About the Board
Duties of the Board
President
Serves as chief executive officer of the Association, presides at all Board and Member meetings, appoints committees, approves all expenditures
Vice-president
Presides at meetings in the absence of the President, performs all duties of the President in the event they are unable to or refuses to act
Secretary
Keeps minutes and records of the Association, consults with Treasurer for reporting to state and federal government for purposes of maintaining non-profit status, keeps record of official correspondence, serves as custodian of records.
Treasurer
Cares for money accounts, is authorized to sign checks for the Association, maintains responsibility for all funds and securities, receives and gives receipt for monies due and payable, maintains adequate and correct accounts of the Association’s assets, prepares financial statements, provides documents to state and federal government for purposes of maintaining non-profit status
Meet the 2025 Board
Shaema Imam
President
Shaema Imam has her undergraduate degree in Microbiology and Immunology from McGill University, her Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of Calgary, and her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver with a concentration in Mental Health and Trauma. She has worked in the fields of homecare (Canada), community development (Bahrain and Dubai), and community mental health and recovery from substance abuse (Atlanta). She is registered as an LMSW in the State of Georgia and is currently working as a suicide prevention specialist.
Vicky Essebag
President-Elect
Marsha Wichman
Secretary
Dawn Crosswhite
Treasurer
Carol Buchholz Holland
Past President
Dr. Carol Buchholz Holland is an associate professor, school counseling coordinator, and CACREP liaison in the Counselor Education graduate program at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, USA. She is a National Certified Counselor (NCC) and a licensed school counselor. While in graduate school, she completed training in school counseling and clinical mental health counseling. Prior to beginning her career in academia, she worked as a school counselor. Carol has presented internationally and throughout the United States on topics that pertain to the solution-focused approach, and her research interests include solution-focused applications in school settings and creative solution-focused counseling activities.
Johnny Kim
Board Member
Johnny S. Kim, Ph.D., LCSW, is a professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work. Dr. Kim received his Master’s degree in social work from Boston College, Ph.D. in social work from the University of Texas at Austin, and was a Council on Social Work Education Minority Clinical Fellow. His teaching areas include clinical social work theory and practice, solution-focused brief therapy, and school social work. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on evaluating solution-focused brief therapy, school-based interventions, meta-analysis and evidence-based practice. He has published over 50 articles in peer reviewed journals, book chapters and books. Dr. Kim is a member of the Research Committee for the Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Association and serves on the editorial board for several journals. Prior to his doctoral studies, Dr. Kim worked as a school social worker and case manager for community-based mental health agencies in Seattle.
Nate Guyton
Board Member
Nate is an LCDC and LPC-Associate (Supervised by Dr. Kelly Guidry, LPC-S) in private practice in the Greater Houston area of Texas. Nate’s passion for Solution-Focused Therapy began in his graduate program at TCU in Dr. Frank Thomas’s Helping Relationships class. Solution Focused Therapy brought a professional language and philosophy to Nate’s values of humility and servant leadership, values nurtured in his time playing Division I Football for TCU. Nate has contributed to SFBTA as a member by reviewing conference proposals, in addition to submitting his own, before being elected to the Board in the Fall of 2023. If Nate were to overhear a conversation about his work ten years from now, Nate hopes to find descriptions of a gently paced approach to conversations that promote co-construction of ideas grounded in his client’s feedback. Adaptable and compassionate, Nate will meet clients and colleagues where they are, trusting their good reasons for their positioning and respecting that the work he brings to solution-focused practice is only possible because of the giants who came before him and walk alongside him. He will demonstrate the wisdom to reflect on the words of others and the courage to change in response.
Olivia Wedel
Board Member
Dr. Olivia Wedel is a private practice owner in the Fort Worth area of north Texas and works full time as a counselor educator and Director of Clinical Mental Health Counseling Internship at University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota. She worked as an adjunct faculty member in Counseling at TCU from 2014-2024.
Olivia is a Licensed Professional Counselor-Supervisor in Texas, a National Certified Counselor (NCC), and is certified in Perinatal Mental Health (PMH-C). Olivia is experienced in solution-focused practices due to her education (M.Ed. and PhD) at TCU where she had the opportunity to meet Insoo Kim Berg and visit with her after a speaking engagement. She primarily uses solution-focused practices in counseling and finds it integrates well with her work with the perinatal population. Olivia attended her first SFBTA Conference in 2008 in Austin, Texas and has since attended multiple conferences; she’s also presented at the conferences in Boulder (2018) and Montreal (2019). She served on the Conference Committee for the event in Fort Worth in November 2024.
Olivia’s favorite title is “Mama” as she has a young son, Elijah, and loves traveling with him and her husband where they enjoy finding local coffee shops and playgrounds.
Mo Yee Lee
Board Member
Mo Yee Lee is Professor and PhD Program Director at the College of Social Work, The Ohio State University. She is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work and has served on CSWE Commission of Diversity and Social & Economic Justice & Commission on Research. Her scholarship focuses on intervention research using a solution-focused, strengths-based, systems-based, and integrative perspective in mental health treatment and in cross-cultural settings. She was Principal Investigator on research projects pertaining to Integrative Family and Systems Treatment, solution-focused brief treatment with domestic violence offenders, and use of meditation for treating female trauma survivors of interpersonal abuses who also have substance use problems. She is currently Principal Investigator of a Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training (BHWET) grant from Human Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) to prepare the next generation of mental and healthcare professionals to specialize in culturally responsive services with BIPOC and LGBTQ+ and transitional-age youth and their families. Mo Yee Lee has published “Family Therapy for Treating Trauma: An Integrative Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) Approach,” “Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit Social Work: An empirically based approach to assessment and treatment,” “Integrative Families and Systems Treatment (I-FAST): A strengths-based common factors approach,” “Culturally Competent Research: Using Ethnography as a Meta-Framework,” “Solution-Oriented Social Work: A Practice Approach to Working with Client Strengths,” and “Solution-focused treatment with domestic violence offenders: Accountability for change.” The Oxford University Press published these books in 2020, 2018, 2014, 2013, 2011, and 2003 respectively. She is the recipient of 2008 Insoo Kim Berg Award for Innovative Research and Application of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy.
