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SPEAKERS

Ciriac Alvarez Valle
Ciriac is dedicated to improving the lives of Utah's families. As a Senior Policy Analyst at Voices for Utah Children, she has spent more than 7 years conducting research and analyzing policies related to children's health care and immigration. She advocates for ensuring that every child in Utah thrives. She currently serves on the Utah Somos Foundation board and on the Legal Services Innovation Committee. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Utah.
Mallory Bateman
Mallory is the director of demographic research at the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute. Bateman uses her expertise in Census Bureau data and products to share insights with diverse public, private, and media audiences. Her bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning from the University of Utah and master’s degree in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics further helps inform research on a range of topics, including community-based efforts in Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County, generational change, fertility, transportation, commuting, and civic engagement.
Erin Bigler
Erin Bigler, LCSW studied at the University of Southern California, earning her Master of Social Work with an emphasis on military social work and pivoted to forensic social work while working at Meharry Medical College, an HBCU in Tennessee. Moving to Utah in 2016, she worked at Salt Lake Legal Defender Association (SLLDA) serving indigent defendants by providing them advocacy via exhaustive social history investigations and helping to inform compassionate sentencing. In 2021, Erin created a Forensic Social Work Division for the Utah County Public Defender Association where she specialized in serious felony and capital case mitigation. In 2025, she returned to SLLDA as the Assistant Director of Forensic Social Work, where she leads community initiatives to reduce criminal recidivism, and serves clients at the intersection of homelessness, severe mental illness, addiction, and justice involvement.
Santiago Cortez
Santiago is CEO of Clinical Consultants and a local expert in the area of substance use disorder treatment and the therapeutic community model. He served as a member of the International Quality Assurance Board for a therapeutic community for 26 years, and has acted as the chairperson of the Substance Use Disorder Counselors Board for DOPL. Cortez has been a part of the Governor’s USAAV+ Council for the last 15 years and is the chairperson for the Behavioral Health Workforce Committee Group. He has been an advocate for clients seeking behavioral health services and the professionals providing those services on individual, corporate, and legislative levels.
Susi Feltch-Malohifo'ou
Susi was born in Nuku'alofa, Tonga and raised in Utah as a transracial adoptee. She is the Founder and CEO of Pacific Island Knowledge 2 Action Resources (PIK2AR), an 11-year-old community nonprofit advancing culturally grounded solutions in economic mobility, violence prevention, health equity, arts & culture, and civic engagement. Susi is a Certified Peer Support Specialist and leads from lived experience. She is a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, and openly speaks about navigating mental illness and justice-system involvement. Her leadership is rooted in one belief: communities thrive when they are culturally understood, structurally supported, and economically resourced.
Haner Hernandez
Haner Hernandez is from Borikén (Puerto Rico) and lives in Massachusetts. For the last 39 years, he has lead research, planning, and social justice efforts in Substance Use Disorder, Mental Health, HIV/AIDS, HCV, and related services. His focus is on eliminating disparities, building equity, and promoting a greater understanding of the Structural Determinants of Health (SDOH). He believes that quality public health work cannot be accomplished without meaningful community-based partnerships and engagement with individuals and their lived experiences. Dr. Hernandez has served as a consultant for a wide range of federal, state, and local institutions, including the Prevention, Addiction and Mental Health Technology Transfer Centers, and the Opioid Response Network. He also teaches at the New England Schools of Prevention and Addiction Studies and is President of the Massachusetts Addiction Counselor Certification Board.
Carol Hollowell
Carol Hollowell is the Founder of Switchpoint, an organization that has opened hundreds of doors, converted hotels, and other buildings across Utah to house over 400 seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities, and continues to work on its goal of 1,000 units of deeply affordable housing across the state. In 2013, she met Ray, wheelchair-bound and homeless for five years simply because he'd lost his wallet. After helping him find stable housing, she drew on her background as a serial entrepreneur to build Switchpoint, which has lead Carol to be recognized as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2020), the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute Informed Decision Maker of the Year (2023), and the winner of the R. Lane Beattie Utah Community Builder award (2024).
Jules Martinez
Jules Martinez, LCSW, CPSS (they/them) is one of the co-founders of Jacky's Recovery Support Services (JRSS) where they still work as an advocate, therapist, and student supervisor. In their private practice, they work with youth and young adults under the LGBTQ2IA+ umbrella. As a person in long-term recovery, Jules has spent the past decade deeply involved in the peer movement as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in the behavioral health care system in Utah. They are currently the co-chair for the Utah Behavioral Health Planning and Advisory Council.
Elizabeth Siantz
Elizabeth Siantz, Ph.D., MSW (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at the College of Social Work at the University of Utah. She is an experienced community-based researcher, and much of her work focuses on supporting the implementation of certified peer specialists across a range of clinical and culturally responsive settings. Liz has a history of collaborating with persons with lived recovery experience and with Latinx-serving human service organizations. As the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, she uses her positionality and research skills to elevate community voices.
Kathryn Bond Stockton
Kathryn is a Distinguished Professor of English, former Associate Vice President for Equity and Diversity, and inaugural Dean of the School for Cultural & Social Transformation at the University of Utah, where she teaches queer theory, theories of race and racialized gender. She is an author of two books becoming national finalists for the Lambda Literary Award in LGBT studies, and her recent book Making Out (NYU Press) was a 2020 finalist for the Next Generation Indie Book Award for memoir. She is an award winning educator and has also received the Equality Utah Allies Award for LGBT activism, the NOW Lifetime Achievement Award, the YWCA Outstanding Achievement Award in Arts and Communication, and received the Rosenblatt Prize for Excellence, the highest honor granted by the University of Utah.
Martell L. Teasley
Martell is the associate provost for strategic academic initiatives of the University of Utah and former dean of the University of Utah College of Social Work. As the lead investigator on the social work profession’s Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism, his major areas of research interests are African American adolescent development, school social work practice, and diversity in social work education. He served in the U.S. Army for 10 years and participated in the First Persian Gulf War as a Licensed Practical Nurse. He earned hia Master of Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University, and his doctorate in Social Work from Howard University.