THE BADGE OF LIFE

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, Ron Clark, is a military veteran and a retired sergeant from the Connecticut State Police (CSP) with 23 years of service. He was the first certified CSP Peer Helper and Instructor, commander of the EAP/Medical unit and was a member of the tactical team as an Advanced Life Support Medic. He was also the Senior Flight Nurse for the Med-Evac unit and coordinated the Surgeons and Chaplain's program.

Ron has always been an active advocate for the physical, mental and spiritual health of his fellow troopers and colleagues in law enforcement and public safety. He helped establish the first Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Team in Connecticut and served as its President.

He holds a Master of Science degree in Counseling Education and has been a Registered Nurse since 1969. He currently serves as the Chairperson of the Middlebury Connecticut Police Commission. Further, he is Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Alliance to Benefit Law Enforcement(CABLE), a non-profit research and education collaborative dedicated to the health and well-being of law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Andy O'Hara is the founder of Badge of Life and a writer/lecturer on issues of police suicide, peer support and, in particular, more positive and effective ways of preventing suicide through improved, proactive mental health training for officers.

A military veteran as well as a 24 year officer and sergeant of the California Highway Patrol, Andy knows the pain of law enforcement all too well--he was suicidal as a police officer and retired with severe PTSD.

Andy is a member of the California Peer Support Association (CPSA), the International Police Association (IPA), Retired Peace Officers Association (RPOAC), the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists (ATSS), Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) and works as a peer volunteer with the West Coast Post-Trauma Retreat (WCPR). Badge of Life is listed as a resource in Allen Kates' book, "CopShock." Certified by POST as an advanced peer support officer, Andy works full time at the Badge of Life headquarters in Sacramento, CA and can be reached at badgeoflife@yahoo.com

BOARD MEMBER: Janak K. Mehtani, M.D., is one of the leading psychiatrists in the field of posttraumatic stress and has worked extensively with police officers for many years, dealing with some of the most severe cases imaginable. His compassion and insight have changed the lives of many deeply traumatized emergency workers. His inspired leadership and forward thinking have been an inspiration and made him an invaluable asset in planning improvements to long-outdated programs. An authoritative speaker, he is available with other program staff to speak about current developments in PTSD, depression and emergency workers.

BOARD MEMBER: Richard L. Levenson, Jr., Psy.D., C.T.S., F.A.A.E.T.S., is a New York State Licensed Psychologist and has been in private clinical practice since 1990. His clinical psychology practice is a general one, and he specializes in anxiety and depressive disorders, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the effects of medical/physical conditions on psychological health and well-being.

Dr. Levenson has been recognized as an expert in the amelioration of police stress and has published on the topic. He has written over three dozen articles and numerous book reviews. After serving a five-year term as Editor, Dr. Levenson is currently Associate Editor of the International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, a peer-reviewed, scholarly publication, and has helped bring research on police stress from traumatic incidents to the international psychological and police communities. Dr. Levenson’s credentials include certification as a Traumatic Stress Specialist from the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists; certification as a Traumatologist by the Green Cross Foundation; and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress. From September 11, 2001, to November, 2002, Dr. Levenson was on-site at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center participating in Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) group and individual debriefings of NYPD members of service as well as “debriefings for the debriefers.” For these efforts, Dr. Levenson was awarded Certificates of Merit from the NYPD Detectives’ Endowment Association and the National Fraternal Order of Police, Critical Incident Committee.

Dr. Levenson is currently a consulting Department Police Surgeon for the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office in Kingston, NY. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the 9/11 Police Aid Foundation, a not-for-profit organization. The Foundation was incorporated to provide charitable relief to any member, (retired or active), of any Police Department that has become ill or disabled in any way due to the effects of the terrorist attacks against this country on 9/11/01. The Foundation also provides aid and support to surviving family members of any officer that should succumb to such an illness or injury.

BOARD MEMBER: Catherine Leon, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) has been instrumental in developing the key concepts of the “Mental Health Prescription” and the lifesaving potential of officers visiting a mental health specialist at least once a year. Her experience dealing with posttraumatic stress disorder and police trauma have made her an invaluable leader in this program. Her presentations are highly effective , answering the key questions officers have about "that first visit," what to expect, and how to select a good therapist.

BOARD MEMBER Valerie Tanguay is a Captain with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department and has not only been active both in mental health awareness and suicide prevention but has conducted significant research into the problems faced by police officers leading into and following retirement. Her research paper, "Life After Retirement, Searching for Happily Ever After," was presented at the FBI academy and is a model for police agencies to follow in preparing their personnel for retirement, as well as in finding useful roles they can fulfill.

BOARD MEMBER, WALT NARR, and LEONA NARR: Pollock Pines, CA. Walt comes to us as a retired Captain from the Davis Police Department in California. Prior to Davis, he was an NYPD officer and a deputy for the Yolo County Sheriff's Department. He and Leona have been married 44 years. Walt describes their work today as an effort on behalf of "every officer that has died, been injured, or even had bad dreams because of this thankless job." In addition to Badge of Life, Walt volunteers with the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department's "Sheriff's Team of Active Retirees" (STAR) and is a leader in the Neighborhood Watch programs. His public speaking skills on behalf of Badge of Life are of tremendous value.

Leona has been a mental health counselor in Davis at the Yolo Community Care Continuum, as well as a volunteer for Suicide Prevention in Davis working the crisis line. Her father committed suicide when she was 10. After having breast cancer at age 40, Leona became a long-time volunteer for The American Cancer Society. She helped found a Reach for Life Program in Davis, working as a volunteer many years.

The Narr’s son, Paul Narr, a Davis Police Officer, committed suicide on Aug 10, 2008 at the age of 42, leaving a wife, 2 yr. old son, 5 yr. old daughter, sister and an identical twin brother.

BOARD MEMBER: Richard (Dick) Augusta. Dick's career with the California Highway Patrol was cut short in his twelfth year when, on a night traffic stop, a felon got the drop on him and gunned him down. Dick recovered from his serious wounds but when he tried to return to the road, he was haunted by the post traumatic stress that made him hypersensitive on traffic stops and fearful he would harm an innocent person. To this day, Dick has trouble sleeping because of the incident. His story can be found in Randy Sutton's, “True Blue, Police Stories by Those Who Have Lived Them.” His story was also a feature in the October, 2008 issue of PORAC Magazine. Dick has also attended two FBI seminars on Critical Incident Peer Support Team formation.

BOARD MEMBER Randy Keenan. Randy was with the City of Alameda Police Department from 1972 to 2001. He retired as a Sergeant, having worked, patrol, homicide, narcotics, traffic, and juvenile. He helped with security at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. Randy is a life member of the California Narcotic Officer's Assn. (CNOA), a charter member of the California Law Enforcement Historical Society, and a member of the International Police Assn. (IPA), Region 29.

CONSULTANT: John M. Violanti, Ph.D. is a 23-year veteran of the NY State Police and has spent 20 years researching police trauma and suicide. He is a research professor in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health and Health Professions at SUNY Buffalo, and a member of the State University of NY at Buffalo School of Medicine graduate facility.

Dr. Violanti has been involved in the design, implementation and analysis of numerous police related stress and health studies. Projects have included studies on police mortality, police stress and trauma, and suicide. Dr. Violanti has authored over 45 peer-reviewed articles and has written and edited nine books on police stress, psychological trauma and suicide.

Dr. Violanti has lectured at the FBI Academy as well as numerous institutions nationally and internationally. His role as Consultant to the Badge of Life Program does not in any way imply an endorsement of other programs or literature mentioned on this website.

SURVIVOR ADVOCATE: Janice McCarthy is our leading spokesperson for the rights and needs of survivors of law enforcement suicide. She is an active speaker and lecturer, speaking nationally for the Badge of Life on police suicide issues.

Janice knows the pain of police suicide, having lost her husband, Paul, a dedicated Massachussetts State Trooper, to PTSD and suicide that were the direct result of law enforcement trauma. She is a voice of courage that stands to speak out against the stigma, the shunning and the disgrace faced by police suicide survivors.

Janice carries her message to any and all that will listen. With us, she is determined to see justice and honor done for those officers whose deaths from suicide were the result of the stress and trauma in police work. Janice carries a message of hope to officers and their families--that there are "better ways" through the message of Badge of Life and its free training programs.

Esther Prichard’s husband was a Sacramento police officer. She reports he showed signs of trauma and was told he had made statements to a supervisor at work that were indicators of suicide in 2008. According to his wife, those statements were of trauma he had encountered. He shot himself while his wife was in the home.

Esther was 5 ½ months pregnant at the time and says she felt shunned by the department following the suicide. Esther, like our other survivors, is a valued part of the Badge of Life family, taking her story of trauma and abandonment to others with a stirring message on the importance of being attentive to and caring for surviving families and their children. This is a national problem among police agencies. Far too many job related deaths are dismissed without proper examination--were the truth known, many of these traumatized officers, such as Officer Prichard, would be buried with full honors.

Kelly Nicholson is an officer with the Salem ,Oregon Police Department, where she has served 23 years. Prior to this, she was with the Las Vegas Metro Police Department for 5 years after serving security, dispatch and base patrol in a eight-year enlistment in the Air Force. In addition to a permanent injury for which she is pending disability retirement, Kelly has been diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety disorder and depression. As a result of the latter, she has suffered and overcome periods of suicidal ideation. Kelly comes to Badge of Life with experience educating law enforcement officers on suicide prevention.

Daniel L. Cameron is the son of an LAPD officer. At 16 he became a Law Enforcement Explorer with the LAPD. Daniel enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1975 and is a Vietnam era veteran. He has also been a member of the California Air National Guard and the USAF Reserves. Dan served 18 years on the California Highway Patrol and was finally disability retired in 2004, suffering from PTSD. After retirement he obtained a Masters' degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Sports Medicine, subsequently becoming a certified athletic trainer. He earned his AA from MoorparkCollege, his BA from California State University-Northridge and his Masters' from Humboldt State University. He taught at Humboldt and was an EMT on the department. He lives in Woodland, California.

Janet Mentink, RN, Family Nurse Practitioner (F.N.P), PhD. has had several careers with a long history of interest and involvement in stress, prevention causes and management. In addition, she has used the Myers Briggs personality inventory with numerous groups and focused on stress and management based on personality. She spent 12 years in nursing at Woodland Memorial Hospital, predominantly ICU, CCU and Emergency Room--during which time she dealt with her own post truamatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Janet is Emeritus University of California-Davis School of Medicine, where she spent 24 years as faculty, working with family nurse practitioners and physician assistants, medical students and family practice residents. Her dissertation was on stress in Family Practice Residency. During the 70's and 80's, she and a team conducted stress reduction groups at Escalon Institute for health care professional. The last ten years at the University of California-Davis. She directed the FNP/PA program.

Kathleen Conway lives in Colorado. She spent 12 years as a police dispatcher, where she became intimately aware of the tremendous stresses experienced in that field. She notes that, because of the dispatcher's inability to actually see what's going on and often not hearing the outcome, the imagination can create haunting scenarios and memories. Kathleen then became a firefighter and worked her way up to EMS Manager for the county. Although she had to leave her position due to injuries, she has been able to continue working as a volunteer firefighter/paramedic and is still involved in the county's search and rescue team. Kathleen brings the valuable and needed perspectives of both firefighter and police dispatcher to the Badge of Life.

Desi Blondeel-Timmerman: A California Highway Patrol Officer in South Lake Tahoe, CA, Desi has served 29 years with the CHP. 2010 will see Desi transitioning into retirement. She became a survivor of a Line of Duty Suicide when she lost a dear friend from an allied agency. On Dec. 09, 2008, Melissa Ann Meekma, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Deputy and Medal of Valor recipient, succumbed to PTSD. Desi has found a means of reconciling with this loss by helping others through the Badge of Life.

Desi is also a grateful and proud graduate of the West Coast Post Trauma Retreat (WCPR). Her experience at the WCPR gave her insight into the cumulative stresses and traumas officers undergo and the tremendous emotional toll they exact from us all. The most important lesson she has learned is that she is not alone. As a police officer, a retiree and a survivor of law enforcement suicide, she is determined to reach out and show others that there are “new and better ways.”

Jerry Fleming of Stony Point, New York, is a USMC veteran of Vietnam who served 20 years with the Clarkstown, NY, Police Department. Following that, he worked another ten years with the Sheriffs prisoner transport unit. In addition to grisly murder scenes, Jerry's exposures to suicides were particularly truamatic: out of four suicides, two were officers he knew. Three children of officers also committed suicide. Jerry intervened and hospitalized one suicidal individual in an AA meeting.

After spotting an article about police suicides in a magazine, Jerry pursued his interest and found himself with Badge of Life. He is a NY Department of Criminal Justice Services Instructor and is certified by the Rockland Police Academy. He currently teaches the Badge of Life program to police classes 3 - 4 times a month.

Richard Isaacs: Born in New York, Richard Isaacs began his law enforcement career as an officer with the Los Angeles Transit District, where he was was promoted to sergeant. After ten years, he left to become a private investigator and polygraph examiner. He then returned to a uniform, this time with the Los Angeles Housing Authority Police and working the “projects.” Here, his experience included bike patrol, equestrian mounted patrol and community policing. He promoted to sergeant again, in charge of backgrounds, internal affairs and officer-involved shootings. As the only polygraph examiner, he was trained in voice stress analysis. After ten years and a total of 20 in law enforcement, he was finally forced to retire with a severe back injury.

Dick's own experience, training and education have left him deeply familiar with PTSD and its impact on emergency workers, be they police, fire or paramedic. A practiced speaker, he is available to train groups in his area.

Kendra Clemons, Sacramento, CA. Kendra is a proud family member of a long line of California Highway Patrol members (since 1942). Kendra lost her father, a CHP Sergeant, to suicide in 2006. Kendra has been an active supporter of the CAHP union, the Widows and Orphans Fund, the Al Turner Foundation, 11-99 Foundation, and now the Badge of Life program.

In addition to her personal understanding of survivor issues, Kendra brings a wealth of technical and graphic arts experience to our program.

Jeanne Templeman, RN, CNS, LCSW. Jeanne is a clinical psychotherapy practitioner, with an extensive teaching, regulatory and forensic nursing background. She is an adjunct professor of nursing at California State University at Sacramento. Jeanne can be reached at http://www.jtempleman.com/ or (916) 320-6051

Also a survivor of horrific trauma from the Viet Nam War, Ed Estes served 28 years with the California Highway Patrol and retired from the Stockton Area. Known as our "Gentle Giant," Ed speaks convincingly of the flashbacks and nightmares he has endured as the result of his experiences. Ed is also featured in the training video, "Reaching Out."

Don Corbett, Ohio. Don was an officer with the Austintown, Ohio Police Department for 17 years. He was disability retired with severe PTSD and depression from a long series of horrific events and nightmares. Don continues to suffer from the effects of his trauma but wisely continues his treatment.

Donald F. Miller, MA, LPC, is a Sergeant and 14-year veteran with the Wheeling, West Virginia Police Department. He has a Masters Degree in Mental Health Community Counseling and is a licensed professional counselor with the State of West Virginia. Don is a community volunteer (providing free counseling services to the poor), a certified instructor in Conflict Resolution and DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), and a passionate advocate of the Badge of Life program. He is currently developing a new Critical Incident Stress Management program for law enforcement agencies in his area.

Gary Bush, Cincinnati, Ohio. Gary is a veteran of the S. Charlston, West Virginia Police Department and was the sole officer in a "suicide-by-cop" shooting. In addition to shooting the perpetrator, Gary recalls kneeling with the dying man and comforting him as he died, a factor that no doubt contributed to the trauma from the incident and led to his near-suicide. In a department with no mental health/suicide prevention program, Gary finally left and was able to find proper care. He still struggles--as do so many of us. He now teaches mental health at the Cincinnati Police Academy, as well as seminars and other training programs.