Teresa Sandner is a Certified Prevention Consultant through the Macomb County Board of Addiction Professionals. She has been teaching parenting classes for CARE of Southeastern Michigan for 30 years and is the Parent Education Program Coordinator which includes the Active Parenting and Nurturing Parenting programs and for Project Choices/FASD since 2018. She is also the coordinator for CARE's annual parenting conference.

Renee M. Orr, is a private practice behavioral therapist with children and adults. She has been providing therapeutic services to children and families for over 25 years. Having spent a good deal of her career in child welfare and residential care services, Renee has developed vast experience in addressing childhood trauma. She is passionate about FASD awareness and services being available to families impacted by this disability. Renee is also parenting two children with FASDs and works hard to endorse and support this disability through a neurodivergent lens. Renee lives in West Michigan with her husband, five children, various chickens, and two dogs.

Mindy Barela and her husband, John, live in Wayne County and are parents to five children, three with FASD.

Mindy joined the MCFARES board in 2023. She holds a Michigan teaching certificate for those with Emotional Impairments and currently works in a self-contained elementary classroom. She most recently earned her Masters in Psychology with a concentration in Child and Adolescent Development. Mindy is excited to be a part of MCFARES and help spread knowledge and awareness about FASD to the community.

Dawn is a freelance writer and mother to a teen with an FASD. She currently volunteers her time helping adults with FASDs seek diagnoses, accommodations and disability benefits. Until recently, she volunteered at local elementary schools, which made her more aware of the failure within public education settings to properly accommodate children with FASDs. One of her two primary focuses is encouraging legislative changes so that professionals can be better educated on identifying and accommodating members of this community. Her other primary focus is advocating for administrative or legislative changes that will make it easier for people with FASD to get SSDI and SSI payments. A long term dream she has for the Michigan FASD community is to help create multiple properly-accommodated live-work-play residential developments for people with FASD-specific needs.

Patrick Bross works as an IT employee in west Michigan. Patrick has an FASD, is active in the online FASD community, and has organized gaming groups to help young adults with an FASD.

Mary Allam has been active in the FASD community for many years with several neurobehavioral-based pilot projects for youth through young adults. She is interested in education reform as it relates to FASD. She officially joined the Board of Directors of MCFARES as secretary in 2023.

She holds a BS in Biology and has worked in several molecular and neurobiology research labs before starting a family in Royal Oak, MI. She plans to continue advanced education and work professionally serving communities with FASD.

April Beaton lives in Oakland County with her two young children.

April is a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in Family and Consumer Sciences focusing on early childhood development. She holds Master's Degrees in Interdisciplinary Nonprofit Administration and Homeland Security Strategy. April has worked in the nonprofit field for nearly 20 years and currently serves as a grant administrator for a local agency serving families and young children. She is a licensed foster parent, a parent educator and sits on her local library board of directors.

Emily Rusnak and her husband, Bill, live in Washtenaw County and are parents to a young adult with an FASD. Emily joined the MCFARES Board in 2016.

Emily holds a Ph.D. in communication sciences and disorders, with a primary focus on environmental risk to development and a cognate in neuroscience and cognition. She holds clinical certification in speech-language pathology and is formerly an assistant professor at Bowling Green State University and part-time instructor at Eastern Michigan University.

Emily is also the founder and project manager of the FASD Collaborative Project, has served on FASD United's Executive Council, and is also the founder of FASD Direct, a new FASD advocacy, consultation, technical assistance, and training practice.

Mary Schalk, CPC, is the Program Director for Partners in Prevention which is based in Alpena. Mary has coordinated a project on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders since 1998. The goals of the project are to prevent FASD by educating students, the general public and medical professionals serving women of childbearing age; educating professionals who interact with children and families; and provide support to families based on their individual needs. She has been fortunate to learn from many experts at various conferences, but she knows her best teachers are the parents and the individuals living with FASD.

Mary has several extended family members on the spectrum.