Team Bios

Life Matters' educational programs are led by doctoral level and masters level educators who are trained in psychological preparedness and disaster response techniques and who have developed trusting relationships within uniformed emergency responder and civilian communities. Our programs and services are supported by a widespread network of educated peers who include active and retired emergency responder personnel, veterans, youth, family members and those who are disabled, multi-lingual or otherwise uniquely qualified to reach isolated and/or culturally-defined communities. These trusted peers already live or work within established social and work environments and have the ability to quickly support, identify, assist and refer persons in need.

Evelyn Llewellyn, Psy.D.
Co-Founder, Executive Director; Director of Family and Youth Programs;
Doctoral Level Clinician
 Dr. Llewellyn has assisted hundreds of families in understanding and regaining emotional well-being faced with overwhelming stress, grief and anxiety. A licensed psychologist in New York State, Dr. Llewellyn is a graduate of New York University's School of Education, Health and Nursing Professions, holds postdoctoral certifications in Adult Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis from the Institute of Contemporary Psychotherapy, and has advanced training in Critical Incident Stress Management. She has worked effectively in a wide variety of settings counseling children, adolescents, families and the elderly who have experienced trauma and violent loss. She worked as the psychologist at the Little Red Schoolhouse in Greenwich Village for many years; as a staff psychologist at the Astor Child Guidance Center in the Northeast Bronx; as a Day Care and Head Start consultant in the South Bronx; and as a provider of psychological services to several geriatric residential facilities throughout the borough. While a doctoral candidate at NYU she worked for two years at St. Luke's Hospital Child and Adolescent Program and at The Door. Her doctoral thesis focused on trauma in children with specific emphasis on the loss of a parent through violence. As a noted expert in pre-incident stress and resiliency training, Dr. Llewellyn has testified before Congress, contributed to a September 11th-inspired book on lessons learned, and presented the Life Matters educational program to the German Federal Congress of Emergency and Fire Chaplaincy and Crisis Intervention in Frankfurt (May 2004). She, along with Dr. Michael Lonski, was instrumental in developing and implementing a Youth Leadership Program in Chinatown whose residents were adversely affected by September 11th its and traumatic long-lasting aftereffects.

[Back to Top]

 

Michael W. Lonski, Ph.D.
Co-Founder; Director of Education, Training and Clinical Services; Director of Program Development; Doctoral Level Clinician
 Dr. Lonski creates the innovative programs that bring educational, self-help and intervention to affected populations. He developed Life Matter's signature resiliency program, The Psychological Third Alarm, which is a program of mental health preparedness for emergency responders and family members. He also has worked with firefighting and military personnel, local and regional municipal agencies, labor unions, medical providers, financial entities and the military to advise, develop and educate their workforces in comprehensive crisis management, stress and grief-counseling programs. He was instrumental in creating a Youth Leadership outreach program in Chinatown, which was heavily affected by September 11th and whose residents continue to face linguistic and cultural barriers to the delivery of mental health services. Dr. Lonski co-founded Life Matters as an outgrowth of his personal work with uniformed and civilian emergency responders after September 11th. He has emerged from his intensive work at Ground Zero, in firehouses and at fire scenes throughout the New York metro area as a recognized authority in Critical Incident Stress Management, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and disaster response. He earned certification as a Level 1 HazMat Technician, enabling him to better understand rescue personnel on hazardous duty. A clinical psychologist licensed in the states of New York and Connecticut, Dr. Lonski holds post-doctoral certification from NYU in Adult Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis and from the Post-Graduate Center for Mental Health in Child and Adolescent Therapy and Analysis. For more than 20 years he has served as an organizational consultant and facilitator in hospital, day-treatment, private school and geriatric settings, and as counselor, coach and assessment consultant to Fortune 500 Employee Assistance Programs.

[Back to Top]

 

Kernan Manion, M.D.
Medical Specialist
 A clinical psychiatrist who has been involved in the stress management field for most of his 25-year career, Dr. Manion is certified in Adult Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He graduated from Louisiana State University Medical School in 1978, completed a year of Internal Medicine internship in Denver and then a year of practice in Emergency Medicine before entering the adult psychiatry residency program at Tufts University in Boston. He has practiced in a wide diversity of settings since 1983 and currently is the Director of Work/Life Design, a coaching and organizational consultancy he founded in 1995. Post-September 11th Dr. Manion assisted one of the major airlines in New York as well as one of the financial companies that had been located in the World Trade Center.

[Back to Top]

 

Joseph A. Boscarino, Ph.D.
Research and Statistical Consultant
 A Senior Scientist with The New York Academy of Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Boscarino is a medical epidemiologist and social psychologist with a long interest in PTSD and disaster research. He has experience in epidemiology, psychiatric research, psychometric assessment, health services research, and in survey design. Dr. Boscarino, who is a Vietnam veteran, has been involved with PTSD-related research since the late 1970s and has conducted health and medical studies for the past 30 years for a wide range of clients. He also currently teaches Clinical Research Design and Biostatistics at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. Selected research projects of his include: national physician surveys for the American Medical Association, alcoholism treatment research, national patient surveys, regional studies of HIV infection, national studies of Vietnam veterans, pharmacoeconomic research, and regional/national cardiovascular outcome studies. Recent research includes studies related to quality care and medical errors in New York, the mental health status of healthcare providers following the World Trade Center disaster (WTCD) in New York City, and extensive research related to the public health impact of the WTCD among residents in New York City.

[Back to Top]

 

Deborah Jackson
Graphics Artist and Creative Production Design
 A Salvation Army volunteer at Ground Zero, Ms. Jackson was made a Site One Supervisor in the main feeding tent and had significant interaction with families, rescuers and recovery workers. She was in the subway under the World Trade Center when the second plane hit on September 11th and subsequently lost her job as a computer graphics artist, which had the positive effect of enabling her to personally relate to victims and their life issues following the attacks. Hearing impaired, Ms. Jackson helps Life Matters to reach out to the disabled as well as to emergency responders and workers with connection to Ground Zero and their families.

[Back to Top]