Leadership Team
Meet Our Board of Directors:
Dr. Ramona Probasco
Dr. Ramona Probasco is a Marriage and Family Therapist, a Certified Domestic Violence Counselor, a Nationally Certified Counselor, and an overcomer of domestic violence. She is the author of Healing Well and Living Free from an Abusive Relationship: From Victim to Survivor to Overcomer in which she shares the proven steps one can take to authentically heal from the trauma of abuse.
Having endured 20 years of ongoing abuse from her former husband, Dr. Ramona knows first-hand how destructive an abusive relationship can be and the ripple effect it can leave in one’s life. She intimately understands how difficult it can be to leave (and leave for good) due to pressure to stay and “work it out”, lack of finances to be able to care for your children, fear of what may happen if you leave, confusion surrounding faith-based questions which leave you feeling trapped, alone, and perhaps sensing judgement from those who do not understand your situation. After struggling for many years with whether or not to “stick it out” or to let go, she has also learned the necessary and intentional steps one needs to take in order to facilitate authentic healing and permanent freedom. She teaches others who are walking or have walked this same painful path that while abuse will change us, it does not have to destroy us.
After 25 years of running her own private counseling practice, Dr. Ramona partnered with her husband, Tim Probasco, to build a company producing products they personally invented and patented with distribution domestically as well as globally. Her passion to come alongside other domestic survivors as she continues to reach all four corners of the globe through her book led them to co-found the Healing Well & Living Free Foundation as a way to give back through their company.
Dr. Ramona serves as the President of the Foundation
Tim Probasco
Tim Probasco worked for a number of years with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association before transitioning into the business world, working in sales and sales management. After earning his MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, Tim served as a Vice President of Development in the nonprofit sector, raising over $30 million for causes he believed in. Tim now works alongside his wife, Dr. Ramona Probasco, in the company they founded together.
Tim and Ramona launched the Healing Well & Living Free Foundation with the mission to serve those affected by the trauma of domestic violence, a cause close to their hearts. Through this work, they support and empower survivors of domestic violence, empowering them to heal well so they can live free.
Ami McConnell
Ami McConnell is a Nashville-based writer, editor, and publishing consultant. She formerly served as Editor-in-Chief and VP of Howard Books/Simon & Schuster. Before that she acquired and edited for HarperCollins where she helped launch a successful fiction imprint. Her editing credits include numerous New York Times bestsellers and award-winning titles. A prolific writer, McConnell collaborates with celebrities and artists of all stripes to create bestselling books. She also serves as founder and director of WriterFest, a gathering for writers of book, song, and film. She lives with her family in Franklin, Tennessee.
Dr. Ann Kania
Dr. Ann Mineo Kania is a native Californian. She graduated with honors from UC Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Science in Biopsychology. After graduation, she received her dental degree from the University of California, San Francisco, and was selected as a Regents Scholarship Fellow. Dr. Kania completed her Residency in Periodontology at Harvard School of Dental Medicine. While at Harvard, she also earned her Doctorate of Medical Science in microbiology. While at Harvard she was awarded the National Research Service award.
Dr. Kania has been a solo practicing specialist in the field of Periodontics and dental implants in San Diego’s North County since 1997. She is a leader in numerous professional study clubs and an active servant leader in her local church and community. She has a heart for those in recovery from divorce and has been a DivorceCare facilitator since 2018. She is hopefully optimistic for the future of individuals healing well and living free. She is an entrepreneur, a loyal friend, and the proud mother of two strong and compassionate women.
Jill Michelle
Jill Montes is a bio, bonus and fost-adoptive mother of nine, a wife to her best friend, a domestic violence survivor and an advocate for those escaping DV and navigating the family court system. She is a protective parent actively working with legislators to reform the family court system, to educate judges, and provide greater protections for adult and child survivors of abuse.
Jill has a BA in The Psychological & Brain Sciences, has worked as a child behavior therapist as well as an actress with the Screen Actors Guild, and for the past 15 years as a foster and adoptive parent in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties.
She is an active member of her church & community with a passion for encouraging and empowering women in crisis. Jill credits her own healing journey to her faith in God, her devotion to her children, and the years of counsel she received from Dr. Ramona Probasco.
Kathleen Russell
Kathleen Russell is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Judicial Excellence (CJE) in Marin County, California. For 18 years, the Center has been a voice for vulnerable children and a catalyst for child safety. CJE is committed to protecting child abuse and domestic violence survivors in our nation’s family courts and to fostering accountability throughout the judicial branch. Kathleen ushered the organization from a casual conversation in a San Rafael living room to a national force for child safety in family courts.
Before CJE, Kathleen spent 16 years at the helm of a boutique public affairs firm, Kathleen Russell Consulting, that she founded to help small nonprofit organizations “tell stories and move mountains.” Since the 1990s, she has worked on dozens of bills and for dozens of candidates in California, Washington state, Alaska and Montana. Kathleen received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and grew up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio.
From 2017-2022, Kathleen co-led two federal policy efforts on child safety in family courts in the United States Congress. H.Con.Res.72 passed through the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, with 86 House members co-sponsoring this historic resolution from Rep. Pete Sessions. A few years later, Kayden’s Law, or the Keeping Children Safe from Family Violence Act, was passed and signed into law by President Biden as part of the VAWA Reauthorization Act in March of 2022. Kathleen organized the first White House Briefing on the Family Court Crisis in May 2010.
Under Kathleen’s leadership, CJE launched a National Advocacy Training Series in 2021 for protective parents in 40 states across the U.S. that taught them how to introduce and pass legislation in their respective states. Kathleen also recruited Ally Cable to create a youth initiative, CJE Youth Speak, which helps young abuse survivors advocate for change. In California, Kathleen was at the forefront of numerous successful legislative campaigns, including an historic audit of the state’s only judicial oversight agency, the Commission on Judicial Performance (CJP). Creatively, Kathleen co-directed and produced the 2008 award-winning documentary Family Court Crisis: Our Children At Risk and served as the creative director and writer for the photo exhibit Family Court Crisis: Surviving A Broken System. She also produced the CJE video project, Kids of Divorce Speak Out.
Every day, Kathleen and her team honor the lives of the nearly 900 children who have been murdered by a divorcing or separating parent and the million-plus children who’ve been forced into violent homes by family court order in the United States. CJE documents and fights to expose systemic problems in family courts so that all children can grow up in safe homes with parents who nurture and protect them. Their story can be found in the 2023 policy report, Child Safety First: Preventing Child Homicides During Divorce, Separation, and Child Custody Disputes Recommendations for Reforming U.S. Family Courts.
Kristin Carver Smith
Kristin has spent the last decade helping clients across a variety of industries–including sports, entertainment & lifestyle, music, publishing, logistics and supply chain, nonprofits and for-profits–develop business strategies, communications plans and publicity campaigns that produce winning results.
Her clients have teamed up with some of the world’s most recognizable brands and organizations, taken the stage at renowned conferences and been featured on ABC’s Good Morning America, The View, NBC’s TODAY, CNN, CBS News and in the Associated Press, ESSENCE, Good Housekeeping, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, Entrepreneur, Fast Company, US News and World Report, Parade Magazine, TIME and The Washington Post, among others.
Bella Tumini
With a career shaped by creativity, entrepreneurship, and a drive for social good, Bella Tumini integrates passion with purpose in everything she does. She is a dynamic marketing leader with a deep passion for creating products and building brands. As a founding member of Suja Juice, the nation’s top Organic Cold-Pressed Juice brand, she drove marketing strategy and execution contributing to over $100 million in revenue.
Outside of her corporate achievements, Bella is deeply committed to philanthropy, having founded Nika Water and volunteering for many non-profits and community initiatives. She finds balance and focus away from the boardroom, by fueling her competitive spirit on the tennis court, exploring culinary experiences at new restaurants, or embarking on spontaneous overseas adventures.
Volunteer Team
Meet Our Incredible Volunteers:
Lisa Josphesen
Lisa Josephsen is the Prayer Support Leader at the Healing Well & Living Free Foundation. In this role, Lisa spearheads prayer for the leadership team, as well as the prayer requests received by the Foundation.
Prior to this, Lisa was an associate pastor from 1994 to 2018, where she not only oversaw the prayer elements at the church, but also taught, activated the disaster relief chaplaincy at their church, deployed to the Montecito mudslides as a DR chaplain, and did visitation and personal ministry trips to Israel.
Lisa met Founder of the Healing Well & Living Free Foundation, Dr. Ramona Probasco, through a Wednesday prayer group at Lisa’s former church. The prayer group, which Lisa joined in 1982, has morphed into a weekly Wednesday conference call where numerous prayer requests—including those from the Foundation—are lifted up. Lisa is also a part of an Israel/US prayer meeting which has continued since 2003, and she facilitates a sizable email prayer line with members that also includes the Foundation prayer team.
She believes wholly in the power of prayer and its necessity to the success of the Healing Well & Living Free Foundation. Lisa notes prayer has always been her first resort and because of the compelling needs and issues throughout her own life, approaching the Throne of Grace in her time of need became a way of life. Today, it’s her delight to connect anyone else’s need to the abundance found in God
Ted McCoig
Ted is a 20+ year agency veteran who’s had the pleasure to work with great people and on great accounts. He is an award winning designer, but his primary aim is to create arresting campaigns that help businesses reach their marketing objectives.
Ted started his career at Murray, Inc. where he developed identities for signature-label outdoor power equipment for Home Depot and bikes for Sears, Wal-Mart, and Toys R Us.
He then spent 10 years as Creative Director for agencies Alcott Routon and Alcott Marketing Science, where he developed results-generating campaigns for HSBC, Frost Bank, KinderCare Learning Centers, Regions Financial, National City Bank, NFIB, Marriott Vacation Club and Harley-Davidson Financial Services.
In 2018, Ted founded McCoig Creative, a brand identity agency. His projects of late include Washington DC-based Good Stuff Eatery, We, The Pizza, Nashville Children’s Theatre, and Lee Company.
In addition to corporate clients, Ted’s enjoyed working on numerous non-profit and pro-bono assignments including Donald Miller’s The Mentoring Project (mentoring fatherless boys) and Sowing Seeds of Hope: “The black belt of America” which served Alabama’s poorest communities.
Jamie Reeves
Jamie Reeves is a native Nashvillian with more than 30 years of experience in writing, social media, and content marketing strategy — helping companies and nonprofit organizations build their brands, tell their stories, and strengthen their communities. She began her career in Vanderbilt University’s news and public affairs office. For nearly 11 years, she served as managing editor for supplements of Corporate Board Member magazine.
Jamie is a past board member of the Nashville chapter of FemCity, a global professional women’s networking organization, as well as a past president of International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Nashville.
Additionally, she was a founding board member for Every Girl Counts, a nonprofit that offers basic life necessities and free secondary education to impoverished girls.
In 2013, Jamie traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, with Every Girl Counts founder Rene Cook to visit single mothers and their families in Kibera, one of the world’s largest slums.
Jamie has a bachelor’s degree in print journalism and sociology from Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.
