Experts Guide

Ana Liza Cisneros-Howard is a behavioral health therapist based in Albemarle. In addition to providing individual therapy for children, teens and adults, she facilitates three therapeutic adult groups and co-facilitates one Dialectical Behavior Therapy group for adults weekly.

During the school year, she provides school-based therapy in several schools in Stanly County several mornings per week.

She began her career in mental health at Monarch in 2009 after earning a Masters of Social Work from the University of North Carolina. Cisneros-Howard is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and is currently receiving supervision to become a Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist (LCAS).
Cisneros-Howard became a Registered Play Therapist (RPT) in 2014, an area focused on treating children who experience trauma through play therapy. She is also trained to work with adults who have experienced trauma. Cisneros-Howard has worked on an Intensive In-Home Team and a Day Treatment Team both focused on children and their families.

Cisneros-Howard lives in Charlotte with her husband and their Maltese dog named London.

Bill Garrot is a behavioral health therapist and has worked in the industry for 25 years with almost a decade of experience in crisis services.

He has served as a crisis services supervisor and hospital liaison and has spent time as an outpatient therapist providing individual, group, and family therapy to latency age children, adolescents and adults. Additionally, he is a certified forensic screener, who has worked with local law enforcement to evaluate people’s capacity to proceed to trial.

He is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), has extensive experience in mental health crisis services and earned both an undergraduate and master’s degrees from Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Karen S. Holst is a licensed therapist that specializes in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness meditation.

She has experience working with a variety of populations in both an inpatient and outpatient setting, short and long-term treatment with the SPMI population, as well as working with children and adolescents in an alternative school/day treatment setting.

Holst has participated in the seven-day Mind/Body Medicine training under the direction of Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., and Saki Santorelli, Ed.D., and attended the nine-day Intensive Residential Practicum in MBSR through the Center for Mindfulness. She completed the eight-week MBSR course through Duke Integrative Medicine as well as studied MBSR under the guidance of Certified Mindfulness Teacher, Lindsay Bridges, MD. Holst has a Doctorate degree in Human Services Administration.

Jude Johnson is a licensed therapist that specializes in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness meditation.

Since 2011, he has provided mindfulness trainings to mental health professionals, schools, and businesses interested in improving his/her well-being, and has taught Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) since 2015.

He completed specialized training on Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through the Center for Mindfulness at UMass Medical School. Johnson reaches even more people through his holistic health service A Keen Mind, which offers a range of programs and tools designed to help reduce stress and cultivate mindfulness in daily life.

Amanda Matthews is a psychologist for Monarch actively supporting, educating, and empowering individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

She has presented at numerous professional conferences, most recently including both the 2014 Spring and Fall North Carolina Training, Instruction, Development, and Education (NC TIDE) Conferences, the 2013 National Adolescent Perpetration Network (NAPN) International Conference, and the 2012 Spring North Carolina Juvenile Services Association (NCJSA) Conference.

Matthews graduated Summa Cum Laude from Dartmouth College, with a B.S., with Honors, in Psychological and Brain Sciences. She received her M.A. in Counseling Psychology at the University of Notre Dame.

She is also a board member of the North Carolina Association for the Management and Treatment of Sexual Offenders (NCAMTSO).

Sarah O’Horo-Nash MSW, LCSW is a Practice Administrator for Monarch’s Lexington office, which includes managing outpatient services for individual, group and psychiatric services along with peer support.

O’Horo-Nash earned her Masters of Social Work from Winthrop University in 2010. She joined the Monarch team that same year as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) bringing experience as an intensive in-home team leader providing services to children and adolescents at risk of out-of-home placement. She has also worked as an outpatient therapist and day treatment therapist. Prior to her current role, she was the supervisor for three intensive in-home teams; an in-home team, peer support and outpatient services.

She is rostered as a Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) clinician through the North Carolina Child Treatment program. She is also certified to provide treatment and assessments to children and adolescents with concerns of harmful sexual behavior.

Brandon Tankersley is the Director of Peer Services for Monarch. He specializes in Evidence-Based Practices such as the Wellness Recovery Action Plan.

He supervises Monarch’s Peer Support Specialists in five branches of services; basic Peer Support, Tenancy Support, Individual Placement Support (IPS), Transitional Care Team (TCT) and Assertive Community Treatment Team (ACTT). These programs help people in various stages of recovery identify and reach their goals.

Tankersley has worked in North Carolina as a Special Education teacher, and previously in Ohio as a Software Engineer. In 1991, Brandon sustained life threatening injuries and was in a coma for six weeks after a car accident involving a drunk driver. His family was informed by doctors that he would likely be in a “vegetative state for life”. After ongoing prayers, great medical attention, and years of continuous, intensive therapy, Tankersley has overcome and continues to beat the odds that were stacked against him.

He graduated from Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Information Technology courtesy of a scholarship from the university’s Office of Disability Service. He earned a Masters in Special Education with a concentration on Vocational Rehabilitation from the University of Cincinnati, also on scholarship.

Tankersley is active with his church, has volunteered countless hours, and has spoken to many schools, organizations, and community groups about working hard, being focused on doing your best, the dangers of drinking and driving, and not giving up in the face of adversity. Brandon’s story has been documented numerous times, and he has received several scholarships and awards since his recovery.
In 2014, Tankersley was appointed by North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory to be a board member on the North Carolina Brain Injury Advisory Council (BIAC). There, he works with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services to help contribute towards the definition of brain injury, promoting inter-agency coordination of efforts, studying the needs of persons with brain injuries, coordination of prevention efforts, and make recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Tankersley is also a contributing board member to The North Carolina State Consumer & Family Advisory Committee, The North Carolina Stakeholder Engagement group, and The North Carolina Integrated Care Steering Committee.

Mary Beth Young is the Assertive Community Treatment Team Lead (ACTT) for Davidson and Rowan counties, which involves supervising a team of multi-disciplinary professionals who support individuals with severe and persistent mental illness in their homes and in the community.

Young worked for Monarch from 2007 to 2010 as a Clinical Program Manager and then a therapist. In 2008, Monarch honored her with the Eula B. Cranford Professional of the Year Award. She returned to Monarch in 2016 to serve in her current role.

For the first half of her career, she worked with children and adolescents who experienced trauma and displayed severe emotional and behavioral issues. Since then, she has focused on being an administrator and working with individuals who have complex clinical issues. Her volunteer experience includes training caregivers in Senegal, Ukraine, and Haiti on how to work with young people who have experienced trauma.

Young’s areas of expertise include trauma, working with individuals who demonstrate complex clinical issues, and serving as an administrator. She has written two chapters published in the book “Healing for Hurting Hearts: A Handbook for Counseling Children and Youth in Crisis”; one titled Basic Counseling Skills and the other Healing Through Focused Play.

Young earned a Masters of Social Work (MSW) from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) for 21 years. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends.