SMYRC

Who We Are: Staff

Bree Abbey
Youth Risk-Reduction Specialist

Bree is a part of SMYRC’s Community Education Program and joined the team in the summer of 2008. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Smith College and has experience in myriad forms of prevention education with at-risk youth and other populations experiencing health disparities. She is passionate about LGBTQ health issues and is excited to address them through her work at SMYRC. In her spare time, Bree is extremely busy concocting new and unusual dress-up themes, baking vegan cupcakes, stopping to pet every dog she sees walking down the street, and advocating for social justice!

Ryan Cox, B.A.
QMHA, Clinical Counseling Intern

Ryan Cox holds a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, and is currently working on his Master's in Counseling Psychology from Pacific University here in Portland. Ryan worked as a programmer for the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival for 3 years, and spent 2 years as a volunteer and part-time staff member at Doug's House, Texas' only non-profit AIDS hospice care center. Since moving to Portland, Ryan has been involved in SMYRC's own Bridge-13 program with Mehera Scheu, and worked in a residential psychiatric residential care facility for children and adolescents through Trillium Family Services. Ryan believes in an existentially-based cognitive-behavioral approach to therapy.

Favor Ellis
Program Director

Favor joined the SMYRC community in 2008, after working for ten years with Portland's Homeless Youth Continuum. She holds a Master's degree in Transformative Language from Goddard College. Favor is particularly interested in embodied storytelling, imaginal psychology, personal and collective empowerment, community revisioning, fiddles, accordions and yodeling.

Jess Herbach
Resource Center Coordinator

Jess started working with SMYRC in August of 2008 after working with a number of homeless youth organizations in both Chicago and Portland. Since beginning at SMYRC, he has found a new love for macaroni and cheese, free pile dress up, and pop music. Jess' other interests include robots and dinosaurs, getting nerdy with queer and feminist theory texts, and exploring gender and sexuality through creative writing, found object art and radical theatre.

Blair Irby
Clinical Counseling Intern

Blair is a graduate student at the Lewis & Clark Masters Counseling program. Blair handpicked SMYRC to do her clinical internship because she has a passion to provide therapeutic services to LGBTQQ youth. Blair has a person-centered counseling approach that is focused on holistic healing rather than treating based on a medical model. Blair has a background providing advocacy and support around specific issues, including but not limited to, intimate-partner violence, sexual assault, gender & sexuality development and economic struggles. Blair recently got a hedgehog and his name is Dexter.

Katelen Kellogg
Homeless Youth Liaison

Katelen Kellogg is a BSW practicum intern from the University of Portland. She is working as the homeless youth liaison at SMYRC and also works with the Bridge-13/Community Education Project. She will be continuing her practicum at SMYRC until she graduates with her undergraduate social work degree in May.

Mo Kenny, QMHA
Washington County Pride Project Coordinator

Mo became a part of the SMYRC team in 2005 as a Resource Center intern from the University of Portland. During her internship, SMYRC youth and staff played a vital role in the completion of Mo’s undergraduate thesis on domestic violence in the queer community. After earning two Bachelor’s degrees (in Social Work and Spanish), traveling the world, and working for a mental health agency and Planned Parenthood, Mo returned to SMYRC in Spring 2007 as the Coordinator of the Washington County Pride Project! Mo has been known to enjoy drag kinging, pictures of unicorns, long walks on the beach with her dog Noodle and helping sexual and gender minority youth make a difference in their communities!

Kerst Nelson
Health Promotion Coordinator

After a brief stint as an adult volunteer, Kerst joined SMYRC as an AmeriCorps member focusing on health promotion within SMYRC and the overall queer community. Kerst has a B.A. in Neuroscience from Smith College and hopes to someday build a career from blending their scientific background with their gender obsession. At SMYRC, Kerst can be found working in the garden, meeting with Youth Events Council members, or networking with folks from Pride to encourage a youth-friendly festival. When not at SMYRC, Kerst enjoys biking, gardening, crock-potting, and ginger ale.

Bethprana Novi, MSW (formerly Amy Daniewicz)
Child and Family Therapist

Bethprana Novi holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from Portland State University and has been a therapist at SMYRC since 2004. Her graduate studies focused on sexual and gender minority youth in the foster care system. Beth is a specialist in child and adolescent gender identity disorders as defined by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health's Standards of Care. She has over 15 years of experience working with youth and families. Beth believes in creating a collaborative partnership with her clients within the context of a safe and accepting therapeutic environment. She also believes in comfy couches, therapy toys and lots of candy!

Taylor Rosenthal
Community Education Intern

Hello! I'm a senior at Portland State University majoring in Community Health Education with a minor in Sexuality and Gender Studies. I was born and raised in Portland but also lived in Amsterdam for a few years.

Kristin Rosvold
Community Education Intern

Kristin Rosvold is a BSW practicum intern from the University of Portland. She is working with the Bridge-13/Community Education Project at SMYRC. She will be continuing her practicum at SMYRC until she graduates with her BSW social work degree in May. After graduation Kristin plans to attend graduate school to obtain her MSW degree.

Mehera Scheu
Community Education Coordinator

For more than five years Mehera has coordinated the Bridge-13 community education program at SMYRC. She received a Bachelors of Science in Psychology with an emphasis in Middle Eastern and Black studies. Mehera also worked as an advocate for the Middle East Women's Resource Center (MEWERC) where she provided culturally specific resources and support to women from the Middle East and central Asia who faced domestic violence. Mehera is currently attending Pacific University in the Masters in Counseling Psychology program.

Sunshine
Youth Risk-Reduction Specialist

Sunshine joined the SMYRC team in 2008.  His background is in baking, education, and grassroots organizing around queer, trans, and people of color issues.  In his spare time, he rides his bicycle all over town, creates ornate sugar sculptures, and anxiously anticipates the upcoming episodes of "Glee."

Rhiannon Troutman
Pride Project Intern

Rhiannon is an undergraduate student at Lewis & Clark College studying Anthropology, Sociology, and Gender. Through the Pacific Violence Prevention Institute in Bellingham, Washington she aided in the beginnings and maintenance of a peer education group aimed at developing allies and providing high school students with the tools to safely prevent bullying and harassment among their peers. She likes to dance and play dress-up, believes that little things like smiles do make a difference, and wants to be a lion when she grows up.

Ledah Wilcox
Volunteer Coordinator

Ledah joined the SMYRC team in September of 2008 after four years of working to engage at risk youth through theater arts, which now seems baffling considering the idea of getting up on stage now is enough to make Ledah break out in a cold sweat. Ledah holds a BA in film with a focus on documentaries, and sincerely believes in the power of individual stories to illuminate a larger whole. After-hours, Ledah can be found reading theory, listening to This American Life, bicycling, and making large pots of soup.