Faculty

Daniel Bryant, MSEd, LPC, CCTP is CHC’s Clinical Director of Substance Use Disorder Services and an Associate Faculty member at the Weitzman Institute. Mr. Bryant also serves as CHC’s Behavioral Health Quality Improvement Chair and is a member of the agency’s Performance Improvement Committee. Mr. Bryant focuses on treating trauma and substance use disorders and has leverage his clinical areas of expertise into research in Adverse Childhood Experiences and their intersection with substance use disorders, depression and suicidality, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Bryant is co-author of a chapter on ACEs and the COVID-19 Pandemic is the upcoming edited volume Handbook of Adverse Childhood Experiences: A Framework for Collaborative Health Promotion. Mr. Bryant has an extensive portfolio of training and education at local and national conferences as well as continuing education for internal and external partners. He has provided education on the opioid crisis, harm reduction, motivational interviewing, addiction treatment, Adverse Childhood Experiences, chronic pain, trauma and PTSD, and developed the Weitzman Institute’s four part Addiction 101 curriculum. He currently serves as a faculty member on the Weitzman ECHO Substance Use Health and Complex Care Nursing ECHO and has been faculty on the joint National Council for Mental Well Being and Weitzman Institute Alcohol & Smoking ECHO.

Carolyn Rekerdres, MD is a native Texan with over 20 years of experience providing psychiatric treatment to individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. She graduated cum laude in philosophy from the University of Dallas, later earned her MD from UTMB in Galveston, TX and then completed her residency training in Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Rekerdres has clinical experience in emergency psychiatry, inpatient psychiatry, outpatient psychiatry, Housing First programs, medication assisted treatments, assisted outpatient treatment and first episode psychosis programs. Her administrative experience includes being the former Medical Director of Child and Family Guidance Center in Dallas and former Chair of the Psychiatric Leadership Advisory Group for the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority. Currently, she is the Associate Medical Director for Pecan Valley Center in Texas. Dr. Rekerdres sits on the Medical Director Institute for the National Council for Mental Wellness. 

Jamie Stevens, PMHNP, DNP, CARN-AP is the Chief Behavioral Health Officer at Cabarrus Rowan Community Health Centers, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in the Greater Charlotte, NC, area. Mr. Stevens received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1995. He received his Master of Science in Nursing in 2010 and a Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2021 from Fairfield University. Before becoming an Advanced Practice Provider (APP), he had 15 years of experience as a Registered Nurse working in inpatient, outpatient, research, and home and community settings, primarily in Behavioral Health Care. Jamie has many years of professional practice as a Board Certified Adult Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner.

Carlos Tirado, MPH, MD is board certified in general and addiction psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and addiction medicine by the American Board of Addiction Medicine. Dr. Tirado attended medical school at The University of Texas Houston Health Science Center and completed his residency in general psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Dr. Tirado received specialty training in addiction psychiatry and research at the internationally prestigious Center for Studies on Addiction at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Tirado is trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Motivational Interviewing.

Jack Todd Wahrenberger, MD, MPH is a Family Practice physician serving as Chief Medical Officer at Pittsburgh Mercy Health System in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After earning his medical degree and Master of Public Health from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, he co-founded the North Side Christian Health Center in 1994—a Federally Qualified Health Center that provides high-quality care to uninsured and underserved individuals in Pittsburgh’s inner city—where he served as Medical Director until 2011. In 2012, Dr. Wahrenberger joined Pittsburgh Mercy to develop a fully integrated primary care clinic under SAMHSA’s Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration (PBHCI) grant program. This clinic now serves as a comprehensive medical and mental health home for more than 5,000 individuals. Since 2017, he has led the organization as Chief Medical Officer, overseeing a multidisciplinary clinical team of 15 psychiatrists, 8 CRNPs, and 5 primary care providers. Dr. Wahrenberger also serves on the Medical Director Institute at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing and contributes as a primary care expert on the Pennsylvania Behavioral Health Council. His areas of expertise include primary care, integration, collaborative care, CCBHC/FQHC operations, physician leadership, street medicine, and medical respite.

Weitzman Institute Disclosure Statement

It is the policy of the Weitzman Institute to ensure that Continuing Education (CE) activities are independent and free of commercial bias. To ensure educational content is objective, balanced, and guarantee content presented is in the best interest of its learners' and the public, the Weitzman Institute requires that everyone in a position to control educational content disclose all financial relationships with ineligible companies within the prior 24 months. An ineligible company is one whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, re-selling or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients. Examples can be found at accme.org.

Faculty participating in a Weitzman Institute-sponsored activity must disclose to the planning committee and audience all financial or other relationship(s) with ineligible companies.