Meghan Mohon has been working within the CIT world for most of her career. With a B.A. in Psychology & Criminology, and M.A. in Forensic & Legal Psychology, she bridged the gap between mental health and law enforcement in her own studies and sought to become part of training responders. After getting her graduate degree, Meghan went on to work in Louisiana as a CIT Coordinator on a contract. She then made her way to the City of Alexandria, VA, where she was their CIT Coordinator for 3 years. Following this, she became the Crisis Diversion Coordinator at the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Services overseeing CIT Assessment Centers across the state. However, when this position with Virginia CIT opened up, she was ready to return to the training world to help VACIT expand into all it can be. 

Passionate about teaching and training, Meghan is also an adjunct professor for both undergraduate and graduate Forensic & Legal Psychology classes at Marymount University in Arlington, VA. In her free time, she enjoys a variety of theatrical, creative, and nerdy hobbies.

She looks forward to expanding CIT in this role, and helping programs throughout Virginia. 

Christy Parker is an LPC working for Henrico Area Mental Health & Developmental Services. She has been involved with CIT since 2009, when she had the opportunity to volunteer for the Henrico CIT program and has been involved ever since. Her position as Henrico CIT Training coordinator for the last 10+ years, leading the Central Virginia Regional CIT Coalition, and participating on the VACIT Coalition have allowed her to serve her community in exciting and effective ways. Having family members who serve as Police and Fire, as well as family and friends who live with various diagnoses has fueled her passion for the implementation and growth of CIT across the Commonwealth. She is honored to serve as the current Coalition President and eager to see how CIT will continue to impact lives for the better.

Patrick Halpern is an experienced program coordinator with almost twenty years of demonstrated success working at the intersection of the behavioral health and criminal justice systems. Patrick works for New River Valley Community Services (NRVCS) as CIT Coordinator of the New River Valley Crisis Intervention Team (CIT), the nation’s first rural, multi-jurisdictional adaptation of the exemplary pre-arrest diversion program for individuals experiencing behavioral health emergencies. Since 2007, he has led the Commonwealth of Virginia’s first CIT Program and has provided significant leadership to the development and expansion of CIT programs across the Commonwealth. Patrick served as the first President of the Virginia CIT Coalition for almost nine years, from 2016 to 2025. In August of 2021, Patrick was recognized by CIT International as the CIT Advocate of the Year, an award that recognizes a family member or community advocate who demonstrates exemplary active involvement with their CIT Program and as a person who always speaks boldly of issues specific to mental illness stigma and advocates for access to high quality services for people who live with mental illness. 

Prior to joining NRVCS, he was the Executive Director of the Mental Health Association of the New River Valley for seven years. In this capacity, he was the Project Director for a post-booking, pre-trial therapeutic diversion program for justice-involved individuals with behavioral health diagnoses; and, he led a statewide, multi-year project on behalf of Virginia’s Department of Veteran Services to provide training to law enforcement and other criminal justice system personnel on service-connected injuries, justice system involvement and resources available to assist returning service members and veterans. He also worked as Operations Manager for Offender Aid and Restoration of Richmond, where he worked with the City of Richmond’s Commonwealth Attorney to develop a therapeutic jail diversion program for street walking sex workers. 

Patrick grew up in northern Virginia, earned an undergraduate degree in Geography from Radford University, and a graduate degree from Virginia Tech in Public and International Affairs. He has lived in the New River Valley region of southwest Virginia for more than twenty-five years and currently lives in Blacksburg with his wife and two children.

Andrea Hess is currently an Emergency Services Manager for the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, located in Fairfax Virginia. She has over 20 years of experience working with individuals who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Prior to joining Fairfax CSB, she was a supervisor in the Co-Responder Program with Prince William Community Services Board. Throughout her tenure at PWC, she became heavily involved in CIT (Crisis Intervention Training) as their CIT Mental Health Coordinator. She has coordinated and taught over fifty 40-hour classes, assisted with over 15 Train-the-Trainer classes, led the CIT Northern Virginia Regional Coalition, and is currently serving as Vice-President of VACIT. While with Prince William CSB, she was awarded the VACIT Behavioral Health Provider of the Year in 2020 and in 2022 she was instrumental in her work with their program which was awarded the VACIT Program of the Year. In addition to her work with CIT, she is also a Compassion Fatigue Trainer and has presented to a variety of audiences such as dispatchers, Commonwealth Attorney’s offices, disaster relief agencies, peer support teams, and many other helping professional agencies.

Mandy Lee earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology from Bridgewater College and a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Radford University and has been working in the mental health field for over 15 years. Her clinical experience includes providing crisis support to families in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, working in therapeutic foster care, and providing emergency services to individuals in mental health crisis. Serving as the Director of the Roanoke Valley Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) and Marcus Alert System at Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare, Lee spearheads critical initiatives, delivering CIT training to law enforcement and overseeing the Crisis Intervention Team Assessment Center (CITAC). She led the implementation of the MARCUS Alert legislation in the Roanoke Valley as well as the creation of the Roanoke Valley’s Co-Response team. Lee is a Certified Prescreener and is a certified instructor of SAMHSA’s Trauma Informed Care for Criminal Justice Involved Individuals. She has also been certified in Critical Incident Stress Management and Hostage Negotiations and Crisis Intervention. 

Recognized with awards like the 2022 CIT Coordinator of the Year (Virginia Crisis Intervention Team Coalition) and the 2022 Chief’s Award of Excellence (Roanoke County Police Department), Lee also volunteers with the Junior League of Roanoke Valley and Virginia CIT Coalition Board.

John Konkel has been working in the crisis world since 2013. He started in Emergency Services with the Eastern Shore CSB in July 2013, and became the Coordinator for their Emergency Services team in July 2016. While serving in these roles, John also started his journey with Virginia CIT, and he attended his first 40 hour CIT class in Richmond in January 2015. Two months later, he was assigned as the Coordinator for Eastern Shore CIT in March 2015. At that time, he was the only CIT-trained person on the Eastern Shore. With the help of strong local partnerships with law enforcement and the invaluable support of the Henrico CIT program as their mentors, the Eastern Shore CIT program is now fully operational; with 40 hour classes, TTT classes, Dispatch classes, Refresher classes, and a full team of dedicated and passionate CIT instructors who have trained over 300 local first responders. Their CITAC opened at the local hospital in September 2016, and continues to serve our community. 

In July 2019, John joined the Virgina CIT Coalition Board of Directors, and in January 2025, he began serving on the Executive Committee as the Board Secretary. John is passionate about the future and vision of CIT in Virginia, and he is thankful for the many dedicated individuals that have brought CIT to where it is today. As he often says about Virginia CIT, “the future is bright!”. He is looking forward to the next chapter of CIT as it continues to grow and expand. 

Prior to joining the Eastern Shore CSB, John was the Eastern Shore Site Director for the National Counseling Group from 2008 to 2013. John and his team earned various Site awards during his tenure with NCG, and he was recognized as the 2010 Business Person of the Year by the Northampton County Chamber of Commerce. John graduated from Liberty University with a Masters in Professional Counseling in 2012, and passed Virginia’s licensure exam to become a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in May 2016. 

John’s volunteer roles in the community have included serving as past President of the Eastern Shore Christian Businessmen’s Association, and coaching baseball and softball teams at the local Little League. John and his wife Laurie are the grateful parents of five children, one grandson, and looking forward to many more grandchildren coming.

Kelly is a retired Police Captain who served for 35 years as a sworn officer, supervisor and administrator with the Waynesboro Virginia Police Department. He has experience in Patrol, Investigations, Crime Prevention, as well as Support Services. In addition, Kelly is a trained Crisis Negotiator who served for 23 years on the department’s Crisis Negotiations Unit as a team member, unit commander and finally as Unit Manager. Kelly has served as the coordinator for Blue Ridge CIT for over 12 years and has been certified by CIT International as a CIT Coordinator. He has been an active DCJS General Instructor for over 30 years and has instructed numerous courses including Juvenile Law, traffic stops, search and seizure and laws of arrest. Kelly also served as a patrol field training officer for 5 years and for several years as a Virginia DARE Instructor certified to teach elementary, as well middle school and high school DARE. In addition, he has been a CIT Instructor since 2009 and a CIT TTT Instructor since 2010. He has taught various CIT blocks including role play and evaluation of student performance in 45 CIT 40-hour training courses. Also, he has taught instructor training and role play development in several Train the Trainer classes. He has presented various topics to numerous community and professional groups as well as to the Virginia CIT Coalition and CIT International Conferences. In addition to his local CIT leadership, Kelly serves on the Virginia CIT Board of Directors.

Sgt. Dustin Eddington started his career in Law Enforcement in 2005 in Henrico County. He was one of the first officers in Henrico County to be trained in CIT (2009). He became lead instructor for the Police-CIT in 2010 and assisted in training every member of the Henrico Police Department in CIT, more than 100 classes. He was asked to become a member of the State Instructor Team to assist in training other localities in CIT and certifying them as instructors to which Dustin partnered with over 17 different localities across The Commonwealth. 2014 – Dustin was honored as a recipient of the VACIT Officer of the Year Award. In 2014, he also received NAMI’s Officer of Year award and was featured on the cover of Henrico Monthly Magazine, as a member of the County’s Crisis Intervention Team. 

Sgt. Eddington is an instructor for the Police Division and instructs on – CIT, Mental Health First, Aid, Realistic De-Escalation, and other courses as needed. He served on the Negotiations team for several years and was the supervisor for the Special Victims Unit for 3 years before being asked to return to the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) where he has a passion.

Staci M Young LPC is the Director for Acute Care Crisis Services for Region 5 Crisis Call Center Hub; overseeing the contract with National Suicide prevention lifeline and dispatch of mobile teams; the REACH and Adult and Child team responding to the Region 5 community. In addition to the Regional call Center , Staci supervises for Western Tidewater CSB the departments of emergency services, CIT, state/local discharge planning, NGRI’s and Marcus Alert coordination. Staci has over 30 years of working with individuals in crisis in multiple capacities. She is a Virginia state certified pre-admission screener since 2004. A CIT instructor since 2010, board member of the VA CIT Coalition (2023), Regional Mobile Crisis Master trainer, CISM trained, ASSIST

First Sergeant Lanier brings over 18 years of law enforcement experience with Prince William County Police Department, where she currently supervises the Special Victims Bureau. Prior to her law enforcement career, she spent five years as a Juvenile Probation Officer and three years as a therapist, reflecting her long-standing commitment to supporting vulnerable populations through trauma-informed approaches. Whitney holds a Master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Rhode Island and a Master’s in Public Administration from George Mason University. A certified Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) instructor and Train-the-Trainer, First Sergeant Lanier has been an integral part of the Greater Prince William County CIT Program since 2017, serving as both Assistant Coordinator and Lead Instructor Developer. Her additional leadership roles include five years on the Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT), where she has served as Team Lead and currently as Assistant Coordinator, and six years on the Incident Management Team (IMT), including two years as Training Coordinator. A dedicated mindfulness practitioner and instructor, she presented Body-Based De-escalation Strategies at the VACIT Conferences in 2023 and 2024. She was a panelist at IACP Officer Safety and Wellness in 2025 for Breaking the Stigma, a mindfulness discussion. First Sergeant Lanier
is known for her holistic, trauma-informed approach to crisis response and remains a passionate advocate for integrating mental wellness practices into public safety.

Kelly Royston is the CIT Coordinator for the Thomas-Jefferson Area CIT program in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she oversees all CIT trainings and the Crisis Intervention Team Assessment Center. She previously served as CIT Coordinator for the Rockingham-Harrisonburg program for over six years and worked at the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Emergency Communication Center for thirteen years.

For the past four years, I have worked at the Danville CSB Crisis Center as a Peer Recovery Specialist. I am uniquely qualified through my lived experience to support individuals in crisis with empathy, encouragement, and hope. With eight years in active recovery from substance use, I strive to be a living example that recovery is possible, and that change can happen. My journey allows me to connect authentically with others while helping them build confidence in their own strengths and resilience.  As a Board of Directors member, I bring a grounded, lived-experience perspective, a strong understanding of community needs, and a commitment to person-centered, recovery-focused decision-making.

Julie Cox is the Coordinator for Chesterfield County’s CIT program, which educates over 200 first responders each year.  She also sits on the boards for Central Virginia Regional CIT, and the Virginia CIT organization.  She is currently program manager for Access, Emergency Services and Co-response for Chesterfield Community Services Board.  Julie is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Preadmission Screening Clinician.  She has been working in mental health Emergency Services since 2012 and has been an instructor for CIT since that time as well.  Julie currently sits on County Committees for Workforce Safety and Security and Interdisciplinary Threat Management.  She also heads up the county’s multidisciplinary SPRINT Team.

Michael Fayton is a Sergeant of the Norfolk Police Department and a 20-year veteran. Sgt. Fayton is also a Basic CIT and CIT-Youth Certified Trainer. Sgt. Fayton has been assigned as a supervisor to the Field Operations Bureau, as an Investigator in the Investigative Services Bureau and currently a supervisor in The Administrative Services Bureau.  He is currently detailed to the Training Division as the Crisis Intervention Team Program Manager where he is responsible for the development, maintenance and instruction of courses related to mental health and law enforcement responses to persons in crisis as well as assisting with overseeing daily operations of the Police Academy. Additionally, Sgt. Fayton recently joined the Virginia CIT Coalition as one of its newest committee members.

Casey Allen has been providing instruction and coordinating training since 1990 in various subject matters. Prior to his service in the Danville community, he served 9 years in the U. S. Army (1988-1997) where he was certified as a Small Arms Range Instructor and an Advanced Airborne Jump Master. While with the Danville Police Department (DPD), Casey held a DCJS instructor certification as a General Instructor (1999), a firearms Instructor (2003) and an EVOC Instructor (2000). During his time with the DPD, Casey served in a variety of positions, including Patrol Officer, Detective Sargeant, Crime Scene Commander, and Service Division Sargeant. Casey retired from the DPD as a Shift Commander with the rank of Lieutenant, and 23 years of service. After retiring from the DPD, he went to work for the Piedmont Regional Criminal Justice Training Academy as the Training Coordinator for two years, and instructed classes such as, Basic Law Enforcement and Ethics in Law Enforcement. In February 2023 Casey went to work for Danville-Pittsylvania County Community Services in the Behavioral Health Division as the Crisis Intervention Team Coordinator. Casey successfully completed the CIT Train the Trainer course April 14, 2023. Casey was certified as a CIT Coordinator through CIT International in May 2024. He has an associate of applied science degree with a concentration in Administration of Justice from Danville Community College and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Averett University.

Lori Wood is Senior Director of Emergency and Short-term Stabilization Services at Region Ten Community Services Board in Charlottesville, VA. She is a graduate of Emory & Henry College and the University of Virginia and is a Licensed Professional Counselor. She is a master instructor with the Thomas Jefferson Area CIT program and has supported development and implementation of CIT programs throughout Virginia. She is trained in hostage negotiation as well as Critical Incident Stress Management and has been a Mental Health First Aid trainer, and is a current CIT International SME and trainer. She conducts local, state and national trainings on crisis management, risk assessment, stress management, adolescent crisis intervention, program development, and suicide. She has taught law enforcement in-services, CIT and train the trainer classes for over 18 years. She continues to provide these type consultation services and support training initiatives across the country. She is one of the “founding mothers” of the Lock and Talk Virginia Suicide Prevention program, as well as a founding member and inaugural chair of the Suicide Prevention & Awareness Resource Council (SPARC). She currently serves on the Albemarle County School Safety Advisory Committee and on the Board of the Virginia CIT Coalition. Lori received a mentorship award from the Central Virginia Lynchburg CIT program, was the 2010 recipient of the CIT Mental Health Advocate Award, the 2017 CIT International Behavioral Healthcare Professional of the Year, and the 2018 Virginia CIT Behavioral Healthcare Professional of the Year. In 2019, she received the John L Snook Child Advocate Award, and she is the proud mother of 4 children.