The Workplace Trauma Center is a leading provider of crisis management and training services for business industry and government. Our Chief Executive Officer Dr. Richard J. Ottenstein is recognized as an international expert in the field of workplace trauma. He has developed some of the approaches in supporting employees that are used throughout the world. Although Dr. Ottenstein maintains a busy training schedule, he still responds to many incidents personally. Dr. Ottenstein has assembled a team of highly trained crisis managers who are passionate about the work they do.
Our crisis managers are located throughout the United States and in numerous countries throughout the world. Our goal is to provide the most appropriate crisis responder(s) who are geographically closest to your place of business.
Our Management Team:
Richard J. Ottenstein, Ph.D., CEAP, CTS,
Chief Executive Officer
Sue Pahl, MSW, M.Ed., LCSW, President
Dawn Hammerbacher, B.A., Director of Operations
Our Team Coordinators:
Richard J. Ottenstein, Ph.D., CEAP, CTS, Licensed Psychologist Chief Executive Officer
An expert in workplace violence, Dr. Ottenstein has provided training and support to many corporations and governmental agencies. These programs range from comprehensive workplace violence initiatives to development, training and support of threat assessment teams, threat mitigation services and armed robbery and bank robbery survival skill training.
Dr. Ottenstein has over 45 years experience in the mental health field, and 35 years experience providing workplace training and intervention services. Dr. Ottenstein is a licensed Psychologist, a Certified Employee Assistance Professional, a Certified Trauma Specialist and a member of the faculty of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF). Dr. Ottenstein developed a course titled "Corporate Crisis Response which is offered by the ICISF on their international conference circuit. He was also the director of the Occupational Crisis Management Certifcation Program at the Open University of Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He provides crisis and wellness training for numerous Employee Assistance Programs, professional organizations, government agencies and private business. He is co-author of a book entitled: "More Good Words: Grief in the Workplace". He has published numerous articles in professional journals and other publications.
In addition to his services to business and government, Dr. Ottenstein is a former Chair of the Central Maryland Chapter of the American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Team and has served with the Red Cross on numerous national.International and local disasters. He is also a volunteer and founding member with the Carroll County, Maryland Fire Department Critical Incident Team and is the clinical coordinator of that team.
Dr. Ottenstein has provided crisis intervention training internationally including the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, The Royal Fiji Police, the National Fire and Prison Services of Fiji, the Hawai'i Police Department, critical Incident teams in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, Trinidad EAP providers, Crisis response teams in Singapore, the Ontario, Canada Psychological Association, and at national conferences for the Employee Assistance Professional Association (EAPA) and the American Mental Health Counselors Association and the National Safety Counsel. Dr. Ottenstein directs a support program for journalists in the Middle East, North Africa and Latin America.
Following the events of September 11, 2001, Dr. Ottenstein and his Workplace Trauma Center Staff provided support to over 50 corporations including on-site evaluation and support for construction workers involved in rescue and recovery at The World Trade Center and The Pentagon.
Dr. Ottenstein served as a Manager of Mental Health Services for the American Red Cross in Mississippi and Alabama following the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. In February 2007 Dr. Ottenstein and his staff provided support in Iraq and Jordan to workers of a non governmental organization providing peace building efforts in Iraq. In 2008 he provided support for the Tsunami Recovery Project in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Maldive Islands and Thailand. Following the Haitian Earthquake of 2010 Dr. Ottenstein led a mental health team working at the Project Medishare field trauma hospital in Port Au Prince. He previously served as the primary on-site support provider to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) crash investigation teams through their Employee Assistance Program.
Dr. Ottenstein has also provided training and support to many hospitals and social service agencies, police and fire departments as well as transportation agencies throughout the United States and abroad.
Sue Pahl, MSW, M.Ed., LCSW-C
President
Sue has over 30 years experience as a Clinical Social Worker, an elementary School Counselor and a trained Crisis Manager. Sue serves as President of The Workplace Trauma Center and coordinates both our onsite and virtual training programs. She has extensive experience providing crisis support services to corporations and government agencies. Having had 20 years experience as an elementary school counselor, she has extensive experience providing crisis support to children.
Sue has had training working with indigenous populatons and has studied native cultures extensively. Sue has extensive experiencing offering webinars and in person seminars.
Dawn Hammerbacher, B.A.
Director of Operations
Dawn has served as Dispatcher, Program Co-ordinator and now Operations Manager. She has extensive experience triaging crisis situations and bringing together teams of staff to address the needs of our client organizations. Dawn brings a kindness and empathy to her interactions during the most difficult moments. She gathers information and insures that the most appropriate resources are provided. During the Coronovirus Pandemic Dawn has managed the services to all nursing homes in the state of Maryland who have requested support. She is adept at coordinating services for multiple crises occurring throughout the country.
Erich Bonny, LCSW-C, Regional Coordinator
Erich Bonny is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a Masters degree in Clinical Applications. He has over 30 years experience in the mental health field poviding services in both inpatient and outpatient settings. These approaches have included crisis intervention, evaluation and treatment in hospital emergency rooms. As founder and therapist with Cedar Ridge Counseling Centers, he has continued to provide specialized clinical services for the young and old since 1997. His creative training approaches have been provided in both national and international settings. Current specialties in clinical interventions include Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Trauma Survival.
Erich has provided critical incident services to the private and public sector for over 20 years. This included being a network manager, clinical supervisor and account coordinator over multiple businesses in a national Employee Assistance Program. Crisis response interventions include: crisis management consultation; behavioral risk assessment; return to work evaluation; employee impact determinations and corporate follow-up considerations. He has covered a wide range of traumatic incidents affecting employee settings. He has provide a variety of corporate trainings to address business and employee wellness concerns.
Roberta Cohen, LCSW-C, CMC, CEC, PCC
Regional and International Coordinator, Spanish Language Coordinator
Roberta has over 30 years experience in providing crisis, trauma and critical incident response. After receiving her M.S.W. at Michigan State University, Roberta worked at Emrgency Service of Genesee County Community Mental Health in Flint, Michigan, providing crisis intervention and management services to the community at large. After relocating to Texas, Roberta directed a similar walk-in emergency clinic for the Chicano Training Center, serving Houston's Hispanic, Spanish speaking population.
Over the last decade, Roberta became a Regional and International Coordinator for the Workplace Trauma Center. She has trained with Dr. Ottenstein on his pre-incident Armed Robbery Training and has traveled for The Workplace Trauma Center as far as Iraq and Jordan to provide crisis support. She has also provided crisis support in Afghanistan. Roberta Provides crisis sevices in both English and Spanish.
Roberta is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW in Texas and holds a Certificate of Specialized Training in Workplace and Industrial Applications from the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. She is also a Certified Mentor Coach (CMC), a Certified Executive Coach (CED) and is credentialed by the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach (PCC). In her work as an Executive Coach, she has worked with organizations on leadership and organizational culture development with a special emphasis on leadership through crisis and business disruption, business continuity stategies and pre-incident strategic planning.
Fadwa Lkorchy, MS, Regional Coordinator, Middle East and North Africa
Languages: English, Arabic, French
MS in Developmental Psychology (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
Level I and II Personality Dimensions Trainer
Eyes Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Certified Practioner
Neurolinguistic Certified Practitioner
Member of the American Psychological Association
Member of the Arab Psychological Association
Located in Dubai, UAE, Fadwa is a licensed Developmental Psychologist and Personality Dimensions Trainer who specializes in children, adolescents, couples, and family therapy with expertise in crisis counseling and intervention. She is also a Professional Trainer for public and private institutions with services ranging from stress reduction to performance optimization.
She is a passionate counselor who strongly believes in engaging my clients in their own healing. Providing a systematic guidance and equipping my clients with the necessary skills and strategies are therefore mainstays in all my therapies. Her education and diversified background give her a unique and effective approach to counseling. She uses various therapeutic methodologies to provide clients with tailored treatment plans that fits their individual goals and can be integrated into their daily lives. She is committed to helping my clients build on their existing strengths to overcome mental and behavioral challenges and improve emotional resilience and well-being.
Fadwa provides training and support for journalists and activists through our program with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.
Fred Nastri, LCPC, Regional Coordinator
Fred is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor. He is retired after 37 years of work in Criminal Justice. Fred was a Police Officer for ten years in Hagerstown, MD. He then worked in Psychological and Security Operations for Public Safety and Corrections. He earned is Masters degree in 1984 in Human Sciences/Psychology from Hood College.
Fred maintains a private counseling practice, provides corporate crisis support and wellness and stress management training. He also teaches at Hagerstown Community College where his has taught for 35 years in Psychology and Sociology.
Fred has also been a long time sports official in Basketball, Baseball and Softball.
BETH HEWETT, PhD, CT, Grief Specialist
Certified Thanatologist (CT), Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), 2015 – Present
Certified Compassionate Bereavement Care™ Provider (2012 – Present)
Grief Coach, Facilitator Trainer, Public Speaker, & Author
Beth L. Hewett, PhD, CT knows grief from personal experience, and she has a heart for those who grieve their loved ones. Her specialty is mindful mourning with Bead Blessings, writing, and other purposeful activities.
Dr. Hewett’s desire to help other bereaved people led to her work as a Certified Thanatologist (CT) with the Association for Death Education and Counseling (ADEC), a Certified Compassionate Bereavement Care™ Provider with the MISS Foundation, and a Certified End-of-Life Specialist (CEOLS) through TeachingTransitions. She has earned a certificate in Death and Grief Studies from the Center for Loss and Life Transition and is a former National Catholic Ministry for the Bereaved Minister of Consolation Trainer. Her training also includes trauma and traumatic bereavement care. Beth has trained under such renowned grief care and soul-work educators as Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, Dr. Alan Wolfelt, Dr. David Kepler, Dr. Francis Weller, and Dr. Thomas Moore.
Dr. Hewett was a support group facilitator for the Bereaved Parents of the USA (BP USA) and at her local parish, St. Ignatius-Hickory, MD for 12 years. She has been a public speaker and facilitator of grief support groups, bereavement seminars and retreats, and writing workshops since 2004. Additionally, she creates ceremonies and rituals for individual and group mourners to actively grieve and begin healing from their losses. She has provided grief support and bereavement programs for The Workplace Trauma Center's Maryland State COVID Support Program for Long Term Care Workers.
Dr. Hewett is the author of the Good Words: Memorializing Through a Eulogy book and booklets, More Good Words: Practical Activities for Mourning, “Practicality, Adaptability, Possibility in Grief” (Grief Digest Magazine, October 2011), and coauthor of More Good Words: Grief and the Workplace. Beth also writes for the Tri-County Funeral Director’s Association Tri-County Crier Newsletter and has published on the Open to Hope website and with Catholic Review. She has written multiple single-authored academic books in such subjects as college-level online writing instruction and nineteenth-century American rhetoric.
Dr. Hewett has a PhD in rhetoric and writing studies, and she has forty years’ experience as a college-level educator with a specialty in online writing instruction, all of which she applies in her work with the bereaved, particularly when engaging in remote interactions.
Beth Devilbiss, MA, LCPC
Beth Devilbiss is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and has been providing treatment
in the mental health field for over 12 years. Beth has worked in both outpatient mental health
settings and school settings; providing counseling at both non-public schools and in a collegiate
setting. Currently, as a clinician with the Workplace Trauma Center, Beth responds to critical
incidents in a variety of workplace settings, provides crisis response counseling, grief
counseling, and leads managerial and personal wellness trainings. Beth has become a frequently requested speaker.
Diane Soronson, LCSW-C, Team Coordinator
Diane is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with nearly thirty years clinical experience. She has been involved with The Workplace Trauma Center since it's inception in 1999. As an integral part of the WPT team she has assisted in Corporate interventions ranging from homicides, illness, death, downsizing, bank robberies, industial and construction accidents. Following the events of September 11, 2001, Diane served many corporations in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.
Tom Meany, LCPC, Regional Coordinator
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Tom Meany has over 30 years of experience in the field of mental health and twenty-five years with the New York State Office of Mental Health as a Psychologist and Administrator working both in and outpatient services. For the past nine years he has provided workplace violence consultation, trauma training and intervention services for business and industry
Tom headed a nationwide Critical Incident response team for Kemper National Services. He developed a training manual and trained 52 professionals for three years, coordinating over 200 CISM interventions. He has authored several articles on traumatic stress for business and industry trade publications. As northeast regional coordinator for The Workplace Trauma Center he has done unique customized crisis intervention training for regional bank managers for a nationwide bank as well as crisis support for many corporations. He provided certified trauma training for mental health professionals prior to their work at Ground Zero and has provided multiple crisis responses and training for corporate businesses, industrial and retail company's employees moving back into the World Trade Center area.
in addition to providing crisis management consultation. As vice president and mental health coordinator of a local CISM team he has provided services for the FDNY, local hospitals and EMS personnel. Tom has provided crisis response, crisis management consultation, workplace violence consultation, and certified trauma training to business, industry, government agencies, EAP's, HR personnel, crisis responders, and mental health professionals. Additionally Tom provides ongoing weekly consultation services for the developmentally disabled community at residences and at day hab programs.
Sally Stuber, MA, Team Coordinator
Since 1999, Ms. Stuber has provided extensive crisis response for the Workplace Trauma Center. She has responded to Fortune 500 companies, small private enterprises, school districts and hospitals. Traveling across the United States she has responded to incidents such as armed robbery, murder, terrorism, suicide, assault and industrial accidents She also works with management on the corporate-wide effects of critical incidents.
Ms. Stuber is also a volunteer with the American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Team and Disaster Action Team. She has been awarded the Red Cross' highest possible volunteer award, the Clara Barton Award, for outstanding service. . She has served with the Red Cross on both national and local disasters such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and local fires. She is trained through the Red Cross as a responder to airline crisis. Ms. Stuber also served as clinical director on the Carroll County, Maryland Fire Department Critical Incident Stress Management Team. Prior to serving as a crisis responder Mrs. Stuber was a private clinician.
The Workplace Trauma Center has many other responders both nationally and internationally. Because we consider our list of responders proprietary they are not all listed here.
