Steering Committee

Kevin Jamison, Ed.D., LPCC, LSW

Steering Committee Chair

Princeton City School District, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources

Dr. Jamison has over 28 years of experience in educational administration having worked mostly for Princeton City Schools and Cincinnati Public Schools. He has also worked for alternative, specialized school settings serving students with disabilities and mental health needs at Lighthouse Youth and Family Services and St. Aloysius Orphanage. Dr. Jamison is licensed in Ohio as a superintendent, professional clinical counselor and social worker. He currently supervises the areas of human resources, mental health contracts, and district wellness among other key areas of district operations. Dr. Jamison is an Ohio Department of Education Special Education Leadership award recipient. He served on the steering committee for improving outcomes for students with disabilities at the Ohio Department of Education. Dr. Jamison has also served on special education program review teams for the Council of the Great City Schools. He has extensive experience working to support students who are multi-system involved including students in the child welfare system. Dr. Jamison also brings his 20 years of agency-based and private practice clinical counseling experience to add to perspectives in student level, program level and system level problem solving.

Tom Lottman

Steering Committee Vice Chair

Formerly: Learning Grove, Senior Director of the Innovation Lab

Tom Lottman is the recently retired Senior Director of the Innovation Lab at Learning Grove. The Innovation Lab is charged with developing, testing, and disseminating disruptive innovations in the early childhood field. Tom has had a long history of work in social and emotional learning, especially emerging character strengths in early childhood. He is currently working on training and curriculum strategies for teachers’ use of reminiscence in early education settings.

Julie Herrmann, MS, LPCC-S, CCTP

Immediate Past Steering Committee Chair

Holly Hill Child & Family Solutions, Chief Clinical Officer

Julie has served as the Chief Clinical Officer at Holly Hill Child & Family Solutions since 2022 and has been in the community mental health field, in a variety of roles, since 2007. Julie finds purpose and passion in collaborating with others to serve the children, youth, and families in our community. She is committed to meeting the mental health needs of the community, specifically focusing on decreasing the impact of toxic stress and ACES. In addition to providing leadership at Holly Hill, Julie serves on the Joining Forces for Children Steering Committee and co-leads the Early Childhood Channel. Most recently, Julie completed the Excel leadership program through the Non-profit Leadership Institute of Greater Cincinnati and earned an Executive Certificate in Non-Profit Leadership through the University of Notre Dame.

Carolyn Brinkmann

Best Point, Vice President of  Early Childhood and School Age Services

Carolyn Brinkmann is the Vice President of Early Childhood and School Age Services for CoStars, a division of Best Point Education and Behavioral Health. She is a licensed social worker in the State of Ohio with over 30 years of experience in the early childhood and mental health fields.  Throughout her career, Carolyn has provided, developed and directed services designed to improve the wellbeing of children and families residing in the Greater Cincinnati area. Carolyn began her work as a child and family therapist and for the past 20 years has served in various leadership roles at the Children’s Home of Cincinnati, 4C for Children and Beech Acres Parenting Center. Carolyn is an advocate for young children and serves on several local initiatives focused on promoting children’s early learning and development by addressing community and family wellness. Carolyn serves as co-lead of the Early Childhood Channel.

Michelle Cox, MSW, LISW-S, OCPS

Executive Director, GLAD House

Michelle Cox has served as GLAD House’s Executive Director since October 2016. She has over 20 years of experience as a child mental health therapist, supervisor, and administrator in community mental health. Michelle is trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and has attended numerous trainings on the impacts of trauma on the brain and attachment. Michelle has provided psychotherapy to children, ages 4 to 23 years old, who presented with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and behavioral disorders. Michelle serves as co-lead of the School Age Channel.

Dena Cranley, MA

DEI Consultant

Before her role on the Steering Committee, Dena was an active member of the Community Connections Channel of Joining Forces for Children. She is currently working on many local projects that address equity and well-being. Her experience and expertise led her to create a local nonprofit organization, First Ladies For Health, focused on the health disparities in African-Americans and Latinos.

Dena earned her Masters in Arts from Xavier University and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cincinnati. Dena has served on the boards of Tender Mercies, Ohio Innocence Project, and Greater Cincinnati Foundation’s Women’s Fund Leadership Council, Cradle Cincinnati Advisory Board.  She has over fifteen years of global experience specializing in consultation, training, facilitating, management, research and analysis in the areas of global diversity & inclusion, talent management and development, conflict resolution, and mental health.  She has led teams by guiding organizations and people to a new level of diversity awareness and understanding.  She has worked for UNICEF in the Middle East & North Africa region, conducting an identity development cross-sectional study at the University of Jordan, counseling, and volunteering. Dena was formerly the Program Director of the Urban Health Pathway at the University of Cincinnati.

Lauren W. Forbes, PhD, MPH

University of Cincinnati School of Public and International Affairs, Assistant Professor

Dr. Lauren Forbes is an Assistant Professor of Public Administration in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati. She is a community development policy scholar studying justice-based local food systems, equitable urban development, and collective action for child and family wellbeing and resilience. She earned a PhD in public policy from Georgia State University, a Master of Public Health (MPH) from Drexel University, and a Bachelor of Science in biology from Oregon State University.

April Gallelli, MA

Hamilton County Office of Planning & Development, Project Manger

April Gallelli has been active in addressing ACEs and resilience with Avondale residents. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice from Arizona State University and Masters degrees from University of Cincinnati and Walden University in Criminal Justice and Forensic Psychology respectively. While pursuing her bachelor’s degree April interned at the Phoenix office of the United States Federal Probation Department. After graduating April was employed as an Inmate Classification Counselor at the Maricopa County Madison Street Jail.

Upon relocating back to Ohio, April began a career working with youth who were court involved and at risk of expulsion in the public school system’s Alternative Learning Centers. At the end of the contract with the schools April was recruited under the Global War on Terror Act for a position as the Administrative Outreach and Care Coordinator at the Mental Health Unit at Wright Patterson AFB.

Dustin Gehring

Director of Student Services, Northwest Local School District

Dustin is the administrator in charge of student services at Northwest Local School District.  Prior to his current position, he was the principal at White Oak Middle School for about five years. In the time before his principalship began, for five years he was an assistant principal at Colerain High School and for five years before that, he served as a teacher, wrestling and track coach for CHS as well. He resides in the NWLSD with his wife Jo and their five children, Christian, Grace, Simon, Lila, and Isaac. He brings extensive knowledge and understanding of the school organization change process, trauma-informed programming, and restorative practices to his role as co-lead of our School Age Channel.

Anita Shah, DO, MPH

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Dr. Shah is an assistant professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Hospital Medicine at UC Department of Pediatrics. She has a strong background in pediatric advocacy and health policy. Dr. Shah is a PEDSnet Scholar through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) which currently supports her research interests. Her research has focused on the association of parental adversity and resilience with outcomes after pediatric discharge. She serves as the lead for the Healthcare Channel within Joining Forces for Children.

Darrell Yater

Northwest Local School District, Superintendent

Darrell Yater has worked for Northwest Local Schools for over 20 years and has served in the roles of teacher, curriculum specialist, assistant principal, director of special education services, and assistant superintendent. Darrell is a Milken Educator of the Year award.  Over his years of experience, he has created partnerships with a variety of providers in the areas of special education, mental health, and school leadership. In his role as a district administrator for special education, he partnered with community agencies to bring mental health services to students within the school setting.  As Assistant Superintendent, Mr. Yater added additional partnerships with community agencies to provide comprehensive wrap around services such as student mentoring, individual counseling services, parent training, and job embedded trauma training for teachers.  Throughout his career, Mr. Yater has worked to develop and align systems that provide services and supports to ensure success for students.