Our Board
JOANNE TUCKER, ph.d.
President
For thirty years JoAnne was the Artistic Director and Choreographer of the Avodah Dance Ensemble, a New York City based modern dance company. Avodah toured nationally and internationally presenting its repertory in diverse settings from theaters, synagogues, churches, college campuses, community centers to prisons. Reviewed by the NY Times, JoAnne was sited as "creating heart felt pieces." Now retired from directing the dance company she found that the work in women's prison still resonated strongly for her and served as motivation for founding Healing Voices - Personal Stories.
JoAnne brings a background of study at The Juilliard School as a dance major and a Ph.D. in Theatre from the University of Wisconsin. She is author of two books, Torah in Motion: Creating Dance Midrash and Creative Movement for a Song: Activities for Young Children as well as numerous articles for journals and magazines related to her work with Avodah. She has taught on college faculties including Hebrew Union College and the University of the District of Columbia. JoAnne has a blog called Mostly Dance where she writes about dance and her history with Avodah.
She moved to Santa Fe in 2009 and shortly after that she and other founding members started Healing Voices - Personal Stores. For ten years she divided her time between painting (mainly oils) and work in film from extra work to featured roles in student projects. Check out her art website.
In the beginning of 2020 she moved to Atenas, Costa Rica where she continues her role as producer/co-director and administrative responsibilities.
Lindarose berkley
Vice-president
Lindarose is a Clinical Social Worker whose career was in a private practice setting treating individuals with psychiatric problems and couples with marital difficulties. She was on the Board of Directors for a local community mental health agency and for the Connecticut Society Clinical Social Work, where she worked on the successful establishment of licensing for clinical social workers. When she moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado fourteen years ago, she continued her professional work but developed a larger focus on nonprofit work.
She has been President of the Board of Directors for Yampatika, an environmental educational organization in Northwest Colorado. She worked to see this nonprofit agency transition into a successful, flourishing organization. She has also been the Coordinator for the Steamboat SpringsParkinson Support Group which started in August, 2012. She has most recently invested attention and energy into the development of Healing Voices - Personal Stories. She recognizes the destructive impact of violence and abuse and its interference with health and stability. Through the production and distribution of films created by this organization, she sees a path for community education and hope for those who have suffered from abuse.
REGINA RESS
TREASURER
Award winning storyteller, actor, writer, and educator, Regina has performed and taught from Broadway to Brazil, in settings from grade schools to senior centers, homeless shelter and prisons to Lincoln Center and The White House. She teaches storytelling for NYU's Program in Educational Theatre and Program in Multilingual/Multicultural Studies and produces a long-running storytelling series at the historic Provincetown Playhouse in NYC. She has performed and led workshops at women's prisons in NY, DE, CT and NM and for the Santa Fe Youth Shelters. In the aftermath of 9/11, under the auspices of Mercy Corps, she facilitated workshops for adults on the issue of children and trauma.
Regina was a longtime Board Member of the New York Storytelling Center and the New York Metro Liaison to the National Storytelling Network, which in 2003, awarded her an Oracle Award in the Regional Leadership and Service and in 2015 an Oracle Award for performance. She has published numerous articles including "Her Story, Your Story, Our Story: An Afternoon with Women who Have Escaped the Troll" in Diving in the Moon, an on-line journal published by the Healing Story Alliance. Her CD, "New York & Me" won a 2014 Storytelling World Award. Regina currently serves on the Board of the Storytellers of New Mexico. www.ReginaRess.com
Crystal Sanchez
SECRETARY
Crystal Sanchez is the founder of Believe Bliss, a platform for domestic violence survivors to share stories, heal wounds, and find their way back to themselves. She is a Soul Nurturer and Healing Coach who supports women on their journey to healing and wholeness.
Crystal works with survivors of domestic violence and women who have created a cycle of powerlessness in their lives. She is deeply passionate about her mission because as a survivor turned thriver, she truly believes when women personify a deep sense of self-love, self-acceptance, and self-belief, they become unstoppable. She's made it her life's work, to be the voice for victims and survivors who don't have a voice.
Crystal is a contributing blogger at the Huffington Post. Thought Catalog, and Medium. She is also currently working to pass legislation in New Mexico that would add a layer of protection for victims whose abuser violates an order of protection. Her website is www.BelieveBliss.com
Leona Stucky
Board member
A psychotherapist for more than thirty years, UU community minister, post-graduate teacher, clinical supervisor and AAPC Diplomate, Rev. Dr. Leona Stucky recently became an author by turning the mirror inward to reveal her own personal story in a gripping and morally unflinching memoir, which has received acclaim from MS Magazine and won other awards. In her professional life as well as her memoir, The Fog of Faith: Surviving My Impotent God, Leona plumbed the depths of faith and justice contradictions, speaking what we seldom say out loud. In her life and writing she provokes new discussions with heart-wrenching, vital stories. Her own journey includes trauma and terror, and a resilient drive that brought her into the professional world where she has made numerous contributions.
Leona first received a degree in psychology and philosophy from Boston College, graduating summa cum laude, before plunging into seminary, first at Andover Newton Theological School and then at Eden Theological Seminary. She earned a doctorate from Southern Methodist University with honors, and a Diplomate certificate from the American Association of Pastoral Counselors—their highest credential— for teaching, supervising, and offering therapy services. She currently has standing as a Unitarian Universalist community minister. She values the UU principles that affirm loving engagement without requiring members to believe in God or bend to religious creeds.
After completing her formal education, she helped develop a post-graduate training center, The Southwest Institute for Religion and Psychotherapy, associated with Phillips Graduate Seminary. Her understanding of psychodynamic theory as well as other therapeutic approaches continued to blossom as she taught them to others. She has led workshops for clinicians in a number of states and several countries, and has served on numerous regional and national boards.
These professional explorations might have quieted her mind, but the areas where integration seemed impossible became mental sand kernels that disrupted many intellectual resting places. Being fiercely honest in confronting problems within the human condition, she honed her wisdom, and gained unusual insights.
The provocative title of her memoir aptly indicates her unflinching need to test the veracity of her beliefs against the reality of terror. Her gripping story reads like a real-life thriller that readers can’t put down. Still, each step grounds itself in nuanced networks of passion, relational complexities, cultural and religious dilemmas, circumscribed choices bound by woman’s poverty, persistent violence, and an untamable desire to redeem herself with or without God. Dr. Stucky’s memoir has gained recognition as a well written, riveting story and also as an important work of art. Readers report being deeply stirred by the content.
When not working, Leona enjoys New Mexico landscapes, walking and driving in the open expanse, and being a grandmother. She adores playing with the little ones and watching their relational capacities unfold. She revels in their joy and treasures moments together as they grow. Her website is www.LeonaStucky.com
OUR COLLABORATORS
David Lindblom Filmmaker, Espanola, NM
David brings an outstanding background having worked as a director, cinematographer and editor. His credits include working on a number of documentaries and feature films two of which were with Martin Scorsese.David has also worked as an editor for television programs such as ABC’s soap opera, “One Life to Live,” PBS projects, and “Code Blue” series for New York Times Television.
David is a professor at Northern New Mexico College in the Film/Digital Media Arts Department. He is also the creative programmer for Canal Seis, the community television station in Espanola. David's film LAND WATER PEOPLE TIME, won Best Documentary Film in the New Mexico State Film Festival.
Lynne Wimmer Dance Videographer
Lynne was a professor in the Department of Theater and Dance at the University of South Florida where she taught modern dance, choreography, kinesiology and Laban Movement Analysis. She received a BFA from the Juilliard School in New York City and an MFA from the University of Utah. Her professional career includes nine years as a member of the Utah Repertory Dance Theater. In May of 2010, she retired from the University of South Florida in Tampa Florida where she had been on the faculty of the School of Theatre and Dance for 27 years. Her current research and work lies in the fields of dance for camera and documentary video. She currently resides in Salt Lake City Utah.
Recent projects include: "For the Love of Dance" - celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Repertory Dance Theatre; Florida Waterworks Dance Project; and "In Perilous Time" - a documentary video celebrating the lives of WWII veterans for Jewish Family Services or Utah.