talarico is co-owner and director of sales for Picnic Basket Catering, Cravings Five Star Events and Buffalo Gals Grilling Company. A graduate of Colorado College, she has given back to the local community as a board member and volunteer for various organizations, including the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Children’s Literacy Center, and the Greenberg Center for Learning and Tolerance. Michelle is a 2002 graduate of the Colorado Springs Leadership Institute.