Leah Peskin
Founder & President
Leah Peskin is a community leader, philanthropist, and executive search professional serving the financial services sector. She is the Managing Partner of Bard Partners. Prior to entering the search industry, Ms. Peskin spent 16 years at Citigroup as vice president, advising in human resources policy.
She has served on the Boards of Directors of Let's Get Ready, a nonprofit that assists high school students from low-income backgrounds gain access to a college degree, and Riverside Symphony, and she has served in an advisory capacity to many other NYC-based nonprofit organizations. Ms. Peskin earned a B.A. in history at NYU.
She is the proud mother of three children and now also a proud grandmother. In launching the Gavin Farrell Foundation in memory of her son, she is dedicated to making a difference in many people's lives. She lives in New York City.
KATHERINE DONDANVILLE, PsyD, ABPP
Senior Program Consultant
Dr. Katy Dondanville, PsyD, ABPP, is a psychologist who works with researchers, clinicians, and systems to make mental health care better and easier to access. She's an Associate Professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, focusing on improving mental health care.
As the Director of the STRONG STAR Training Initiative, Dr. Dondanville leads a team that trains mental health clinicians. They've trained over 3000 clinicians across the U.S. and internationally, reaching over 10,000 people with evidence-based treatments for PTSD, suicide, and related areas. Dr. Dondanville is also the Chief Scientific Advisor for Face the Fight, a USAA-founded initiative aiming to reduce veteran suicide rates. Dr. Dondanville leads efforts to support organizations implementing new suicide prevention practices through training, technical assistance, and evaluation. She is the Co-Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee, guiding Face the Fight's strategy by analyzing emerging research, policies, and new opportunities for veteran suicide prevention efforts.
Dr. Dondanville focuses on making mental health care better and easier to access. Her research, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of Defense (DoD), focuses on PTSD treatments like Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT). She's committed to using research to help real people by finding quicker ways to train therapists and making sure more people can access the right treatments. She believes using virtual platforms and mobile health tech can make therapy more available and cheaper for therapists to learn. In addition to her research and leadership roles, Dr. Dondanville mentors junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows. She's published over 100 scientific papers and given over 150 presentations at research conferences.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mel Schneiderman, Ph.D.
Dr. Mel Schneiderman is Senior Vice President and co-founder of New York Foundling’s Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection, a national child protection center focusing on the primary prevention of child maltreatment. He is former Senior Vice-President of Mental Health Services at the New York Foundling. Dr. Schneiderman serves as Vice President of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Board of Directors and is on the Executive Committee of Prevent Child Abuse New York. cont.
Owen Davis
Owen is General Partner at Contour Venture Partners and has been the Managing Director of NYC Seed, a seed stage venture capital fund in New York City. He also founded the NYC Seedstart accelerator and Overlap, an artificial intelligence software company for scheduling. Owen is a Board Director of numerous technology and marketing companies. cont.
H. Allen Browning
H. Allen Browning is a consultant with expertise in the areas of audit and internal controls. He was previously a director at Accume Partners, a corporate consulting firm specializing in risk and regulatory services, internal audit, and cybersecurity/privacy solutions. Earlier in his career he served as chief financial officer for Lowe Direct, a direct market advertising agency, and was a math teacher in the NYC schools. He graduated from Central Washington University and resides in New York.