Founder

Sue Gilbertson
December 5, 1941 - May 10, 2022
Ms. Gilbertson is the Founder of MIKID and served on the Board of Directors of MIKID; the Mental Health Awareness Coalition (MHAC); and was the Board secretary of Arizona Behavioral Health Corporation (ABC) and was a member of the Governing Body of the Arizona State Hospital. She was a life member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Phoenix Theater Guild, and the Mental Health Guild. She was a retired Flotilla Commander of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary and held a Bachelor’s degree in Business and Economics from the University of Minnesota – Duluth. Ms. Gilbertson was the 2019 inductee of the Mental Health America of Arizona into the Hall of Fame.
MIKID’s history stemmed from one individual’s overwhelming concern for the lack of services provided for children in the mental health field and the many serious issues that were not being properly addressed. This individual, Ms. Sue Gilbertson, began her quest in 1984 when her son, Eric, was diagnosed with mental illness. In trying to get assistance for her son, Ms. Gilbertson found herself amidst a conventional medical community that was simply not equipped to handle the problems her son was facing. Ms. Gilbertson came to realize that her struggles were not isolated events and took on the responsibility of uniting families, naming the group MIKID and working together to help build a better mental health system for children. Through these efforts, families had their very first meeting and support group on March 11, 1987.
Sue was an integral part of MIKID's 35th Celebration in March of 2022 and unfortunately passed away May 10, 2022.
Board of Directors -- Executive Committee

Consultant, Author and Advocate
Peace of My Mind, LLC
Assistant Director Mental Health America of Arizona
Lived Experience
Erin Callinan is the Founder of Beneath The Brave where she provides training and consulting to help amplify workplaces, careers, and lives by strengthening mental health. She develops and facilitates cutting-edge training programs, including her Leading From the Top Workplace Training which gives companies the tools they need to support the mental wellness of their team.
Erin holds a Master's of Social Work from Arizona State University and brings with her 14 years of non-profit leadership experience in the field of mental health, domestic violence, crisis advocacy, and sexual assault. She works with her clients through the lens of being a national trainer, published author, entrepreneur, and peer who is successfully living with bipolar disorder.
Her passion for rewriting the narrative about mental health began in college as she adapted to “living with” rather than suffering from her mental health diagnosis at 17. In 2013, Erin authored and published her book, “Beautifully Bipolar: An Inspiring Look Into Mental Illness” and began her career in mental health advocacy and motivational speaking.
Erin Callinan is an Advisory Member of the Arizona Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Advisory Committee, and proudly received the Emerging Leader of the Year Award while working on her Master's from the National Association of Social Workers Arizona Chapter. For the last 10 years, she has been a volunteer Mentor to a beautiful teenager through New Pathways for Youth.

Community Representative
Lived Experience
Sean Gunderson is an executive leader with over 25-years of experience creating business value through the design, development, and execution of technology-based products for national and international organizations. Sean currently works with organizations that are delivering interoperability at the intersection of the Justice, Health, and Social domains.
Sean founded iTether Technologies, a digital patient engagement solution system that enables coordination of care for patients across all treatment levels. Sean has extensive experience building collaborative partnerships that foster product R&D, develop interoperability between disparate domains, enhance strategic planning, and drive the development of innovative products.
Sean is the founder of WoodSyn, LLC which is launching an innovative forest-based industry that produces a new category of economically and environmentally sustainable products for the commercial and residential construction marketplace, creates permanent manufacturing jobs, and restores Arizona forests while reducing the risk of catastrophic forest fires.

Lived Experience
The Honorable Richard Weiss recently retired as a Superior Court Judge for Mohave County, Arizona. He attended Northern Arizona University, obtaining a B.S. in Business Administration –
Finance and he received his J.D. from Arizona State University. Judge Weiss has handled a variety of cases including family, criminal, civil and juvenile cases. He was the Presiding
Juvenile Judge for more than 10 years in his service to Mohave County. In particular, Judge Weiss’ involvement with the juvenile court was instrumental in developing the Court Team model in Arizona. This model includes training and educational programs to improve professional and public understanding and engagement in the early childhood development and health for the birth to 5 population. This model, now throughout Arizona, improves outcomes for infants and toddlers in state care.
Judge Weiss was the recipient of MIKID's 2017 Sue Gilbertson Leadership Award.

Director of Community Resources & Training Beia’s Place Building Resilient Families Lived Experience Chussette Oden is a seasoned professional who has vast experience in the mental health field. She has held various positions with multiple agencies in Arizona in social services and behavioral health for over twenty years. During her career, she has worked in a variety of roles both inpatient and outpatient, including positions such as: Intensive Case Manager, Family Support Partner, Forensics ACT team Substance abuse/ Housing Specialist, Clinical Housing Specialist, Contractor for Arizona Department of Corrections, group home case manager, Program Coordinator, launching and developing parent support and family programs and services. As a Family Support Liaison in the early 2000’s, Ms. Oden played an integral role in the roll out of the Child and Family Team (CFT) process in Arizona. Currently, as Director of Training and Community Resources for Beia’s Place, she utilizes her extensive knowledge of local resources and deep understanding of the challenges faced by underrepresented populations. She is responsible for developing programs and curriculum, training staff, facilitating and coordinating placements, and providing education on navigating dual systems. All of her work is done with the efforts to achieve whole health and self- sufficiency for individuals and families. Chussette has a passion for assisting individuals and families. She does this by helping people with goals and outcomes related to integrated health and transitioning youth to adult services, advocating for seniors, advocating for educational rights for children in school settings, and connecting children, families and adults with services needed to improve their mental wellness. Chussette the daughter of 2 military veterans and she is a member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary Post 65. She is also an avid traveler, reader, and book club member. Chussette learned to navigate the education and behavioral health system as a professional, but more importantly through personal experience as parent of a child with behavioral health needs and, most recently, as an advocate for her 2 young grandchildren diagnosed with Autism
Board Directors



Community Representative
Lived Experience
Susan Boyles is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, she graduated from Edinboro University with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and my master’s degree in Social Work. Susan also has a certificate in Executive Leadership and Management from the University of Notre Dame. Susan has over 20 years’ experience in the field of Behavioral Health. This experience includes therapeutic staff support, intensive case management, prevention specialist, partial hospitalization programming, inpatient hospitalization for adults and geriatric populations, mental health group home management, residential treatment for eating disorders, individual, group, and family therapy, and integrated care within the primary care setting. Susan currently is the Director of Behavioral Health at Adelante Healthcare where she oversees Adelante’s Integrated and Specialty Behavioral Health programs.

Lived Experience
Born and raised in Prescott, Arizona, David grew up alongside a brother with severe developmental delays. This imbued in him a special recognition of the trials faced by people with mental disabilities and their family. David earned a B.A. from Hillsdale College, serving as Student Body President, and received his Juris Doctor degree from Notre Dame Law School with honors. David now practices commercial finance law at Snell & Wilmer LLP, helping lenders safely and effectively finance housing, apartments, hotels, and commercial developments across the country. David also leads his firm’s involvement with the Volunteer Lawyers Program, which pairs attorneys with low income Phoenix residents to provide high quality legal representation, free of cost. David is licensed in both Arizona and New Mexico. He researched and wrote an American Bar Association resolution on legal history and arguments for upholding free speech on college campuses. He is a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in that language.

Lived Experience
Community Representative
Miranda Birden is a Senior Vice President for Bank of America, currently serving as a Strategic Expansion Leader for ICAN: Positive Programs for Youth through Bank of America’s Leader on Loan program. In her current role, Miranda is responsible for developing a scalable roadmap for ICAN to leverage as they expand their free Out of School youth programming to school districts across Arizona. Additionally, Miranda will identify key recommendations, systems and practices to ensure ICAN’s growth is sustainable and efficient.
Prior to her current role, Miranda was a Senior Delivery Lead for Architecture and Enabling Services, a business unit with Global Technology & Operations (GT&O). Miranda was an individual contributor who led various operation and transformational activities within the department. Miranda’s primary responsibilities included financial management oversight of project initiatives and driving long term strategic operational change. Miranda was a critical creator in designing operation models across her organization that were adopted across several architecture groups. During her tenure in this role, Miranda graduated with her Executive MBA from Arizona State University, making her a proud Double Devil.
Miranda joined the bank as a Credit Card Fraud contact center representative in 2003 after graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Arizona State University. Since joining, Miranda took on several lateral positions across Card Services including a role where she worked with a MBNA merger & acquisition team to draft new process and procedures for credit card customer service associates. Miranda continued to gain critical skills through lateral moves including a transition to Global Human Resources Staffing and eventually a Project Analyst Role in GT&O.
Miranda currently resides in Phoenix and is passionate about community and career development both within and outside the company. She spent five years as a volunteer for St. Joseph the Worker in Phoenix writing resumes for shelterless adults, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for MIKID, a local organization dedicated to improving the behavioral health and wellness of children and youth through a family-centered approach.
Additionally, Miranda serves as Chapter Co-Chair for Bank of America’s employee network LEAD for Woman, a network that promotes professional development to help attract, develop, advance and retain female professionals at all levels of our company.
In her free time, Miranda enjoys traveling across the state, honing her creative skills through crafts and fluid art and spending quality time with friends and local family.

Jamie Timmerman is an Arizona Certified School Psychologist and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP). She graduated from Northern Arizona University with a Doctoral degree in Educational Psychology and a Master’s degree in School Counseling. Jamie also has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology with a Minor in Exercise Physiology and Leisure Science. She worked in behavioral health as a behavioral health specialist and assistant education coordination for 4-years at a residential treatment center in Scottsdale, AZ. Jamie has 8-years of college teaching experience from both Northern Arizona University (extended campuses) and University of Arizona (UA Chandler). Jamie enjoys teaching and mentoring college students.
Jamie served on the Arizona Association of School Psychologists (AASP) Non-Profit Board as a volunteer for 8 years, in various roles including: 2013-2017 Treasurer; 2017-2018 Conference Planning Committee (soliciting exhibitors/sponsors and supporting raffle/silent auction donations), Photographer, Historian, Social Media Coordinator; 2018-2019 Conference Planning Committee, Raffle/Silent Auction Committee Chair, Photographer, Historian, Social Media Coordinator; 2019-2020 President-Elect; 2020- 2021 President, Legislative Taskforce Committee; 2021-2022 Past President, Elections Chairperson; and 2022-2023 - Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee, National School Psychology Week (NSPW) Committee, and Conference Planning Committee.
Jamie is a Phoenix Native and proud mother. She has a passion for mental health advocacy, advocacy for individuals with disabilities, school safety, trauma informed practices, and physical fitness/sports. Jamie supports Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Social Justice practices and believes that representation matters.
Board Calendar
