The Talented Team

Fawn Preston our Founder and visionary, has been in behavioral health since 1998. She loves what she does and it shows! She's traveled all over the nation helping people and organizations offer truly trauma-informed approaches to service delivery and crisis intervention. Fawn has helped thousands of people in recovery revamp and improve their lives through advocacy, support, workforce development, and multiple pathways to wellness. Fawn is a national facilitator of eCPR (Emotional CPR), an organizational trainer in IPS (Intentional Peer Support), and is certified in WRAP (Wellness Recovery Action Plans), PATH (Personal Action Towards Health), SOAR (Social Security Outreach Access and Recovery), Crisis Intervention, and Trauma-Informed Care. 

Fawn assisted in the development of the Trauma InformedTrauma-Informed Care curriculum for Network 180 Kent County Behavioral Health in Grand Rapids, Michigan during the MI/SUD integration; the integration of mental health and substance use services federally. She has also developed and delivered other powerful curricula that promote peer-oriented systems. She has over a decade of experience in grant writing, obtaining funds that enhance services and improve the quality of the systems we use. She specializes in relationship building, workforce development, trauma-informed care, cultural humility, inclusive practices, as well as holistic options to wellness and food as medicine. 

Fawn believes recovery is not only possible it is PROBABLE, and sometimes all you need to succeed is someone to believe in you; when you are having a really hard time believing in yourself. She loves making new connections in the community and collaborating on how she may bring more information and AWARE to you. Feel free to say hello!

"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." 

-Quote from The Lorax Photo credit: Kerri Rueda Photography

  Angel Prater is our dynamic Co-Founder, Master Trainer, and consultant!  The previous Executive Director for FolkTime, she is a Certified National Intentional Peer Support (IPS) Trainer and was named Oregon’s IPS Trainer of Trainers. She sits on various local, state, and national boards, committees, workgroups, and legislative action teams to promote the voices of those being served by our systems of care.  

Angel has been involved in systems change since she began her wellness journey in 1996. Bringing trauma-informed care and practice to the forefront of our social services, criminal justice systems, and behavioral health services across our nation. Providing training and technical assistance, program development, and wellness opportunities to communities by building bridges across all systems to address social determinants of health across the nation.

Angel believes in advocating for voice, choice, self-determination, and self-actualization! Nothing About Us Without Us! Together we can make a better tomorrow for all! 

In her personal life, Angel enjoys singing and dancing, as well as riding motorcycles, sky diving, socializing, and most of all, spending time with her family. She is a mother of two beautiful daughters and has three beautiful grandchildren.  Angel says, “You’re in recovery when you say you are”! 

She believes wellness is a lifelong journey and every day is a new day for self-discovery, learning, and growing to be the best version of ourselves! If you can see it, you can be it and you WILL achieve it! Balance of Mind/Body/Spirit is key

Since July 5, 1996, Angel has shared her experience, strength, and hope without shame or guilt so that maybe it may inspire someone else to share theirs and help others. As the famous movie says, let’s “Pay it forward". 

 Our mission to transform organizations by implementing a TraumaAWARE approach will change the delivery of services from an institutional perspective and eliminate barriers to access for those in need. Beyond that, we intend to change the experience of accessing care and services such that resources are more efficiently allocated to meet the specific needs of our individuals and communities.

My lived experience has shaped the person I am becoming. The places I have been, the work that I do, and, most importantly. the people I have encountered along the way, have helped to hone my vocation as a family and addiction medicine physician. My work in mental wellness and substance use is rooted in trauma awareness and focused on harm reduction. In practice, I strive to create a safe space that allows people's stories to unfold, drawing connections between mutual truths and reflecting on the dynamics of modern life that impact our health as individuals and communities. 

Despite endless expansion on the frontiers of science and medicine, I believe that human relationships are still at the core of a collaborative healing process and that these relationships hold the key to sustainable wellness. Join us as we seek to redefine key wellness constructs including our trauma experiences and other social determinants of health, mental health, and substance use to better serve the most vulnerable among us and to promote better health outcomes for all!