Advisory Board

Debbie Harpster moved to Southern Nevada in 2003, when she was fortunate enough to serve as Program Director of the Nevada chapter of Prevent Child Abuse America (PCA) to bring awareness and prevention of victimization to children throughout the state for five years. Today, Debbie volunteers as PCA NV advisory board chairperson and continues to serve as an advocate for children and their families. She brings strong relationship building, fund development and program administration experience acquired over the past 15 years of working in the local nonprofit sector. She worked at various Clark County nonprofit organizations providing diversity training and anti-bullying programs to CCSD students and homelessness prevention programs to those in need.

She also serves on the Board of Acelero Learning Clark County, and volunteers with Baby’s Bounty and Spread the Word Nevada. She is married with three adult stepsons. Her role as aunt to 3 nieces and 1 nephew is her most prized job and the reason why she continues the work she started 15 years ago.

Shawn Gerstenberger, Ph.D., is the dean of the School of Public Health. His research focuses on childhood lead poisoning prevention and the impact of the built environment on human health. He is the founder of the Nevada Healthy Homes Partnership and has multiple collaborative grants with key community partners such as the Southern Nevada Health District, City of Henderson and the Nevada State Health Division. He has received extensive grants from agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Environmental Protection Agency to support his work.

Tabitha Johnson is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and licensed clinical alcohol and drug abuse counselor in Nevada. Her work is often heavily focused on the impact of trauma on individuals, couples and families. She has worked with various organizations in the community in both leadership and clinical roles. She has also served on the Commission on Behavioral Health. She currently has a small private practice and works full-time for as a Behavioral Health Manager at Southern Nevada Community Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center. As a mother of two, she is passionate about advocating for children and families in the state of Nevada.

Angela Rose is a Community Youth and Development Officer with the City of Las Vegas working to provide high quality early education experiences to the most vulnerable children and families in our community. As a native Nevadan, Angela has been a child advocate for over 20 years with experiences in community youth camps and recreation, high school ministry service and youth mentorship. Her passion for early education started in 2008 as a Recreation Program Director where she implemented high quality initiatives in conjunction with State of Nevada Child Care Licensing Bureau. It was in this role that she realized value of quality early learning and the disparity and lack of access to high quality programs in Nevada. Angela has worked for several years in non-profit program management and has been instrumental in administering Federal and State early education grants in partnership with the Nevada Department of Education. In addition to her program experience, Angela has expertise with family and community outreach.

Dina Bailey is the Pediatric Trauma Program Coordinator for University Medical Center of Southern Nevada. She continued her education from LPN to BSN and has been a nurse for 24 years. She has specialized in critical care since 2003 specializing in Cardiovascular ICU, ER, flight nurse and Trauma ICU. Dina is currently responsible for the pediatric trauma registry, performance improvement, outreach and education at Nevada’s only designated pediatric trauma center.

Lauren Brown, Ph.D, BCBA, LBA, is an Administrative Faculty in the Nevada PBIS Technical Assistance Center, which is housed in the Nevada Center for Excellence in Disabilities (NCED) at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is a licensed behavior analyst and has worked with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and families of individuals with disabilities for over 13 years. Currently, she works on two projects that provide trainings to parents, caregivers, teachers, and other professionals in the Nevada community. The first, Healthy Home Life, is a grant funded project aimed at the prevention of child abuse and neglect. It provides workshops that focus on helping parents to build better relationships with their child and increase cooperative child behaviors in the home. The second project, Positive Behavior Supports of Nevada (PBS-NV), also provides trainings that address a number of topics such as addressing challenging behaviors, potty training, picky eating, and routines and transitions. She has served as the Secretary/Treasurer for the Nevada Association of Behavior Analysis and the President of the Nevada Association for Positive Behavior Support. She is currently the Outgoing President of the Nevada Association for Positive Behavior Support and principal investigator for the Healthy Home Life Project.