Our Team

Monica Super serves on KAI’s training and technical assistance (TTA) team as a TTA specialist, bringing more than 20 years of experience in social and health care services. Monica specializes in behavioral health and substance use disorders, especially for American Indian and Alaska Native youth, and tribal communities. Her experience includes leadership, project and grant management, American Society of Addiction Medicine assessments and treatment planning, individual/group counseling, and training.

Nancy Pierce serves as KAI’s public health nurse and provides culturally appropriate support to tribal communities. She has more than 30 years of nursing experience including work in public health administration, policy and procedure writing, prevention and intervention activities, and education. Her public health case management experience includes home and office visits to clients with chronic disease and other needed medical intervention resources, offering both public and practical medical health. Nancy earned her master’s degree in public health and her bachelor’s degree in nursing from California State University Fresno.

Stephen Valliere serves on KAI’s Behavioral Health Transformation team as a TTA specialist. Stephen has more than 9 years of experience in public health and social services, including behavioral health and substance use disorder (SUD), especially within tribal communities and rural American Indian and Alaska Native populations. He provides TTA support on the California Medications for Addiction Treatment (MAT) state opioid response III expansion project, funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to improve statewide access to MAT and SUD services.

Holly Echo-Hawk is a former county mental health director and former Lummi Nation behavioral health director. Currently, she serves as National co-chair for Indigenous Communities Workgroup, Opioid Response Network. She is the founder and creative lead for Reclaiming Native Psychological Brilliance series and has special knowledge in the areas of traditional practices within behavioral health services, tribal council and tribal health board briefings, licensing and accreditation, long-term sustainability, and international Indigenous behavioral health partnerships.

Joshua Severns has many years of experience working as an substance use disorder (SUD) treatment supervisor, registered clinical supervisor, telehealth provider, advanced certified alcohol and drug counselor, White Bison Wellbriety Certified Firestarter, licensed clinical social worker, and primary care behavioral health consultant. His clinical focus is on substance use and co-occurring disorders, as well as whole-person care for Native people. Experienced in crisis response as a former wildland firefighter, structural firefighter, and emergency medical technician, Joshua has special knowledge in the following areas: SUD treatment and recovery, mobile crisis response, tribal inpatient and intensive outpatient programs, and intersection of tribal crisis response and behavioral health programming.

Kenneth Hanover serves on KAI’s training and technical assistance team as a Native community advisor. He has more than 9 years of experience in substance use disorder and medication-assisted treatment, especially among tribal communities. Kenneth is a substance use disorder certified counselor II in the state of California through California Association of DUI Treatment Programs. He is also a certified medication-assisted treatment counselor, clinical supervisor, domestic violence facilitator, and anger management facilitator through the Breining Institute. Kenneth is also certified in crisis education and intervention, suicide postvention, and has completed the Native American Fatherhood & Families Association’s Fatherhood Sacred, Motherhood is Sacred training.

Dr. Joan Kandel, former Indian Health Service medical officer for the Navajo Nation and Jicarilla Apache Nation, she has spent over 25 years living on reservations and serving tribal people. A member of the national Opioid Response Network’s Indigenous Communities Workgroup—a team of Native health experts who provide advice and guidance on over 200 requests for training and technical support received from tribal, urban Indian, and Alaska Native communities—she has special knowledge in the following areas: board certified addiction medicine, medications for addiction treatment, substance abuse disorder training for staff and communities, and telemedicine.

Danica Love Brown, MSW, CACIII, PhD, is a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma born and raised in Northern New Mexico. Danica is the Vice President for Resilience and Healing at Kauffman and Associates, Inc and has worked as a mental health and substance use counselor, social worker, and youth advocate for 30 years. She is an Indigenous Wellness Research Institute ISMART fellow alumni, Council of Social Work Education, Minority Fellowship Program fellow alumni, and Northwest Native American Research Center for Health fellow alumni. Her research has focused on Indigenous Ways of Knowing and decolonizing methodologies to address historical trauma and health disparities in Tribal communities.