Golden Health Expo Bios

Veterans Event Bios

Shawn Banzhaf  
Bob Beard
Thomas Winkel 
Dr. Louis Chow
Jim Dunn 
Jennifer Gewarges 
Mat McLette 
Rodd Marcum 
Andrew Jones 
Dan Futrell 
Michelle Loposky 
HyeJung Park  

Shawn Banzaf – Pat Tillman Center – Executive Director

For twenty-one years, Shawn served in the United States Army National Guard and retired as the acting First Sergeant of the 1057th Transportation Company. He is an Iraqi War Veteran, during which he earned the Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge while executing 100 combat missions in and around Baghdad, Ramadi and Fallujah. His unit, the 1074th Transportation Company, was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation during their year-long campaign (OIF 06-07). Shawn is the creator of the 5 Ls: A Practical Guide for Helping Loved Ones Heal After Trauma and is a facilitator for ASU’s Treks For Vets. Most recently, he earned his Master of Arts in Sociology at Arizona State University.

Thomas Winkel, MA, LPC, NCC

Thomas Winkel, MA, LPC, NCC is the Director for the Arizona Coalition for Military Families, a nationally-recognized public/private partnership focused on building Arizona’s statewide capacity to care for all service members, veterans, their families and communities. Mr. Winkel was part of the team that designed and implemented the Arizona Coalition for Military Families in 2009 and since that time he has worked extensively on local, state and national levels to expand best-practices in support of all those who serve and their families.
Thomas holds a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Professional Studies in Portland, Oregon. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Arizona and a Nationally Certified Counselor. He has extensive clinical experience working with individuals, families and organizations, including the military, veteran and family population.
He was one of the principal team members in the development of an Arizona National Guard program focused on prevention, intervention and postvention of stress and trauma among military members and their families. As a result of that program, the suicide rate among Arizona National Guard members went from the highest level in its history to zero deaths by suicides for over three years while the program was active.
In collaboration with the VA, Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services, Senator John McCain’s Office and others this program evolved into the nationally recognized Be Connected program which includes all 600,000 of Arizona’s service members, veterans and their families and resulted in being named one of the 2018 VHA Community Partnership Challenge Winners. Between his efforts in upstream suicide prevention and his 10-years of experience in providing training and technical assistance to every state and territory on statewide ecosystems of support for service members, veterans and their families, Thomas was well positioned to provide input on the development of the White House Executive Order – PREVENTS. It was his great honor to speak at the signing of that Initiative.

NAMI Arizona 
Jim Dunn

Since December 2011, Jim Dunn has served as the Executive Director/CEO of the Arizona State Office of a grassroots advocacy organization serving individuals and families with mental illness.

A 25-year pioneer in the Arizona behavioral health community, Jim is a staunch supporter of individuals and families with mental illness, community collaboration, and integrated care. In addition to working as a State of Arizona vocational rehabilitation counselor, recovery services administrator, and site administrator of one of the larger adult SMI direct care clinics, Jim helped launch/serve the first Latino family/peer run organization, the Arizona Mental Health and Criminal Justice Coalition, the Phoenix VA Veterans and Family Executive Leadership Council, the Phoenix VA Mental Health Advocacy Council, the Arizona Peer and Family Coalition, the Arizona Justice Alliance, AHCCCS OIFA Advisory Council, AHCCCS Policy Committee, City of Surprise Quarterly Veterans Roundtable, and the Maricopa County Human Rights/Independent Oversight Committee.

He is currently working with all three branches of Arizona State government and law enforcement agencies across the state to address the all too frequent intersection of mental illness, homelessness, and criminal justice.

U.S. Vets
Jennifer Gewarges 

Jennifer Gewarges is the Executive Director for U.S.VETS — Phoenix,  joined the nonprofit provider of housing and supportive services for homeless and at-risk Veterans and their families in 2022.

Previously, she worked at Southwest Key Programs, a national nonprofit dedicated to reunifying and sheltering immigrant children and families escaping dangerous conditions in their homeland by providing safe shelter, alternatives to incarceration, career development and quality education. Gewarges has also interned as a victim’s advocate for the Phoenix Fire Department, helping victims escape domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking and child abuse, and with the behavioral health executive team for Terros Health.

She has a bachelor’s degree in design with a minor in Spanish and a master’s degree in social work from Arizona State University and is pursuing her doctorate degree in behavioral health management.

Neuroflow
Mat Miclette, MPH MS RN

Matt Miclette is the V.P. of Clinical Operations at NeuroFlow, a digital health company that provides integrated behavioral health services. He also co-found and serves as the Executive Director of Action Tank, a Veteran social impact nonprofit. Matt is a board-certified mental health nurse. He served in the U.S. Army for six years treating physical and psychological combat trauma. He holds an MPH and M.S. in Social Policy from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as a B.S. in Nursing from the University of Vermont.

Col. Rodd Marcum, MD
Command Surgeon, 1st Special Forces Group, Ret.

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Rodd is an Army ROTC and Pharmacy School Graduate from Oregon State University. He earned his MD in 2002 and completed Internal Medicine residency in 2005. He holds a Master of Public Health Degree in Epidemiology from the University of Washington and completed residency training in Public Health/General Preventive Medicine and Occupational Medicine in 2013. Over his 25-year military career, he held hospital leadership positions and completed multiple combat deployments in support of the Global War on Terror, assigned to elite special operations units.

Pat Tillman Veterans Center
Michelle Loposky

Michelle Loposky is the Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships for ASU’s Pat Tillman Veterans Center. In her role she directs and implements actions to establish the PTVC success culture for ASU’s military affiliated and student veterans, to include both campus and digital immersion. Her work includes the PTVC strategic communications plan, focused on building strong partnerships and collaboration across the ASU enterprise and with other outside organizations and individuals to implement a federated approach in support of military affiliated and student veterans. She is a true advocate in helping military-connected students have a meaningful and successful college experience.

An Army veteran, Michelle served four years as a combat medic. She was deployed once after the Bosnian war with the Stabilization Force humanitarian efforts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was stationed out of Fort Hood, Texas, attached to 61st Aerial Support Medical Battalion.

After her service, Michelle received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami (Florida) and this is where her love for higher education began. Prior to working at ASU, Michelle held positions at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix and New York University. She has been working at ASU since 2015. Michelle also served on the City of Tempe Veterans Commission (2018-2021), is a member of the Arizona based Asian Corporate & Entrepreneur 

Leaders Organization and served two terms as the Phoenix Alumni Club President for her alma mater. Michelle is a cohort of ASU Alumni Association’s Leadership Institute Class One.