Our MI Training Team
Kevin Simmons, PhD - MI Trainer
Kevin Simmons, trainer for the Oregon Motivational Interviewing project with the Native Center for Behavioral Health, is an enrolled member with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and a descendent of the Muckleshoot tribe. Kevin has several years of experience as an advocate for programs, services, and communities that strengthen tribal families in a number of areas. He is also a PhD student at the University of Oregon with research interests in culturally based pedagogy, adaptations of evidence based practices, and improving outcomes for American Indian/Alaskan Native people, families, and communities. As a father of 5 children, Kevin believes his greatest achievements are centered on family (tilixam) life.
Kathyleen M. Tomlin PhD, LPC, LMHC, CADC III - MI Lead Trainer
Since 1974, Dr. Tomlin has been in the addictions and mental health treatment and prevention field as a counselor, administrator, educator, and consultant. Now semi-retired, Dr. Tomlin is committed to sharing her experiences and knowledge within American Indian/Alaska Native peoples and communities. Her career has focused on the development of supervision and training practices to support the professional development of evidenced based practices, while considering the cultural context of these practices. One of those best practices is the teaching, and supervision of Motivational Interviewing. She is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, where her mother spent her childhood. On her father’s side, she is Irish American from county Mayo in Ireland. Her family has many roots in the NW, with relatives from the southern Willamette Valley to Seattle.
Christine Kamps, Muscogee Creek
Child Welfare Senior Policy Analyst, Tribal Liasion
Christine is an enrolled member of the Muscogee Creek Nation and is from Amarillo, Texas. Christine has her master’s degree in forensic psychology and has spent her career in social services. She began her employment with the Oregon Department of Human Services in 2007. Her career has been marked by an 18-year focus on the Indian Child Welfare Act. Christine recently accepted a rotation as a Child Welfare Senior Policy Analyst, Tribal Liaison, where she is continuing her work with Tribes while guiding ODHS initiatives that prevent children from coming into care, preserve family unity, and foster stronger families for future generations.
Part of Christine’s work has been identifying and supporting evidence-based practices that are supported by Tribal communities, including observing and learning Motivational Interviewing, Breathing Life into Helping Relationships. Christine was first introduced to Motivational Interviewing in graduate school in 2005 and has noted significant adaptation and improvement in the way the material is being shared with Tribal communities vs. the way she was exposed to MI in graduate school.
Although she is not a direct practitioner, she has seen the benefits of MI and how it can be utilized in Tribal communities and her own work. Christine is excited to continue this work and learn how she can best support MI in Tribal communities.