Board of Directors

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Debbie Fagnant, President

Debbie came to Alaska in 1973 to begin her elementary teaching career in St. Mary's, an Eskimo community off the Yukon. She has three wonderful children with husband Dick Fagnant and delightful grandchildren. Debbie retired from the Juneau School District in 2011 and now has more time for ceramics, hiking with friends, visiting family, and reading good books. Debbie wears many hats for NAMI Juneau and is committed to supporting others through NAMI's various family education and support programs.

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Elizabeth Giudice (they/she), Vice President

Elizabeth first moved to Alaska in 2021 with her partner and husky. She likes to joke that she moved here to make her husky happy, though she fell in love with her new home almost immediately. Elizabeth lived and worked in the Interior as the director of a rural library, promoting programs for community-building, education, and inclusivity. She identified a severe lack of diverse materials in the collection and worked over the course of the next two years to fill those gaps. During this time, she enrolled at the University of Alaska Fairbanks where she became very indecisive about her major.

In early 2023, Elizabeth and her little family moved to Juneau where she assumed a number of roles. As a trans woman who has struggled with mental health all her life, she feels charged to help those who may be suffering. Elizabeth is passionate about ensuring that no person falls through the cracks and believes firmly that intervention, advocacy, and education are the keys to strengthening her community. She serves as a director for two other non-profit boards in Juneau and currently works as a case manager at a social services agency. She enjoys hiking, chess, and cooking/baking new and exciting dishes.

Elizabeth is a Junior at UAF where she is on track to graduate with degrees in both Social Work and Justice next Spring, with aspirations of pursuing her Master’s. In the meantime, she is honored to have the opportunity to serve her community in support of NAMI’s mission. She fully credits similar organizations for supporting her through some of her most difficult times and feels uniquely privileged to be able to give back to others.

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Crystal Jackson

Crystal is part Inupiaq and grew up as the oldest of four children in an Air Force family, relocating to exotic places like Panama, Germany, and Nebraska. She graduated from the University of Alaska in Anchorage with a BA in Marketing and minor in Psychology. Crystal is familiar with mental health issues that face many Alaskans and Alaska Natives alike. She considers herself an advocate for squashing stigmas around mental health issues, and she has a passion for relationship-building and empathy-skill training. She has had personal experiences with managing depression, sleep disorders, panic attacks, and antidepressant medications.

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Amelia Hanrahan

Amelia is a mental health clinician. Her work is focused in childhood trauma, suicide prevention, and 2SLGBTQIA+ mental health. She previously worked at Juneau Youth Services as a clinician and at Kodiak Area Native Association providing primary care mental health services. She previously worked as a teacher in South Korea. A native of Toronto, Canada she moved to Alaska in 2016. She is passionate about the mission and programs offered by NAMI and is excited to bring her skills, connections, and experience to benefit NAMI in helping our community.

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Darrin Kelly, Treasurer 

Darrin was born at a very young age and spent a childhood in New York struggling with depression. Decades later he learned the context for his early struggles when he learned the extent of mental illness in his family. This instilled a passion in overcoming stigma and advocacy for mental health services at the earliest ages so that his two amazing sons and their peers can have different experiences around mental illness than he experienced. He spent most of his adult life in Downeast Maine and Maritime Canada as a naturalist, sea kayak guide, ecotourism owner/guide, and working for conservation non-profits. He moved to Sitka over a decade ago to work for the Forest Service as a wilderness sea kayak ranger and has held a number of positions in his eight years in Juneau and plans on retiring from the Forest Service in Juneau in a decade or two. Darrin will take this approach to his work with NAMI Juneau as a recipient of the full suite of mental health services in Juneau and listening and learning as a NAMI Connections participant and facilitator. Most importantly he stays regulated thanks to frequent outdoor adventures in the wilds around Juneau, iderally with his two sons.

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Betsy Brenneman, Secretary 

Betsy Brenneman has lived in Juneau since late 1977 and in Bethel, Fairbanks and Anchorage before that. She currently does contract work as the owner of Brenneman Communications and Consulting. Formerly a reporter, editor, producer and manager for various Alaska radio and television stations and newspapers, she also worked for Sealaska Corporation and Big Brothers Big Sisters of SE Alaska, created the B.A.M. afterschool program at Juneau’s two middle schools, and most recently coordinated a needs assessment and strategic plan for the state’s early childhood system for the Association of Alaska School Boards. . Family members’ mental health challenges, as well as her own, opened a whole new area of learning for her, a fascination with brain science and hope for new norms and paradigms for discussing, managing and treating mental health. As a board member, she would focus on advancing those new paradigms by increasing public awareness and confidence in NAMI’s work while moving board priorities forward. Betsy is married, has a grown son and likes spending time with friends and family, hiking, yoga, travel, skiing, creating, and almost anything outdoors. 

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Michelle Martin bio coming soon!

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Sarah Niecko 

Sarah is an assistant professor of Behavioral Health Sciences at the University of Alaska Southeast. Prior to her career in academia, she spent 18 years practicing behavioral medicine in Michigan, rural Alaska, and Southeast Alaska. 

She has a Bachelor of Psychology, a Master of Medicine, a Doctorate of Health Science, and is both a certified Health and Well-Being Coach and a member of MINT (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers).  In 2022, she started the first Alaskan chapter of Active Minds, a nationwide nonprofit organization, at UAS to help support mental health awareness and the promotion of positive mental health among college students. ​

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Alyson Currey 

Alyson moved to Juneau in 2013 from her Texas roots as a Community Organizer for Planned Parenthood. After rabble-rousing and lobbying the AK state legislature for seven years, Alyson joined the Bartlett Hospital Case Management team in a Social Work role primarily serving patients on the Mental Health Unit. Alyson’s work in direct patient care continues to fuel her passion to advocate for systemic change at local, state, and federal levels to break down barriers to health care and improve quality of care for all. Outside of Bartlett, Alyson enjoys traveling, trying new recipes, foraging, and functional fitness at Tongass Fitness.​

 

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Leandrea Makaily

Leandrea was born and raised in Juneau. They are Tlingit & Aleut. Leann's clan in Kaagwaantaan of the Klukwan area. Leann's passion for learning and helping others started in high school with Nancy Seamount when Nancy brought in a NAMI representative and was able to join and help the community differently than they had been. Leann was an active member of their culture and LGBTQ2+ community. With the disproportionate stats, Leann finds it important more than ever to find ways to have the community heal through culture and fellowship with one another. Leann is thrilled to help the community in this new way by becoming a board member with NAMI Juneau.

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