Our Team
Our experienced team is committed to transforming alcohol addiction treatment.
Tom Nix
CEO
Advisor, growth consultant, CEO; Positioning, Go to market, Marketing & Sales Operations, M&A, and Analytics. CEO with successful exits.
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.
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.
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.
Heather Browning
VP OF PRODUCT
Product leader using cognitive psychology and behavioral economics to improve digital health interventions. Startup veteran on strategic initiatives around teams structure, user models, and data-driven design frameworks.
Sara Miller
REGISTERED RECOVERY COACH
Dedicated to supporting people on their own personal path in recovery. Professional and personal background in recovery counseling and mentoring.
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.
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.
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.
Joanna Nix
WRITER/EDITOR
Professional writer and editor with background in journalism. Reported on issues ranging from public health and the environment to criminal justice. Passion for accuracy, context, and good prose.
Advisory Board
Claudia Christian
ACTOR
ADVISOR
Founder of C Three Foundation to help raise awareness of The Sinclair Method treatment for problem drinking. Film & Television actor with over 50 films and television roles to her credit.
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.
