Alfonso has been working for MIKID since 2013, and has experience working in the social services field since 2015. Alfonso has worked with dual diagnosis, art therapy, foster, group home, and shelter populations. Alfonso is originally from California and has been working in Human Resources since 2005. He has worked with both for profit and nonprofit organizations. Alfonso has also assisted in music programs at previous agencies as he has actively been involved in music for over 20 years.

Vicky comes to MIKID with over twenty-six years of experience in many areas of the healthcare system. Her experience spans from Pediatrics to Hospice. Throughout her years of experience in Healthcare, Vicky has maintained a passion for helping her patients and families cultivate and sustain strong mental health while providing them with the community and partner resources they need to help them succeed through the challenges they face. She obtained her RN license in 2012 and her first role was in Pediatrics. In that position, she contributed to and helped the state initiate research data for the Healthy Kids Initiative Research Program. Vicky began her partnership with MIKID in 2014 in a contractual capacity training staff on Assistance in the Self Administration of Meditation. She has since transitioned roles and supports MIKID as Northern Arizona Regional Clinical Director, joining MIKID full time in 2018. Vicky’s wealth of knowledge from her work and lived experience makes her an asset to the MIKID team!

Patricia has background in the Social Service Field and Education Field and received her Master’s in Social Work degree in 2018. Patricia was a single mother who had to learn the behavioral health and educational system for her children. Patricia has been in on both sides of the fence and knows the challenges it entails for parents to navigate the systems. Patricia started with MIKID as the Family Support Manager and is now the Direct Services Manager. Patricia has been working with MIKID since 2013.

Robert began his MIKID tenure as an office assistant intern in 2008 for a high school project. When Robert completed his internship, he was hired on part time while he still attended high school. Robert was offered full time employment once he graduated from high school and has been promoted throughout the years from Office Assistant to Referral Coordinator to Medical Records and Facilities Supervisor, and most recently, to Health Information Systems Manager. Robert was a pivotal part of transitioning MIKID’s medical records into a paperless database.

Heather was born and raised in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. She received her B.A. in Communications from Eastern Michigan University. She is a non-profit professional with 8+ years of experience in management and training. Combining knowledge of trauma informed care, staff professional development and the importance of community outreach and education/engagement to build strong teams and community partnerships.

Sharon Williams Ogoroh brings over 15 years of behavior health experience to the field and has been a committed MIKID Team member since January 2016, and she currently serves as the QA/QM Manager. Sharon has a passion for helping families and brings her educational and lived experience to her work. She received her Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership with an Emphasis in Executive Fire Safety in 2017 from Grand Canyon University. Sharon has worked as a Quality Improvement Specialist and as a Behavioral Health Technician since coming to Phoenix, Arizona as a transplant from North Carolina. The culmination of those experiences assists her in ensuring that MIKID provides the highest level of care and support to our members as they access MIKID resources and services.

Brian McClaskey has been with MIKID since 2019 and has over 15 years’ experience as a maintenance/facilities manager and over 25 years in the maintenance field.

In 30 years of marriage, Nancy has helped her husband raise five amazing children, now adults. Three of those are stepchildren, one has special needs and one is a grandchild. Nancy believes her loved ones have afforded her the experiences that allow her to provide services with compassion, understanding and empathy. She has worked as a Family Support Partner with MIKID for in 2008 and has been a supervisor since 2010. She takes great joy in supporting families and Family Support Providers in meeting their goals.

Alicia Ledezma joined MIKID in March of 2017 as Family Support Partner, in April 2017 she was promoted to Family Support Manager. Alicia has 15 years of experience working in the behavioral health field. Alicia has lived life experiences as she has had children in the behavioral health, education, and juvenile justice systems therefore understands how challenging this could be for parents as she has been on both sides. Alicia believes that she is able to empower and give families a sense of hope when they are feeling that they are unable to understand and navigate these systems. Alicia is very happy to have joined the MIKID team and looks forward to helping the Family Support program grow.

Jessica was born in Bellflower, California then moved to Nogales at the age of two. She recently moved to Tucson and is a mother to a 12-year-old daughter.
Jessica started her career within the behavioral health field in 2008 as an Instructional Specialist Senior/Administrative Assistant in the Youth Prevention, Parenting and Early Childhood Development Programs for the University of Arizona. This experience gave her the opportunity to work children and adults, using preventative care methods, as well as assisting individuals in recovery of different mental illnesses. Before MIKID, Jessica worked for Wellness Connection as a Program Manager for three years. During her tenure, Jessica partnered with law enforcement, first responders, and behavioral health agencies allowing her the opportunity to grow professionally. As a result, she learned more about recovery and how life experiences can be utilized as a tool to help others going through similar situations. Jessica is a certified as a Peer Support.
Jessica believes her life experiences, professional experience and her passion for helping others guide and motivate her to find success daily. She also utilizes her strong belief in teamwork to enhance results and make stronger bonds with the community. Jessica started working with MIKID as a Direct Support Manager in 2019 and looks forward to what the future holds.

Jaquay Boyd has been working for MIKID since January of 2017. Jaquay started as a Family Support Partner working her way up to Family Support Manager in 2019. Jaquay has 15 years of combined lived life experience and working experience in behavior and mental health. She has a daughter and other family members with those challenges. Even as a Manager Jaquay still enjoys serving families face to face that are struggling to navigate multiple systems to help their children to receive the best services. She helps pilot the MIKID Parent Support Now Program in Casa Grande for parents involved with DCS, walking side by side with them through that system. Jaquay is passionate about her work, and works hard to make sure families get the services they deserve.

Tahnee was hired in 2015 as a Family Support Partner, transitioned to Direct Service Lead the same year, and move to the Family Support Manager in 2016. Tahnee has 10 years of lived experience and has a son that has behavioral health challenges. She has been in the behavioral health field for 3 years and has worked with children for over 6 years. Tahnee has facilitated Grief and Loss groups and has a strong compassion for people that are struggling due to her life experience.

Marisela Aranda graduated with her B.S in Psychology from NAU in 2007. Marisela has array of experience in the behavioral health field that includes being a foster parent and working with JPO, education system; therefore, she can relate to the families she serves. Marisela is very passionate about advocating for the families she works with as well as her Foster children. Marisela enjoys volunteering in her community.
when she is not at work you can find her feeding the homeless or mentoring at risk youth. Marisela loves to travel and experience different cultures.

James Beecher currently serves as Direct Support Manager for Bullhead City and Lake Havasu City. Additionally, James serves as both Family and Direct Support Manager for La Paz County. His MIKID career began as a Direct Support Provider serving Transitional Age Youth in Yuma County. James majored in Criminal Justice and Business in college.
James has served in various capacities within the behavioral health field, including as a Crisis Specialist and a Case Manager in the Arizona Families First program, where he also provided Substance Use and Abuse Education services to parents involved with the Arizona Department of Child Safety. He is a Certified Family Support Provider. Additionally, he has experience serving domestic violence and abuse survivors as a Legal Advocate.
Prior to his career in behavioral health, James worked within the Justice field for twenty years. He served as a Probation Surveillance Officer monitoring a Youthful Offender Intensive Probation caseload among others. He served as a Tribal Prosecutor prosecuting criminal offenses as well as representing the tribe in child welfare cases. James also served as a Tribal Court Judge presiding over Criminal, Delinquency and Child Welfare matters and managing the tribe’s justice system.

Albert Amezaga started working for MIKID in late December of 2014, was promoted to Yuma Direct Service Supervisor in September 2018 then to Direct Service Manager in October of 2018. Albert enjoys working in behavioral health and has worked in many different areas of social work that have given him a unique perspective; including his work as a Parent Aide overseeing supervised visit with families in DCS care, helping potential families become foster parents as a Foster/Adopt Specialist, and with a local health home being a Direct Support Specialist, Family Support Partner, Case Manager, and a Family Support Partner trainer-the-trainer. Albert is an adoptive parent, a foster parent, and has his own two children in behavioral health services.

Manuela Valenzuela has been working with MIKID since November 2012, starting as a Direct Service Provider (DSP). She worked her way up to the Lead DSP and is currently the Direct Service Manager. She has been in the behavioral health field for over eight years working in group homes and as an independent contractor providing services for youth and adults with behavioral health challenges. Mental illness runs in her family and when one of her nephews was diagnosed with autism, she felt it was best that she knew the process of the behavioral health system to help her family understand his diagnosis. This became a passion for Manuela; she has created a rapport with local agencies in the community and she continues to share her knowledge and advocate for youth with behavioral health challenges.

Paula Carson Joined the MIKID Family in 2017. Paula has over 3O years of experience in social services in New York, New Jersey and Arizona primarily as a DCS investigator but has also worked in licensing and adoptions. Paula has received statewide accolades in New Jersey’s community corrections system for having the foresight to advocate and actualize the very first female halfway house for women leaving the penal system -- an opportunity that was previously only afforded to men.
Paula is very passionate about helping children and families and is especially delighted to be working for MIKID, a peer/ family run organization, where families are encouraged to utilize their unique voice and exercise their own choice.

Alesha is the Clinical Coordinator for MIKID and loves working in a family/peer run organization where the focus is on the families. Alesha has her own lived experience with schools, behavioral health organizations and even the juvenile justice system. Alesha has a varied work history in behavioral health, Department of Justice and the education system and is currently pursuing her Applied Behavioral Analysis Graduate Certificate through Capella University. Alesha recently received her Master of Science in General Psychology and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Family and Human Development

Staff Accountant

Iris started working with M.I.K.I.D. January 2020 and is happy to be assisting our team by providing support to MIKID as an accounting specialist. She brings positive energy with over 15 years of experience working for corporate companies and smaller business management.
She is bilingual in Spanish, loves spending time with her husband of 20 years and her two puppies. Her heroes are her Mom and her Dad who is a retired sergeant from the Army. Iris is proud of her three younger sisters always cheering them on in life. In her spare time, she loves photography, riding her bike and driving into the sunset.
The most important things in life for Iris is caring for others before herself. She is a compassionate and giving individual who will always be there to help the best way she can.

Ashley has experience in management and administration prior to joining the MIKID team in 2016. Ashley is MIKID's Human Resource Specialist and Finance and Accounting Support as well as manager of our technology-based training platform.

Ashley has her degree in Business Administration from Glendale Community College.

Paterse has been with MIKID since March of 2013 and has held a variety of positions. Paterse currently serves as the Fund Development Coordinator. Paterse attends Arizona State University working towards a Bachelor’s Degree in Women & Gender Studies Major, and African and African American Studies Minor. Paterse values her time spent volunteering as a Peer Mentor, tutoring students with learning challenges as well as providing support with their educational goals and encouragement for students with learning disabilities (LD). Paterse has been a part of the Fundraising Committee within MIKID, planning events and assisting in fundraising efforts, since 2015.

Jamie joined the MIKID team as the billing specialist in February 2013. She has been happily married for almost 20 years and has 3 children. Jamie has 17 years experience in the billing field. She began her start in billing while working for a radiology group for 8 years, spending the last 5 of those years as billing manager. She then moved on to a nephrology group where she worked for 7 years doing the billing for patients with kidney disease. When the opportunity came along to work for MIKID, she decided to try something new and has enjoyed the experience that behavioral health billing has given her.

Janea first joined the MIKID team in 2014 in medical records department until March of 2015. She took a year off to spend time with her husband and two young children. She returned to MIKID in 2016 as the Northern AZ Referral Coordinator. Janea has had experience as a provider in the CUSD school district, as well as in home therapy. Janea also has 3 years’ experience being a Supervisor for an after school DDD program. Janea also worked independently with youth transitioning into adulthood for 2 years. With the growing demands of her family, Janea was ready to try something new. Medical records has provided Janea a foundation to grow as an employee by helping develop new processes within the medical records team, learning connections between providers, medical records and billing. Always ready for a challenge, Janea has now fully transitioned to the billing department. She is excited to see what the billing world in behavior health has to offer. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her family camping, riding at the sand dunes and also spending time at the lake on her family boat

Jennifer has been with MIKID since 2012. She has over 11 years’ experience in the Behavioral Health Field, 3 of which were managerial. Jennifer is currently enrolled at Central AZ College where she is pursuing a Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) credential. Jennifer integrates the medical records, billing, and quality management departments. Currently, Jennifer is our only administrative employee who is also a direct service provider. Jennifer is an Arizona native, who married her high school sweetheart in 2018. In her free time, she enjoys expanding her shoe collection, going to the movies and is looking forward to starting her own family in the near future.

Maya is a Prevention Coordinator for MIKID who is passionate about working with children and reducing stigma around mental health. She works to educate youth and adults throughout Arizona about suicide prevention. She travels to schools statewide to have conversations with youth about suicide and understand how to help prevent a suicide from occurring by identifying signs of suicide. Maya has lived experience and life challenges that have motivated her to be in the behavioral health field. She believes that spreading education is the best way to break the stigma associated to suicide and mental health. Her formal education background is a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Arizona in Learning, Leadership, and Literacy (2016). During that time, she composed a diverse set of credentials including: training design, program facilitating, and program evaluation. In December 2019, she will be receiving a Masters in Public Health from Grand Canyon University. She is a member of the Arizona Suicide Prevention Coalition and other coalitions within Arizona.

David Cummings has been the Wellness Coach for MIKID since May of 2014. David received his Bachelor’s Degree from Arizona State University, in Human Nutrition and Exercise and Wellness and obtained his personal training certification from The American Council of Sports and Medicine in 2012. David has worked in the field of health and wellness since 2005, including in behavioral health since 2012. He is a certified CPR/First Aid Instructor and is certified to provide Stanford’s Chronic Disease Self-Management. David leads our Youth Peer Support Certification process at MIKID. David enjoys sharing his passion for wellness with others, and strongly believes every child deserves the opportunity to live a healthy lifestyle.