Our Operating Team

Elise Wilson

  • Elise Wilson is Heal Ukraine Traumas’ Executive Director. Elise’s experience is in humanitarian response and international development; she has focused her work on supporting people affected by conflict. Prior to joining Heal Ukraine Trauma, Elise worked with several US based nonprofits and international organizations including UNICEF and IOM. Elise holds a Master of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown as well as a B.A. in International Relations and B.S. in Hospitality Administration from Boston University.

Oksana Gryshchenko

  • Oksana Gryshchenko, PhD, has worked in international business, government relations, and politics. She has been the head of an international business consulting company for over 15 years, specializing in bringing foreign investment into Ukraine. She was an advisor to the Minister of Energy of Ukraine (2006-2007; 2010-2014). She also has extensive experience in national grass-roots politics and contemporary art curating. Her other areas of interest include studies of Western Esotericism and Psychology, exploring the relationship between religion and science. In the past year, she has been involved in the development of rehabilitation centers for veterans in Ukraine.

Amy Goodrich

  • Amy Goodrich is a recent US Army veteran with multiple deployments and experience in conflict areas. Her interests are in human security and stabilization efforts which stem from her work in East and West Africa. Amy earned a B.A. in Law and Justice Studies from Rowan University and a M.A. in International Studies from North Carolina State University with a specialization in African security and governance.

Iryna Holub

  • Iryna has 20 years of management experience in event management and communications. She has worked with commercial companies and a number of public and non-profit projects.

    She is a co-founder and director of the Zalizniy tato publishing house and she is an author of children's books.

    Iryna holds a PhD in philosophy from the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Anne Wallentine

  • Anne Wallentine is a writer and communications consultant who applies her expertise across the fields of arts and health. She has held leadership positions in several communications firms, working primarily with healthcare and biopharmaceutical clients on strategic communications. She regularly provides independent journalism for outlets that include The Financial Times, The Economist, the Art Newspaper, and Hyperallergic. Anne graduated summa cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis and earned her master's degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

Leah Kim

  • Leah is a student at Duke University, pursuing a Program II in Psychiatry & Law. She has always been passionate about mental health initiatives that emphasize trauma-informed care. Her Program II explores this interest in the context of taking a holistic approach to understanding drug medicine and culture, which has attracted her to HUT’s mission. She aspires to be a child and adolescent psychiatrist in the future.

Diana Sobolieva

  • Diana is a Ukrainian student at Williams College. Before joining Heal Ukraine Trauma, she was part of an anthropology research team filming a documentary on Ukrainian and Afghan refugees in Europe. Witnessing mental health challenges of the interviewees made her passionate about supporting mental health initiatives in Ukraine.

Our Board of Directors

Elaine Klein

  • Elaine Klein is a co-founder and Board Chair of Heal Ukraine Trauma. Elaine spent over 20 years as an executive with Johnson & Johnson and Bristol Myers Squibb, leading US and global commercial and development groups. Subsequently, she founded and ran a biopharmaceutical consulting firm, advising clients on drug development and regulatory strategy. Elaine earned a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Harvard Business School. She currently lives in Park City, UT.

Elizabeth Ames

  • Elizabeth Ames is a co-founder, CEO, and Treasurer of Heal Ukraine Trauma. Elizabeth’s career has spanned private, public, not-for-profit and international sectors. She served in the Massachusetts State Cabinet and also as Senior Policy Advisor for Economic Affairs and Technology to two Governors. She has 30 years’ country-wide experience in Ukraine and was a pioneer in the former Soviet Union’s transition to a free-market economy. Elizabeth holds a BA from Yale, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Yuriy Blokhin

  • Yuriy Blokhin is a proud Ukrainian living in Canada and is the CEO and Founder of Homecoming. Yuriy is also a founding board member of Heroic Hearts Project and Heal Ukraine Trauma. He is passionate about increasing safe access to psychedelic-assisted therapy to help all people, especially veterans around the world. He studied mathematical physics at the University of Waterloo, but dropped out to start working at Kik as its first employee. It eventually became one of the most popular mobile apps globally (300m registered users). He is now studying part-time towards a liberal arts degree in religion and philosophy at Harvard Extension School. He firmly believes that having a strong foundation in humanities is a must for anyone making strategic decisions about technology.

Oleh Derevianko

  • Oleh Derevianko is a visionary business and social entrepreneur. He is the co-founder, chairman, and chief vision officer of ISSP, a private international cybersecurity company founded in Ukraine in 2008 and currently operating globally. Before founding ISSP, Oleh worked as CEO and Board Member in Ukrainian and international companies, and from 2015-2016, he served as Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. Oleh is also a founder of the Olaf Pine Foundation, a nonprofit organization focused on cutting-edge technologies to foster mental health. Oleh holds a Ph.D. in economic policy and a master’s degree in international economics summa cum laude from Kyiv National Taras Shevchenko University.

Jesse Gould

  • Jesse Gould is Founder and President of the Heroic Hearts Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit pioneering psychedelic therapies for military veterans. Jesse graduated from Cornell University and worked briefly in investment banking. After being deployed as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan three times and facing his own battle with PTSD, Jesse founded the Heroic Hearts Project in 2017 to spearhead the acceptance and use of psychedelic-assisted therapy for veterans, working in partnership with treatment centers and academic research institutions. Jesse is a well-known advocate for veterans’ mental health care.

John Tedstrom

  • John Tedstrom works at the nexus of international security, economics, and global health. John served as Director for Russia, Ukraine, and the New Independent States at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton. In 2003, he founded Transatlantic Partners Against AIDS (TPAA), a groundbreaking joint venture between the U.S., Russia, and Ukraine aimed at combatting the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the former Soviet Union. His exceptional leadership and close partnership with Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who led the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS (GBC), led to the merger of TPAA and GBC. Tedstrom is the founder of Tedstrom Associates, a boutique consultancy focused on diversity and inclusion. Holding a D.Phil. in Economics and Russian Area Studies, he authored over 100 publications on economics and public health.

Melissa Stock

  • Melissa Stock served as the Senior Financial Officer of Bancroft Global Development for fourteen years. She supervised accountancy, investment management, and financial reporting across the organization.  For twelve years, she played a central leadership role as strategic partner and advisor to Bancroft’s President and then served as President herself for two years.

    Melissa formed and operated multiple businesses designed to support Bancroft and its mission to promote permanent solutions in war torn countries.  Her role was comprised of managing day-to-day operations in austere environments to include operating various passenger aircrafts, overseeing construction and operating budgets of multi-use facilities, developing channels for specialized transport of building materials and medical supplies, supervising turn-key facilities, and administering cross-border logistics.

    Presently, Melissa serves a variety of local and international nonprofits through leadership in board positions and participation on committees, with a focus on grant writing and executive coaching. 

    Melissa is a graduate with honors from George Washington University’s Master of Business Administration program.

Margot Steinberg

  • Margot Steinberg is a Board member (and Development team advisor/member…?) of Heal Ukraine Trauma. She has been affiliated with the organization since its inception. She hold a BA from Brandeis University, an MBA from the Harvard Business School, and an MA from LAMDA, the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. She is a theatre producer, actor and voice-over artist and is currently working and living in New York City.

Our Advisory Board

Advisory Board members have expertise in psychiatry, psychology, clinical research, humanitarian response, international development, and healthcare communications. Their guidance ensures our work has maximum impact. 

Olga Chernoloz

  • As a trained neuropharmacologist and a registered pharmacist, Olga has held a number of roles in clinical trial management, drug development, biotech, and pharmaceutics. Dr. Chernoloz is a specialist in the pharmacology of psychoactive compounds. Olga has extensive experience in the research of psychoactive compounds for mental health and neurological applications. In this arena, she provides strategic advisory on clinical development, scientific due diligence, and full-cycle clinical trial management.

    Dr. Chernoloz has developed a program for Continued Medical Education in Psychedelic Medicine. She is a scientific advisor to Psychedelics Studies Research Group at University of Toronto. Olga is interested in the therapeutic potential of psychoactive drugs in the treatment of mental health disorders and the improvement of quality of life in healthy individuals. Dr. Chernoloz authored a number of original research articles and a chapter in an instructional book on Neurobiology of Mood Disorders. Olga is an associate professor at the University of Ottawa where she teaches Neuroscience of Psychedelics.

Diego Concha

  • Diego is an experienced CTO and software engineer, formerly an MIT trained applied scientist, with a passion for leveraging technology to help improve people's lives. He has deep experience taking mobile and web products from ideation all the way to user's devices for both big and small brands alike. He does this by collaborating closely with key stakeholders, compassionately building and leading multi-disciplinary teams, and focusing on user needs over profit. He's excited to combine his deep experience in tech and passion for social impact to help HUT succeed in their digital efforts.

Colin Greenstreet

  • Colin Greenstreet is an experienced healthcare executive and entrepreneur. Colin was previously VP, R&D Strategy at GlaxoWellcome (now GSK). He founded several companies, including a healthcare professional services company. Earlier in his career, Colin worked in consulting at Booz Allen and McKinsey. He earned a BA in philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Oxford, and was a Kennedy Scholar at Harvard Business School, where he received an MBA. Colin lives in London.

Iryna Frankova

  • Iryna Frankova, M.D., PhD, is an assistant professor at the department of clinical, neuro- and developmental psychology, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and senior researcher at the ARQ centrum 45, the Netherlands. She is a chair of the Traumatic Stress Network, European college of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP). Iryna is also an assistant at the department of medical psychology, psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy at Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv, Ukraine. Her main interests are secondary prevention of PTSD, digital interventions in promotion of mental health and wellbeing, and global mental health.

Sara Karimbhoy

  • Sara Karimbhoy has worked in conflict-affected countries for almost 20 years, designing and managing emergency programs, most recently for UNICEF. Throughout, her focus has been on the impact of conflict on women and children. Currently, she is supporting the World Bank’s work in crisis preparedness with the aim of building capacity and systems within fragile countries. She is drawn to the work of Heal Ukraine Trauma as it focuses on mental health, an often-neglected consequence of war.

Jennifer Van Wyck

  • Humanitarian, author, and registered clinical counsellor. Jennifer has been director of her company Van Wyck Consulting for over 10 years and has served thousands of clients. She has received a Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada for her humanitarian work during the Ebola response in West Africa, and over the last 12 years has set up mental health programs all over the world helping people to recover from war, natural disasters and epidemics. Her book "The Good Thing About Mortar Shells: Choosing love over fear" was a best seller in multiple categories at its release in 2020. The book is about how to deeply connect with your heart and intuition to hear the message your emotions are trying to give you so that you can get the results you want and make the world a better place. Her passion is teaching people how to see and feel the love that is inside and all around them.

Dennis Ougrin

  • Dennis Ougrin is child and adolescent psychiatrist. He currently leads the Youth Resilience Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London and a global mental health studies program aimed at developing community mental health services in Ukraine and other Low- and Middle-Income Countries. Previously, he led the MSc in Child and Adolescent Mental Health at King’s College London and acted as the Chief Investigator of major NIHR, MRC, and charity-funded studies in the field of self-harm and intensive community care services. From 2018-2020, Dennis was the editor-in-chief of Child and Adolescent Mental Health. Dennis has expertise in conducting randomized controlled trials in the fields of psychological therapy and mental health service models, the results of which have informed the development of intensive community care services in the UK and internationally.

Oleh Orlov

  • Oleh Orlov is a co-founder of HUT and the Ukrainian Psychedelic Research Association, the deputy director for research and experimentation at the Yarmachenko Institute of Special Education and Psychology of the National Academy of Educational Sciences of Ukraine, an expert on psychological crisis intervention at the Alliance for Public Health, expert at the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance, and a private counseling psychologist. Oleh has extensive psychological research experience, leading various research projects as the principal investigator, publishing 11 peer-reviewed articles, and publishing four books and book chapters on mental health and the healthcare system in Ukraine. Oleh holds a BA, Ph.D., and MA in counseling psychology, psychology and special education, and project management.

Jenny Phelps

  • Jenny is a physician Board Certified in both Family Practice and Integrative Medicine. Her 30-year career has spanned a variety of practice settings including primary care, functional medicine, and integrative medicine. She is actively engaged in community healing programs as both a graduate of the California Institute of Integral Studies with a Certificate in Psychedelic Assisted Therapy and Research and as a faculty member of the Center for Mind Body Medicine. Working with both individuals and circle groups from populations traumatized by natural disasters, school shootings, and war. Jenny holds a unique perspective and understanding of the tremendous value of connecting and healing in community. Her current work combining psychedelic medicine and mind-body medicine in circle groups creates a path for healing on a wider scale.

Ambassador Bill Taylor

  • Ambassador William B. Taylor is vice president, Europe and Russia at the U.S. Institute of Peace. In 2019, he served as chargé d’affaires at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv and as the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2006 to 2009. During the Arab Spring, he oversaw U.S. assistance and support to Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria. He served in Jerusalem as the U.S. government's representative to the Mideast Quartet. He served in Kabul in 2002 and in Baghdad in 2004.

    In the 1990s, Ambassador Taylor coordinated U.S. assistance to the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. He earlier served on the staff of Senator Bill Bradley.

    Ambassador Taylor is a graduate of West Point and Harvard’s Kennedy School and served as an infantry platoon leader and combat company commander in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and Germany.

Dylan Tête

  • Dylan Tête is a graduate of the California Institute of Integral Studies for Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy and a certified facilitator for mind-body skills groups from the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Prior to his current role as a consultant for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs with Red Duke Strategies, Dylan founded Bastion Community of Resilience, America's first intentional community for returning warriors and families living with a traumatic brain injury. He has participated in several veteran initiatives in Ukraine since 2018 and recently married a Ukrainian woman from Kyiv. Dylan is also a combat veteran of the Iraq War and recipient of the George W. Bush Military Service Citation.

Eric Vermetten

  • Eric Vermetten MD, PhD, is a clinical psychiatrist working as Professor of Psychiatry at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands. He retired in 2021 from the Dutch Armed Forces where he served as Head of Research Military Mental Health and was Strategic Advisor (COL). He also has an Adjunct Professorship at the Department of Psychiatry of New York UMC. He is trained in the Netherlands as well as in the USA in psychiatry and neuroscience (Stanford, Yale and Emory University).

    He has held clinical as well as a research positions with a focus on medical/biological as well as psychiatric aspects of complex psychotrauma in military as well as civilian populations. He has published over 300 papers, over 30 book chapters and edited several books on this topic.

    His research is in the field of stress, trauma, complex PTSD, and neuroscience. He has a special focus on combining biological-based interventions in psychotraumatology with novel technology and novel drug developments, in particular MDMA and psilocybin. He currently also serves as consultant for the United Nations.

Tim Vickery

  • Tim is a seasoned communication and stakeholder engagement strategist, policy advocate and governance expert who’s worked in over 50 countries delivering bespoke, hands-on support to governments, business and civil society groups, international donors and rural communities. He was among the first advisors selected by the U.K. Government’s Stabilisation Unit to help countries recover from violent conflict.

    Tim has lived and worked in Ukraine many times since 1995. He is a father of two young men, husband, dog-lover and avid traveller. He is inspired by the opportunity to combine his professional talents and abiding admiration for Ukraine to find groundbreaking ways to help Ukrainians heal - and others too. For Tim, a lasting reconstruction of Ukraine cannot be only physical.

    Tim holds a MSc in Journalism from Columbia University and a B.A. with honors in International Relations from Claremont McKenna College.