Our Team

David Deacon, PhD

COO

Entrepreneur, scientist, engineer; Founder CEO or CTO, four tech startups in consumer electronics, telecom; angel investor; NIH Principal Advisor commercialization; 62 US patents.

John Mendelson, MD

CMO & PHYSICIAN

Professor of Medicine, UCSF; Senior Research Scientist Friends Research Institute; Medical Director, Bay Area Addiction Research and Treatment (BAART) Programs; Distinguished in Clinical Research and Primary Care Medical Practice.

Bob Nix, PhD

CTO

Entrepreneur, Architect, Technologist; VP R&D and Principal Architect, Athena Health; CTO VP Eng. Peppercoin; Founder or CTO six more startups in fintech, enterprise software, ecommerce.

Jen Douglas

CFO

Strategic partner to CEO & Board with a career foundation in finance and operations.Start-ups, turn-arounds, stable business operations.

Linda Hickman

REGISTERED NURSE

Best career decision, joining the Ria Health medical team. After spending the last 10 years working with individuals in a more traditional setting, I am excited about the Ria Health telemedicine platform as a means of expanding access to care.

Trinette L. Radasa, DNP

PSYCHIATRIC MENTAL HEALTH NURSE PRACTITIONER

Doctor of Nursing Practice from the University of Texas at El Paso, many years of experience as an FNP and PMHNP treating clients with various medical and mental health disorders. Director of the PMHNP-DNP Program at the University of San Francisco, and currently on the medical team at Ria Health.

Ben Gardner, DNP

REGISTERED NURSE

Nurse Practitioner with experience in diagnostics, primary care, acute care, chronic
disease care, and case management. Doctor of Nursing Practice from University of San Francisco.

Alex Lee, DSW, LCSW

DIRECTOR OF COACHING

Designed over 6 evidence-based interventions; Led large teams in military, academic, government, nonprofit, and community settings to treat addiction & mental health; Start up virtual health clinics in US & Canada; Professor at University of Denver; Clinical expert in addiction, mental health, and trauma.

Laura Vincent

REGISTERED RECOVERY COACH

Passionate about empowering clients to change their relationship with alcohol and build a better quality of life. Experienced helping with addiction, trauma, and mood disorders.

Maricela Ramos

REGISTERED RECOVERY COACH

Dedicated to collaborating with members in utilizing new strategies, and their experience with co-occurring disorders, to achieve their desired relationship with alcohol.

Adam Lane

REGISTERED RECOVERY COACH

Counselor with 12 years of experience in substance use disorders and mental health. Experienced in both inpatient and outpatient settings within a variety of contexts, including the military, correctional institutions, private residential settings, and drug courts.

Brenda Lewis

REGISTERED RECOVERY COACH

Substance abuse counselor with over 6 years of experience, and a background in nonprofit, community-based services. Committed to fighting addiction from a holistic and harm reduction standpoint.

Nikki Stern

ENROLLMENT COUNSELOR & REGISTERED RECOVERY COACH

9 years coaching experience. Passionate about supporting people on their path of growth. Psychology degree and background in program development for homeless services, functional medicine, nutrition, yoga, and personal training.

Marcela Huckaby

ENROLLMENT COUNSELOR

Passionate about building connections with people and supporting them on their growth journey. Background in trauma recovery, and 5 years in the health and wellness field.

Sam Xu

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

Enthusiast in building scalable real-time systems. Backend developer for athenaText and Epocrates. Over a decade of experience working with healthcare professionals.

Katie Lain Goyatton

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Advocate for pharmacotherapy as an empowering way to overcome alcohol dependence. Background in marketing, media and community building efforts. Personal experience with overcoming alcohol dependence using pharmacotherapy.

Lauren Akins

DIRECTOR OF RECRUITMENT

10 years experience in tech and healthcare startups. Passionate about companies that blaze new paths and create new solutions. Dedicated to building teams that help drive that innovation, and supporting candidates on a human level.

Julien Stainback

CUSTOMER CARE/MEDICAL ASSISTANT

Pre-med student with a bachelor’s in psychology, currently studying under Dr. John Mendelson. Dedicated to maximizing quality of care for patients, and supporting the Ria team through research and development.

Bruce Hodges

SOCIAL MEDIA

New York-based professional writer, editor, and fundraising consultant, with over three decades of experience in print and online text, public relations, and social media.

Warren Bickel

 PhD.

ADVISOR

Director, Addiction Recovery Research Center, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute; past Wilbur Mills Professor of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Prevention, Department of Psychiatry, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Charles O’Brien

 MD. PhD.

ADVISOR

Addiction and Mental Health Appel Professor and Vice Chair Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, U. Pennsylvania; Naltrexone developer; chair DSM-V committee for diagnosis of mental illness and addiction.

Ivan Diamond

MD. PhD.

ADVISOR

Neurology of Alcohol Addiction CSO Amygdala Neurosciences; Senior Advisor, Gilead; Prof. and Vice Chair Neurology, Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology (Emeritus), UCSF; Founding Director, Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center for neuroscience of alcohol on the human brain.