Nominees for Board of Directors Election 2025

President - Elect Nominee:

Patricia Robinson, Ph.D., Mountainview Consulting Group, LLC (USA)

Patricia J. Robinson, Ph.D., (or Patti) is a international expert in behavioral health integration. She is co-founder of Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or “FACT” and the Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) model. The PCBH model is a group of strategies that provide a platform for delivery of FACT. Over the past 7 years, the country of New Zealand has scaled up and now offers FACT in primary care clinics to most of its citizens. Her passion is to make the world a better place, and she plans to change primary care by asking the people who use primary care to speak to their doctor about integrated care (http://SpeaktoYourDoctor.com). With Jeff Reiter, she has co-authored 3 editions of Behavioral Consultation in Primary Care: A Guide to Integrating Services. As the president of Mountainview Consulting Group, Patti has trained many trainers and thousands of healthcare team members (http://Mtnviewconsulting.com).

Statement: I want to be of service to the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science, and, after being a member since its inception, I finally have time to support its work with greater focus and intention. If elected president, I hope is to support unity and clarity in action among the diverse group of 9,000 ACBS members. People that know me would describe me as a quiet worker capable of diligence and persistence and always leading with respect.

Member at Large Nominees:

Sarah Pegrum, Ph.D., Pegrum Therapy & Training (Canada)

Dr. Sarah Pegrum is a psychologist, author and ACT Peer-Reviewed Trainer based in Newfoundland, Canada. She is currently the co-president of the Women in ACBS SIG, past president of the Atlantic Canada Chapter, a member of the PRT training committee, and a member of the Diversity Equity and Inclusion SIG. Dr. Sarah Pegrum works with people with a wide range of struggles and specializes in body image, weight stigma and eating disorders. She is also passionate about supervision and training and has been delivering training at local, national, and international levels on topics related to acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), clinician supervision, and body image concerns for over 10 years. Her practice and training are deeply rooted in values of authenticity, safety, accessibility, compassion, curiosity, connection, and humour.

Statement: I have been incredibly fortunate in my career to have access to CBS training and community. The knowledge I’ve gained and the relationships I’ve built through ACBS have shaped not only my clinical work but also my personal growth, sense of purpose and belonging. Learning from others in this field has been a true gift in my own journey, and I seek to share that gift by fostering accessibility to training and the community for others. I believe in the power of creating and furthering inclusive spaces that welcome, support, and empower for both individual and collective growth.
If elected as Member-at-Large, my goal is to broaden access to training, mentorship, and resources while fostering meaningful connections within ACBS. I want to help create and nurture spaces where people feel valued, seen, and encouraged to contribute because I believe that a thriving, diverse, and connected ACBS community benefits us all.

Ralf Steinkopff, Dipl. Psych., Private Practice (Germany)

Living in Berlin (Germany). Married, two adult children. I have studied Psychology in Berlin, with a 4 years stay in Rome (Italy). Living in Italy helped me to understand how culture and language shape people, and to build different perspectives on how to live.
I became a Behavior therapist in 1993, Clinical Hypnosis 1995, Systemic therapist 1999, Psychotherapist for Children and Adolescents 1999. Psychotherapist in an Addiction Counseling Center 1993-1997, Counseling Center for Children and Families 1997-2003, Working in private practice since 1997.
I first met ACT in 2009, red the first books, got curious and dived deeply into ACT and CBS. I work as a ACT therapist since 2012, ACL Global Leader since 2016, ACT Peer Reviewed Trainer 2018, Certified FAP trainer 2024. Giving ACT Workshops since 2015, FAP Workshops since 2017, Clinical RFT Workshops since 2020, on Congresses, Psychotherapeutic Educational Instituts, Clinics and Continuing Education Centers.

Statement: One of my main focuses is working with cancer patients. Years ago I wondered how to help them build meaning after the battle of acute cancer survival. I came across to Values work in ACT, which opened a completely new world for me. I then fell in love with ACT, FAP, and our generous, open-minded community. It changed my stance as a psychotherapist, and as a private person, too. Helping people to connect to their sense of life and to other human beings is now central for me.
As a Member-at-large I want to add to the experience and perspective of crossing different types of boarders, like nations, languages, professions, institutions and help to get more interweaved connections across all these limitations. I believe that we must withstand Othering by a larger “We-ing” (as pronounced in a Prosocial Workshop for the Polish and German-speaking conference in Poznan 2022).

Member at Large (Basic Science) Nominees:

Lauren M. Borges, Ph.D., VA Rocky Mountain MIRECC for Suicide Prevention / University of Colorado School of Medicine (USA)

Lauren M. Borges, Ph.D., is a clinical research psychologist and Acting Director of Training at the VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC) for suicide prevention and a consultant for the VA's Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado. Dr. Borges has been awarded multiple large grants to investigate applications of ACT for moral injury and suicidal behavior among Veterans and healthcare providers. She has published numerous peer reviewed journal articles on moral injury, ACT, and suicide prevention and provides frequent workshops at national and international conferences. She is a long-standing member of ACBS and is interested in the broad dissemination and application of CBS interventions. She is co-chair of the grants committee for ACBS, a grant reviewer for numerous organizations, an editorial board member for Journal of Traumatic Stress, and a Prosocial Facilitator graduate.

Statement: My graduate school mentor, Amy Naugle, introduced me to ACT and ACBS in 2010. She taught me how to think flexibly, considering a behavior’s function over its form to facilitate change in a person’s life. I expanded these skills under Robyn Walser’s mentorship, building ACT for Moral Injury together with our research team. In working with moral injury, I learned that living with pain rather than living in pain can be an ever-present choice. Given the current political climate at home and around the world, the choice to live an expansive life beyond what pain dictates feels far away. If elected ACBS Member-at-Large I will take these lessons from Amy, Robyn, and countless clients to build awareness of choice and community no matter the external or internal context. I will work to create a cultural context embodying safety, promoting prosocial connection across diverse groups for a community accessible to everyone.

Maria Koushiou, Ph.D., University of Nicosia (Cyprus)

Maria Koushiou, PhD, is a licensed School and Clinical Psychologist in Cyprus and an Assistant Professor at the University of Nicosia. Her research focuses on children and youth, exploring body image and maladaptive eating behaviors, early development in children with congenital heart disease, and psychological flexibility in unaccompanied refugee minors (UMs). Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to the development of research projects within multidisciplinary, international collaborations.
Dr. Koushiou has extensive clinical experience with youth in private and public sectors. She has provided psychological support in a refugee reception center and was one of the lead psychologists in Cyprus’s first pilot foster care program for UMs. Currently, she works at the country’s biggest private referral center for pediatric heart and endocrinology diseases, applying ACT. She also, represents Cyprus Psychologists’ Association on the Board of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity at the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations.

Statement: During my doctoral studies (completed in 2016), I had the privilege of learning and practicing along some of the experts in CBS. Since then, ACT has profoundly shaped my professional and personal journey. As a scientist-practitioner, my mission is to use CBS to alleviate human suffering and empower individuals from diverse and underprivileged backgrounds. Through my work with unaccompanied refugees, pediatric populations and those experiencing hardship, I am continually called to put these values into action.
If elected, I would be honored to work for and with the ACBS community towards: strengthening communication among members—particularly among junior members and young professionals; supporting CBS dissemination across Europe, addressing challenges faced by professionals in smaller, geographically isolated states and advancing our science to better respond to the complexity of human experience. I look forward to connecting with colleagues to enhance our collective impact.

Student Representative Nominee:

Brendan Skinner, Western Michigan University (USA)

Hello! My name is Brendan, and I’m a doctoral student in the clinical psychology program at Western Michigan University (WMU), working with Dr. Amy Naugle in the Study of Emotion and Adversity Laboratory. Since arriving at WMU, I’ve developed a strong passion for behavior analysis (and, in doing so, a newfound appreciation for my last name), and a deep respect for functional contextualism and modern behavior therapies such as ACT, Behavioral Activation, and FAP. I’m interested in psychotherapy process and outcome research for individuals facing significant life adversities, particularly grief, bereavement, and chronic or terminal illnesses. My personal experiences as an athlete have led to my current research which examines the impact of unique adversities on the health and well-being of student-athletes, with an eye on psychological flexibility as a moderating factor. Outside of school, I cherish time with my wife, her amazing family, and our friends.

Statement: Attending my first ACT Bootcamp in D.C. this past October strengthened my passion for contextual behavioral science and the ACBS community. Inspired by Dr. Miranda Morris and the Mid-Atlantic ACBS Chapter, I organized and led a taskforce to successfully establish the Michigan Chapter of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. This ties into one of my most deeply held values – to do life relationally. I desire collaboration and community with others, and as student representative, that would be one of my focal priorities. If elected, I would work to bring others in, amplify student voices, and foster a supportive atmosphere for those that wish to engage in the ACBS community. I want to work alongside others to help humans flourish through research, practice, and service grounded in contextual behavioral science.

ACBS Members can vote here: https://contextualscience.org/2025_board_election_ballot

Vote Now!

The polls close on Friday, March 14, 2025 at midnight (based on your local time zone).