Rei Shimizu, LMSW, Ph.D
Rei is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Alaska Anchorage. As a clinician, she provides trauma-informed therapy for healthy relationships, particularly for those impacted by interpersonal dynamics, including intimate partner violence.
As a researcher, she utilizes knowledge from her clinical experience to examine health disparities and health behavior decision-making among underserved populations through an equity lens, considering psychosocial determinants of health such as interpersonal dynamics, mental health, and poverty.
Rei is versed in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods. Most of her research is grounded in collaborative team-based community-engaged approaches, co-developing and co-governing research projects with multiple stakeholders, such as community members, community organizations, service providers, and government agencies in the United States and Japan.
Panna Lynch-Jarussi, MSN-PH, RNC, NBCSN, LNC
MS in Nursing, Public Health Specialty
Aspen University, Denver Colorado
Summa cum laude
BS Degree, Nursing Science
University of Alaska, Anchorage
Magna cum laude
Associate of Arts Degree, Anthropology
University of Alaska, Anchorage
Panna worked with the Anchorage Health Department COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee and served in COVID-19 Disease Investigation, Case Management, and as a Contact Tracer.
She has been a Nurse and Nurse Educator in The Anchorage School District, a Psychiatric Nurse, and an ICU Nurse at Regional Hospital.
She is currently a doctoral student at Purdue University. Her practice focus is community-based adolescent-centered mental and behavioral health care, and her practice is located at the Mt. View Health Services Center.
Other activities and memberships include:
- Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, Alaska Respond Registered Nurse.
- Volunteer Emergency Medical Professional.
- Alaska Brain Injury Network: Board Member
Developed and implemented concussion education curriculum and protocols for the Anchorage School District Secondary Schools - Not On Tobacco (N.O.T.) Program Facilitator: Robert Service High School: A treatment-based tobacco cessation group targeting adolescent females.
- Sponsored by the American Lung Association
- RARE-T Advisor (Reduce Aids Risk Effectively in Teens) Robert Service High School. Funded by NIDA, providing risk behavior peer education for high school students and data for the YRBS.
- School Nurse Advisory Committee, State of Alaska Department of Health and Social Services
- School Nurse Leadership Committee, Anchorage School District Nurses
- Administrator ASD Grand Rounds Medical Seminars for ASD nurses
Administrator ASD - Secondary Nurses Mini-conferences
- Legal Nurse Consultant
- Mediator for National Education Association
Memberships/Honors/Certificates - National Board Certified Psychiatric Nurse, subspecialty adolescent chemical dependency.
- National Board Certified School Nurse.
- Member Sigma Theta Tau (International Honor Society of Nursing)
- Member National School Nurses Association
Certified CPR (Basic Life Support) - Certified ACLS (advanced cardiac life support).
- Certified PALS (Pediatric advanced Life support).
- Certified Wilderness Medicine Associate
Farrah Greene- Palmer
Counseling Psychology
Farrah brings a wealth of clinical and academic experience to the Counseling Psychology program and The Alaska Black Caucus Health Committee.
She has been at Alaska Pacific University (APU) since 2019, and an Alaska resident since 2016. She loves the beauty of the land, and is honored to work on the land of the Dena’ina.
She is currently an Associate Professor and Program Director for the Counseling Psychology Program at APU.
She has served as an instructor at diverse institutions of higher education, including the University of Virginia, Piedmont, Virginia Community College, Western Washington University (WWU), and the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
Farrah was also an Assistant Professor in the Behavioral Sciences Department at the Medical University of the Americas. She has worked in public health for the State of Alaska, and as a specialist in suicide prevention. She has done extensive scholarship and educational outreach in this area.
Additionally, Farrah has also organized and participated in education and outreach on the importance of culture in mental health and suicide prevention.
Farrah earned a BA from Johns Hopkins and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She also completed a Post-doctoral fellowship with the Uniformed Services University.
Gail Jackson
Gail Jackson has lived on the unceded land of the Dena’ina People in Anchorage, Alaska for twenty-three years, where she is the owner and founder of CreativeRhythms.
Through her passion of drumming and how it changed and continues to change her life as well as seeing the transformation in others, she became a Global Drum Circle Facilitator Trainer. Gail facilitates community, corporate, specific populations, and celebration drumming circles for well-being.
She has a certificate in Embodied Social Justice and facilitates the “Say their Name,” drumming circle at Juneteenth, where the community is invited to remember black and brown people that have been killed by police brutality. Say their Names, celebrate their lives by drumming, and drum up community coming together for a moment of healing, joy, and celebration.
Gail is a Certified Mindfulness Meditation Teacher-Professional. Currently, her focus is bringing more mindfulness meditation practices to the marginalized communities in Anchorage.
She’s a mindfulness teacher of K-12 grades.
Gail is a performing/recording artist and two-time Rasmuson Individual Artist recipient to study sound. She facilitates one on one, and group sound sessions with the gongs as well as other ambient instruments. Gail is one of 40 luminaries in the new movie, “ We All Just Need To Gong,” that was released in the fall of 2022. She recently recorded four CD’s that are available on Bandcamp. The CDs also work well as sound meditations.
To add to her commitment to well-being in the BIPOC community and beyond, Gail is a Peer Grief Educator for adults and children. She completed her training in May of 2023 as a Healing Centered Yoga Teacher and will be offering programs in the BIPOC community for children and adults.
She enjoys the outdoors and cooking ethnic foods.
Ginny Grabowski, MS
Ginny has been helping people to transform their lives through fitness and nutrition since 2003. She is passionate about helping individuals to create their healthiest lives. Helping individuals understand the power they have to create great health, ensuring healthy living is simple and accessible to all is what brought her to the ABC Health Committee.
She became a Certified Personal Trainer through The American Council on Exercise in 2003 and completed a Master of Science Degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion in 2007. She owned and operated AlaskaFit, a Boot Camp and Personal Training Studio in Anchorage for six years and is now working with clients nationwide online in The Women’s Wellness Academy.
