| Faculty Bios |
| Ellen Bachman Deputy Director, Statewide Quality Improvement California Department of State Hospitals Ellen Bachman’s career with the California Department of State Hospitals (DSH) (formerly Department of Mental Health) spans 34 years. In her current capacity as Deputy Director for Statewide Quality Improvement, Ms. Bachman serves as chief advisor to the Director on quality improvement, risk management, and regulatory compliance, including Cal/OSHA workplace safety regulations. She provided executive leadership for DSH’s implementation of the Workplace Violence Prevention in Health Care regulations at the five State Hospitals. Prior to joining DSH’s Sacramento leadership team, Ms. Bachman worked at DSH-Vacaville, DSH-Napa, and DSH-Patton in a range of clinical and administrative capacities, caring for forensically committed mentally ill patients. Positions she has held include Music Therapist, Chief of Rehabilitation Therapy, Assistant Program Director, Program Director, and Executive Director. | |
| Michael Drexler PhD, CPRP Coordinator, SFVAHCS Workplace Violence Prevention Program Coordinator (Psychologist) Michael L. Drexler, Ph.D., CPRP, is an Associate Clinical Professor at UCSF, Adjunct Professor of Neuropsychology and Neuropsychological Assessment at the California School of Professional Psychology of Alliant International University, Instructor in Psychosocial Rehabilitation, Geropsychology and Neuropsychology at UC Berkeley Extension, and is Lecturer, Level 6, teaching Lifespan Development, Cross-Cultural Issues, Clinical Assessment and Treatment Planning, Dying, Death & Bereavement and the Gerontology Focus courses at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont California. At the San Francisco VA Health Care System, he is Coordinator of the Workplace Violence Prevention Program, Director of the Telemental Health Section for SFVAHCS, a National Consultant and VISN 21 Master Trainer for Social Skills Training for Severe Mental Illness, and is a staff psychologist and neuropsychologist. Prior roles at SFVAMC have included Clinical Director of the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center, Local Psychosocial Recovery Coordinator (LRC) for Severe Mental Illness, Coordinator of Mental Health Compensation and Pension, Geriatric Neuropsychologist and Geropsychologist. He supervises students at all levels. Before coming to the VA, he worked for the SF Department of Public Health and was stationed at Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco, serving as Director of the Neuropsychology Service, Program Director of Psychosocial Units (with a focus on SMI), and Psychosocial Coordinator of the Dementia Cluster. Dr. Drexler has worked as the consulting neuropsychologist for Geriatric Services of San Francisco, Garfield Geropsychiatric Hospital in Oakland, Morton Bakar Geropsychiatric Center in Hayward (during which time Telecare Corporation embraced the psychosocial rehabilitation model), and Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and board certified by the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association. | |
| Bob Durand CPP, CHEP, HEM, CHSS Vice President of Training and Compliance, Healthcare Security Division Blackstone Consulting Inc. After retiring from military service in 2005, Bob has worked in the healthcare security and emergency management field as a security officer, supervisor, training manager, hospital security manager and regional practice leader focusing on prevention of violence. Bob has designed multiple programs that have led to significant reductions in the frequency of violent incidents and a reduction of injury from violent patients. | |
| Deborah Gold MPH, CIH Certified Industrial Hygienist Deborah Gold, MPH, CIH, retired from Cal/OSHA as Deputy Chief for Health at the end of 2014. Deeg worked as an industrial hygienist in Cal/OSHA enforcement in the Bay Area for seven years before being promoted into the headquarters unit. As a senior safety engineer, and then as Deputy Chief (from 2011-2014), Deeg was involved in developing several ground-breaking regulations to protect workers from infectious disease, patient-handling injuries, workplace violence, and exposures to hazardous substances. Since retiring, Deeg has worked on several projects for the University of California and union and community groups to develop and deliver training on worker health and safety issues, including implementation of the Violence Prevention in Health Care standard. | |
| Kevin Graulich CIH Senior Safety Engineer, Research and Standards Occupational Health Unit CalOSHA Kevin Graulich is a Certified Industrial Hygienist working for Cal/OSHA as a Senior Safety Engineer with the Research and Standards Occupational Health Unit. While in the Health Unit Kevin worked on the team that developed the Workplace violence prevention in health care (T8CCR 3342) rulemaking package, and is currently the chair for the advisory committee working on the General Industry workplace violence prevention standard. Kevin started with Cal/OSHA in 1994 as an Associate Industrial Hygienist in the Anaheim compliance district office. Kevin was promoted to the Position of District Manager of the Torrance District Office in 2009 and then to Senior Safety Engineer for Region 3 in November of 2009. | |
| Robert Harrison MD, MPH Clinical Professor of Medicine; Public Health Medical Officer UCSF; CDPH Dr. Robert Harrison is a clinical professor of medicine at UCSF. He founded and has directed UCSF Occupational Health Services for more than 15 years, and now is a senior attending physician. He has diagnosed and treated over 10,000 patients with work- and environmental-induced diseases and injuries. He also directs the worker tracking investigation program for the California Department of Public Health. He has served on the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) Standards Board, and authored numerous publications in the area of occupational medicine. | |
| Eddie Johnson Harm Reduction Team Coordinator John George Pschiatric Hospital Eddie Johnson has been employed in the Psychiatric field for over 25 years working in various positions in Adolescent, Outpatient and Adult Psychiatric care. During most of those years, he taught various crisis management systems. In 2017, Mr. Johnson was honored as one of only 307 Crisis Prevention Institute trainers to receive the Meritorious Instructor award. | |
| Rachel Odes MS, RN Registered Nurse; Doctoral Student John George Psychiatric Hospital; UCSF School of Nursing Rachel Odes is a Registered Nurse with 8 years of clinical experience in the acute psychiatric setting. She completed her Masters of Science in Nursing at San Francisco State University and is certified as a Clinical Nurse Specialist. She has worked at John George Psychiatric Hospital, Alameda County's safety net behavioral health setting, for the past 7 years and is active in advocating for improved patient and staff safety as a member of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021. She is currently pursuing a PhD within UC San Francisco's Occupational and Environmental Health Nursing program, with research focusing on workplace violence in the healthcare setting. | |
| Natalie Purcell PhD, MPA Assistant Professor of Social & Behavioral Sciences; Sociologist/Health Science Researcher UCSF; San Francisco VA Natalie Purcell, PhD, MPA, is a sociologist and health services researcher at the San Francisco VA and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She specializes in the study of violence, trauma, and pain across healthcare contexts, and uses mixed methods drawn from the social sciences and the humanities. Since joining the VA in 2011, her research has centered on understanding the impact of violence and combat trauma in the lives of US military veterans, identifying and evaluating care interventions to address violence-related trauma and pain among veterans, and identifying interventions to reduce violence directed against frontline healthcare workers. Her work at VA involves not only violence and trauma-related research, but also transformation of the institutional culture to promote organizational health, integrated services, and patient centered care. | |
| Gari-Lyn Richardson Chief of Quality Improvement California Department of State Hospitals Gari-Lyn Richardson started her career at Department of State Hospitals-Patton (DSH-Patton) 28 years ago as a registered nurse caring for mentally ill patients that were forensically committed to DSH-Patton. Throughout her career at DSH-Patton she has worked as a Utilization Review Nurse, Personnel Officer, Training Officer, Standards Compliance Director, and acting Nurse Administrator. She has also worked at Department of State Hospital-Sacramento as the registered nurse on the Clinical Operations Advisory Council and most recently as the Chief of Quality Improvement in the Statewide Quality Improvement Division. Through various initiatives, responses to regulatory bodies, and quality improvement projects, Gari-Lyn has been working on reducing patient violence for the majority of her career. As the clinical member on the STOP Workplace Violence Team, her focus is on data integrity, incident investigations, and quality improvement. | |
| Steve Sun Software Engineer Square, Inc Steve Sun earned his bachelors degree from Anhui Medical University in China in 2012 and his two masters degrees, one M.S. in Environmental Health and the other in Computer Science, in 2014 from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. His advisor for environmental health science was Dr. Susan Geberich. Mr. Sun published research in Workplace Health & Safety, “The Relationship Between Shiftwork and Violence Against Nurses: A Case Control Study” in in May 2017. Steve has been working in the Bay Area since graduation in 2014 as a software engineer. He's currently employed with Square Inc in San Francisco. | |
| Sean Tracy Chief, Enterprise Health and Safety Program California Department of State Hospitals Sean Tracy has over 30 years in California State government working in 10 different departments, including many roles in worksite security, emergency preparedness, and program administration and management. Over the past three years, Sean has been directly involved with the preparation, implementation, and evaluation of the Department of State Hospital's workplace violence prevention program to achieve compliance with Cal/OSHA regulations. | |
