WICHE Staff Directory

Peace Bransberger is a senior research analyst with WICHE.  Prior to this she specialized in evaluation and applied research in the areas of workforce development, job training and postsecondary education for under-prepared adult students.  As a researcher with the Aspen Institute and as an independent consultant, Peace led participatory research, implemented program performance improvements, produced best practice guides and tools, and provided professional development for job training practitioners.  Before focusing on research in adult education, Peace managed federal program evaluations at Westat and another private evaluation firm in Washington, DC.  Peace is a licensed adult educator, and taught at an adult charter school and community college.  She earned her master’s degree from American University in Washington, DC and her undergraduate degree from St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

Margo Colalancia directs the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s three Student Exchange Programs – the Professional Student Exchange Program, the Western Regional Graduate Program, and the Western Undergraduate Exchange – which provide a broad range of higher education options for some 32,700 students. She joined WICHE in 1994. Prior to her current position, she served as the associate project director of CONAHEC, a trinational consortium of Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. universities and colleges. She received her bachelor's degree in business French from the University of Colorado and the Université de Bordeaux III and holds a master's degree in international policy studies with an emphasis in intercultural communication from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. Prior to her graduate studies, Colalancia spent seven years in Gabon in Central Africa, teaching English as a foreign language with the Peace Corps and on private contract with the Gabonese Ministry of Education.

University of Texas @ Austin Graduate, performing Web/Database Development services at WICHE. I started my career in 1989 and have developed n-tier solutions in a wide range of languages on various platforms over the years.

Tamara DeHay is a Research and Technical Assistance Associate at the WICHE Behavioral Health Program in Boulder, CO.  She is a licensed clinical psychologist and is certified as a Health Services Provider in Psychology by the National Register.  Dr. DeHay has obtained specialized training in collaborative healthcare, child and family psychology, program evaluation, and administrative psychology.  She earned a PhD in School Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Administration, Policy, and Program Evaluation through the University of Colorado Denver.  She additionally completed a certificate program in Primary Care Behavioral Health through the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  Dr. DeHay's research and clinical experience has included such areas as collaborative health care, pediatric health psychology, rural mental health policy, and evidence-based interventions.  Dr. DeHay co-led the development of a Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Rural Primary Care Providers, which has been launched  nationally.  She also led the development of a pre-doctoral psychology internship consortium in Alaska.  She is involved in multiple other projects addressing rural mental health workforce and training issues and is a certified Mental First Aid instructor. 

Cheryl Graves is an administrative assistant in the Policy Analysis and Research unit at WICHE. She works closely with the two unit directors as well as provides administrative support for three unit project coordinators. Cheryl has over fifteen years experience in administrative support as well as ten years experience in Information Technology support, networks, and project management. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Computer Information Systems from Colorado Christian University.

Patrick Lane joined the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) in 2008 as a project coordinator. He coordinates the Adult College Completion Network and worked extensively on WICHE’s Non-traditional No More: Policy Solutions for Adult Learners project. Both projects focus on indentifying policy and practice solutions to help adults with prior college credit return to postsecondary education to complete their degrees. He also coordinates WICHE’s College Access Challenge Grant Network. He came to WICHE having spent several years working in education policy in the Republic of the Marshall Islands. He received a master’s degree from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in 2007 and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in public administration at the University of Colorado Denver. He can be reached at 303.541.0266 or plane@wiche.edu. 

Mimi McFaul is a clinical psychologist and the director of the WICHE Mental Health Program where she coordinates and manages program staff and operations.  Mimi graduated from the California School of Professional Psychology, and completed both a pre-doctoral and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in the Department of Psychiatry.  Mimi is a co-developer of a Suicide Prevention Toolkit for Rural Primary Care providers and frequently conducts live trainings in primary care sites based on the toolkit.  Mimi completed the Primary Care Behavioral Health Certificate program from the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  Her specialties include rural behavioral health, behavioral health workforce development, forensic psychology, and the integration of primary care and behavioral health.  She also co-developed the Alaska Core Competencies - a set of basic core competencies for direct care workers working in different service systems in Alaska.  She is a certified Mental Health First Aid Instructor and is routinely involved in the facilitation of technical assistance and education projects for the public mental health system. 

Mollie McGill serves as Deputy Director, Programs and Membership for WCET. She assists with the overall management of member services and communications that inform the e-learning community of relevant policy, practices and developments. She facilitates the advancement of several committee projects, such as those dealing with academic integrity and student identity authentication, student retention in online learning, institutional policies and practices for adjunct online faculty, and ownership of learning management systems. In 2009-2010, she has worked with the WICHE Policy Analysis unit on the Statewide Articulation and Transfer project, specifically to study state transfer web portals. Mollie spent nearly 20 years working for WICHE in the early part of her career and, among other accomplishments, was instrumental in founding WCET in 1989. Most recently she directed learning innovations and technology initiatives for the University of Colorado System and served in leadership roles for several Colorado statewide e-learning projects. She received her education degree from Emporia State University. As the parent of twin teenage boys, she has first-hand experience with the technology and study habits of today's millenials.

Dennis Mohatt is the Vice President for Behavioral Health at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE). He directs the WICHE Mental Health Program and the WICHE Center for Rural Mental Health Research. Dennis has over 30 years of public mental health services. His work has included direct clinical care, clinical supervision, and CEO tenure in a rural CMHC serving Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Additionally, he led an effort in the early 1990s, funded by HRSA, to successfully integrate mental health and primary care in multiple rural family practice settings. During the late 1990s, Dennis served as the Deputy Director for the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, a position where he also served as the state's commissioner of mental health. His duties included executive management of multiple state HHS divisions including: child welfare, juvenile justice, public health, mental health, developmental disabilities, substance use, services for the older adults, public assistance, Medicaid, services for the visually impaired, and public institutions. Since 2001, Dennis has led WICHE's efforts in behavioral health. He has served as a member of the National Rural Health Advisory Committee, and led many national efforts relating to rural mental health including his role as the Chief Consultant to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health. He is actively engaged in efforts focused on improving services to Veterans, Guard, and Reserve as well as their families; rural mental health policy; workforce development, and increasing adoption of integrated approaches to behavioral and primary care practice. His graduate training was supported by a NIMH Fellowship and focused on rural community-clinical psychology. 

As Deputy Director, Research and Analysis for WCET, Russ Poulin organizes information-sharing activities among WCET's members and edits WCET's Frontiers blog.  Recently, Russ has lead national responses on new federal distance education regulations. Russ coordinates WCET's research on the management of online learning, works on elearning consortia issues, and consults on WICHE's Adult College Completion Network. Previously, Russ coordinated distance education activities for the North Dakota University System. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Economics from the University of Colorado Denver and a Master's in Statistics and Research Methodology from the University of Northern Colorado. Contacts: @RussPoulin or rpoulin@wiche.edu

Megan Raymond, Manager, Events and Programs, has been with WCET since 2007. Her primary responsibility is the coordination of the program and logistics for WCET's Annual Conference. Prior to joining WCET, she was the Assistant Director of housing and conference services at Fort Lewis College, a small liberal arts college in Durango, CO. Megan oversaw a successful conference services program and supervised 22 student staff members and two full-time professional staff. She also adjudicated resident discipline cases and coordinated staff development programming. Megan received a Business Administration degree with an emphasis in Marketing from Fort Lewis College and a Masters in Nutrition and Health Education from Hawthorn University. Running, biking, and trail marathons help Megan burn off stress and occupy her spare time.

Patricia (Pat) Shea directs three membership-based academic leadership and innovation organizations for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE).  These are the WICHE Internet Course Exchange, the Western Academic Leadership Forum, and the Western Alliance of Community College Academic Leaders. In addition, she directs WICHE’s involvement in three regional collaborative projects: the North American Network of Science Labs Online (NANSLO), the Consortium for Healthcare Education Online (CHEO), and the Interstate Passport Initiative. Prior to serving in this position, Shea served as the assistant director of WCET, also based at WICHE, for which she conducted research in best practices in student services online. Before joining WICHE in 1996, Shea held several positions in Alexandria, VA, including Manager for Special Projects, Technology Division, the National School Boards Association; Director for Information Services, the Association of Telemessaging Services International; and Executive Director, the Alexandria Bar Association. She holds a M.A. in Educational Administration and Supervision from George Mason University.

Jeremy Vogt is a post-doctoral fellow with the WICHE Mental Health Program.  He received his doctorate degree in clinical psychology from The University of South Dakota in August of 2011.  His professional interests include primary care psychology, integrated health care, and behavioral health education.  He completed his clinical internship at the University of Colorado - Denver School of Medicine with an emphasis in primary care.  Jeremy has a strong interest in training primary care providers in brief behavioral health assessment and intervention skills.  In his time with WICHE, he has co-presented trainings in both Mental Health First Aid and rural primary care suicide prevention.  He worked on a project comparing various workflows within three models of collaboration in integrated care.  He has assisted with writing the Alaska Psychology Internship Consortium accreditation self-study report.  Jeremy is currently working on developing a training for the Alaska Core Competencies for Direct Care Workers in Health and Human Services project.