Charleen began at MAPS as a volunteer in 2017 and became Rick’s sidekick in 2019, supporting his day-to-day operations and global engagements.
She grew up deeply impacted by intergenerational trauma, substance use, and incarceration. These experiences sparked a lifelong interest in how people navigate suffering, systems, recovery, resilience, and transformation at both individual and collective levels.
Those influences have taken her to places she never imagined, from classrooms with adults in custody to assisting elders in bringing Indigenous-led ceremonies and celebrations into prison yards across Oregon. They’ve also carried her internationally, speaking in South Africa, meeting with behavioral health physicians in Abu Dhabi, engaging in policy discussions with Icelandic ministers, contributing to Nordic peer-support initiatives, and participating in an interdisciplinary Antarctic convening exploring mental healthcare, emerging technologies, and psychedelic research.
She holds an M.S. in psychology with a focus on translational neuroscience and program development, and a B.S. in planning, public policy, and management, both from the University of Oregon, where she was a first-generation student and recipient of the Ford ReStart and Diversity Excellence Scholarships.
Guided by both lived and professional experience, her approach reflects MAPS’ principles of Healing for All, Be the Bridge, and See Past the Paradox, with a commitment to expanding access to healing, especially in spaces that require compassion for complexity, connection across difference, and a willingness to hold contradiction.