Meet the ADAA Team

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 Susan K. Gurley
Executive Director

Susan Gurley is the Executive Director of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), a non-profit international mental health association. She is a lawyer and advocate with 25 years of leadership experience working in the mental health and access to justice fields, international development and legal reform, and higher education administration.

Prior to joining ADAA, Ms. Gurley held senior-level positions in several U.S. government agencies, such as the United States Agency for International Development, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Ms. Gurley served as both the Assistant Dean for International and Graduate Programs, at the Georgetown University School of Law and as an Adjunct Faculty Member. While at Georgetown she created the International Human Rights and National Security Law Certificate Programs. Ms. Gurley also worked as the Deputy Executive Director of Equal Justice Works, and as the Director of Legal Reform at the East West Management Institute (EWMI), where she managed several overseas offices, created  EWMI’s first land reform program, and expanded programming to Asia. She also ran the Association of Corporate Business Travel Executives, where she opened the association’s first office in Latin America and testified before Congress on privacy issues. 

Ms. Gurley has extensive non-profit Board experience. She has served on the Boards of Film Aid International, on the Board of the Conflict Resolution Center of Montgomery County, and currently serves on the Executive Committee of the International Executive Service Corps (IESC). She is also a member of the Board of Directors of INMED Partnerships for Children and serves on the Advisory Committee for Her Wealth, an organization promoting financial literacy for women. 

Over the past five years, she has served as a technical expert volunteer on capacity building projects in Cambodia, Philippines, and Tanzania. For her volunteer work, she has been awarded the Frank Pace award by IESC as well as the 2020 Innovator of the Year award by USAID’s Farmer- to- Farmer program. 

Ms. Gurley is a Phi Beta Kappa and received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. She is a member of the Virginia Bar. Ms. Gurley has worked in 30+ countries and speaks French, German, and Hungarian. 

 


 Lise Bram
Deputy Executive Director

Ms. Bram is a mission-driven marketing and communications professional with many years of non-profit and for-profit sector experience designing and implementing successful marketing and communication strategies.

Prior to joining ADAA, Ms. Bram worked at the Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE) as the Marketing and Communications Director. While at APSE, Lise was responsible for enhancing and expanding marketing and communications to diversify revenue streams, grow membership, accreditation and other business models.

Ms. Bram also spent 14 years as the Chief Marketing Officer at the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) where she designed, developed and implemented the metro-DC nonprofit agency's internal and external marketing and communication strategies.

Ms. Bram earned her BA degree in art history from McGill University, Montreal, Quebec and her MA from the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England.


Katie Russo
Senior Director, Strategic Business Development and Operations 

Katie Russo is the Senior Director of Strategic Business Development and Operations for the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), a non-profit international mental health association. She is an expert business and operations strategist with over 16 years of experience working with non-profits, health care providers, foundations, startups, and financial services companies. As the Senior Director of Strategic Business Development and Operations for ADAA, Ms. Russo will refine internal operations, expand organizational growth, and increase fundraising and business development opportunities to grow revenue for the non-profit. 
 
Before joining ADAA, Ms. Russo held senior-level business development and operations positions at Scott Circle Communications and the Merritt Group and served as a Chief Operating Officer at an international retailer. To date, some of her achievements include increasing company revenue by over 60 percent from 2021 to 2022 and growing retail store presence from 800 to 4,000 sellers from 2017 to 2020. 
 
Ms. Russo has also lectured on public relations at the University of Oxford’s Brasenose College and won a coveted Silver Anvil for greatness in Multicultural Public Relations from the Public Relations Society of America for the “Arrest the Risk” Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Campaign. Leading strategy and execution in her professional roles, her past clients include the Walmart Foundation, Aetna, Massachusetts General Hospital, Avizia, and Inova Hospital System, among others. A former D-1 scholarship athlete for the Hokies Women’s Lacrosse team, she holds a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech, studies Applied Business Analytics at the MIT Sloan School of Management, and is a member and Community Champion for the Association of American Medical Colleges.

 

Jolie Busby
Manager, Education and Training

Jolie Busby is an accomplished professional with more than 12 years of experience in public-sector continuing education and training. Prior to joining ADAA, Jolie primarily served in higher education leadership roles where she actively collaborated with faculty, community leaders, and subject matter experts to implement new professional certification programs.

Jolie’s knowledge of adult learning theory and evidence-based design for curriculum and training materials compliments her passion for cultivating relationships that support continuous improvement and mission-centric results.

Jolie earned her Master of Education (M.Ed.) in Educational Technology from the University of Arkansas. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in History degree, along with double minors in Nonprofit Leadership and Psychology, from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
 

Rachel Keeler
Marketing and Communications Assistant

Rachel Keeler helps manage ADAA's website, editing and uploading resources such as blogs, web pages, and personal stories from the community; assists with email marketing and membership; and oversees ADAA's online peer-to-peer support communities, both in English and Spanish. Ms. Keeler previously designed graphics and created content for ADAA's social media channels.

Ms. Keeler has a passion for writing, non-profit efforts, creative works and traveling. She has worked as an editor, journalist and freelance content creator for various non-profit organizations, magazines, and small businesses. Her work has included copywriting, editing, content creation, SEO, email marketing, social media management, graphic design, and web design. Ms. Keeler received her Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a minor in Anthropology at Brigham Young University and speaks Spanish.
 

Lauren Sawyer
Social Media Consultant

Lauren Sawyer manages the social media channels for ADAA, sharing important information and resources with the ADAA's audience. In her role, Ms. Sawyer creates the images and content for ADAA's social presence to raise awareness of its important mission and available resources.

She has worked in communications and marketing for ten years supporting a wide range of clients including brands in the healthcare and nonprofit spaces. Her work includes content creation, graphic design, and brand messaging all with the goal to share the important work her clients do. Ms. Sawyer graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Communications and Public Relations from James Madison University.
 



 Mona Ghuneim
Communications Specialist

Ms. Ghuneim is a skilled advocate, savvy communicator and talented writer with experience creating and offering technical assistance, producing educational materials, and training a diverse workforce of peer support professionals.

Before joining ADAA, Ms. Ghuneim was a regional advisor with Families Together in NY State, a  non-profit organization that represents families of youth and children with social, emotional, behavioral and cross-systems challenges.  She worked in close partnership with the Office of Mental Health in New York City, educating the public and offering resources, helping clients access mental health services, and assisting them in navigating other social welfare agencies. Ms. Ghuneim was part of the Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) Authorization team which determined eligibility of youth for mental health assessments and treatment.

Ms. Ghuneim is a board member of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a national organization that works to identify and promote best practice and policy for youth receiving residential mental health intervention, and to help reintegrate them into the community.  She is a Certified Foster Parent Trainer, as well as a former foster parent, and she has served on various health, disability and mental health advisory committees. Ms. Ghuneim is passionate about humanitarian causes and in particular, global mental health awareness, advocacy and stigma-free treatment.

With a master’s in journalism and Middle East Studies from NYU, Ms. Ghuneim has worked as a broadcast reporter, journalist, editor and researcher, as well as a managing editor of an international business marketing publication.  She is a natural storyteller, currently working on a memoir about her rich cultural history and background.  She speaks Arabic, French, Spanish and Italian.

Parthenon Management Group
 

ADAA's annual conference and membership partners. 

In Memoriam

Alies Muskin, Executive Director 
Jerilyn Ross, Co-founder and President