Advisory Board

Odom

Dr. Stephen Odom, PhD, MFT, DAAETS, is a distinguished healthcare professional with more than 30 years of expertise in the field as a C-Suite executive, owner, organizational consultant, speaker, and psychotherapist. Within the scope of his professional career, Stephen has remained grounded by the guiding principle that people can, and do, achieve and maintain wellness.

Dr. Odom’s focus on First Responder Wellness was born of his family’s career backgrounds with the military, healthcare, law enforcement, and fire, and was honed as he created and led specialty programs for physicians, nurses, first responders and their families. He has worked with thousands of people in diverse settings, and knows with certainty that looking within, looking ahead, and connecting our bodies with our hearts and minds is the path to productive well-being.

Stephen possesses an educational background in organizational behavior, clinical psychology and healthcare administration. This valuable combination allows him to integrate current research knowledge, clinical and administrative practice understanding, and practical, directly relevant experience.

Stephen has been coined as a wellness and behavioral health expert with peer-reviewed articles published on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity and the Electronic Health Record; has appeared on The Today Show; the 2016 Documentary film, California High, and multiple print, radio, and podcast media channels.


Edwards

Joel is the Chief Executive Officer of First Responder Wellness and has over a decade of experience in the Behavioral Health space. He started his career as a Case Manager and quickly found a niche for integrating experiential and outdoor education into his clinical work.
He created Adventure Programming for Extended Care programs and integrated outcome measures to validate the success of utilizing the outdoors to enhance clinical care.

He has grown professionally having different roles throughout organizations including clinical, business development and marketing, compliance, and Executive Level Management. Joel has successfully guided programs through the CARF and Joint Commission Accreditation process as well as State level licensing and certifications. Along the way, he integrated his education in business and clinics to grow programs and utilize outcomes measures to guide that growth. Joel has a passion for clinical and experiential-driven programs. He believes that quality outcomes data collection help guide staff in creating extraordinary programs ultimately leading to successful clinical outcomes for clients.

Joel holds a CADC-II certification from CCAPP and has a BS in Business and Marketing from California State University-San Luis Obispo as well as a certificate from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo for Human Services.


O’Day

Devin O'Day is a Southern California native and has been in the behavioral health field since 2015 when he founded a primary mental health residential treatment center. Devin has many years of experience dealing with managed care and has learned how to navigate the complicated world of behavioral health insurance advocating for patient rights. Having overcome addiction himself in 2010, he now finds a passion for helping others with substance abuse and mental health issues. In 2019, Devin was drawn to the First Responder Help Foundation mission to help First Responders after experiencing firsthand several family members that have suffered from post-traumatic stress and addiction due to public safety employment.


Bauer

Nick Bauer is a sergeant with the Seattle Police Department for over 28 years. Nick’s department resume includes tours in patrol; precinct detectives; Major Crime Task Force; Federal Task Force assignments; Undercover Operations, including a year long term undercover assignment; Homicide Detective in the Force Investigations Team that investigated all officer involved shootings for the department; Robbery; and Narcotics. Nick has participated in countless critical incidents. He is the recipient of the Medal of Valor, Excellence Award (2 citations), Inspiration Award, and Impact Award. Nick has personally surmounted acute critical incident stress related issues and now devotes time to helping other first responders through his work as Operations Director for Code 4 Northwest, founding the Lethal Incident response team for the department’s peer support team, over 15 years as a peer support team leader, and other outreach opportunities such as training, CISM debriefs, interventions, and general resource referrals for counseling and treatment. Nick is a seasoned advocate for First Responder Wellness and continues to stand in the gap with his brothers and sisters.