About
Amanda Collins, DNP, MA, APRN, LPCC, CNP, PMHNP-BC, ATR
Chair/Founder
As someone who had a close lived experience to a mass shooting, Amanda was inspired to create Project Stop Loss to find ways to prevent such events from happening again. She is a doctorate-level psychiatric nurse practitioner, licensed professional clinical counselor, and registered art therapist. She specializes in the treatment of trauma/PTSD and enjoys working with children, teens and young adults. Amanda also serves on the Board of Directors for the Central MN Sexual Assault Center.
Karen Kay Hill
Co-Chair
Karen is a resident of St. Cloud, MN. She has a strong dedication to ensuring our youth are being raised in safe, affirming homes and neighborhoods where access to firearms is limited, if not impossible. She believes education is the key to keeping guns out of the hands of those who should not have access to them. Prior to her retirement, Karen was a 28-year employee of the St. Cloud Veterans Affairs Health Care System. Karen spent many years working with Veterans with significant mental health needs and through her work with them, discovered the high level of suicide for those with mental health challenges and access to weapons. Karen holds degrees in Management and Supervision as well as Medical Administration. Karen is a retired American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 390 President. She works as a Trainer for the International Chemical Workers Union Consortium of Cincinatti, Ohio.
Laura Hanley, MSW, LGSW
Secretary
Laura is a mother, a social worker, and a psychotherapist based out of Central Minnesota. Laura firmly believes that increased public awareness of youth mental health and basic gun safety is an important step in preventing the tragedies that continue to rock our communities.
Pane Babic
Treasurer
Pane received his Bachelors in Accounting from MSUM and has multiple years of experience in various fields including non-profit, government, manufacturing, and hospitality. He is also the owner of Babic Accounting Services LLC. He joined Project Stop Loss to provide financial advising and to help make a difference in our community.
Emily Dowzak
Board Member
Emily is an Army Veteran and lives in Central MN. During her active duty, she had first hand experience working with several soliders that struggled with their mental health and suicidal ideation. This was concerning with regards to their access to weapons and barriers to receiving support. Having experienced the intersection of mental health crises with live weapons, she is very passionate about access to youth mental health resources as well as responsible firearm usage.
Kelly Springer
Board Member
Kelly cares deeply about mental health advocacy and the effect that unsafe firearm use has on society. As a practicing attorney, she has endeavored to help people understand the complexity of the world and how to come to reasonable solutions to their problems. She has served on several local nonprofit boards working on business, aging, and arts issues. She also currently serves on the board of directors for St. Cloud Pride. In her personal life she is a single parent, bibliophile, and avid kayaker.
Mary Tschida, MD
Board Member
Originally from northern Wisconsin, Mary currently lives in Brooklyn Park, MN with her husband and two children. She is a family physician practicing in Coon Rapids, MN. She is a member of the Minnesota Firearm Safety and Suicide Prevention Coalition.
John Rehorst
Technical Advisor
John’s background includes a rich diversity of experiences from teaching fitness classes, working as a sound engineer, and managing projects and events in higher education IT departments, to currently working as a Public Health Project Coordinator serving Southwest Minnesota. John has been with Project Stop Loss since its inception and helps to provide technical support and assistance. John volunteers his time with this organization because he values forming strong connections with people and working as part of a team to address mental health challenges.