Denise Acker

Denise has spent her career advocating for the rights of trauma survivors to receive the physical, social and emotional supports required to heal. She has worked in partnership with Oregon Health Authority, Synergy Health Consulting, Oasis Center of Rogue Valley, and Lines for Life to bring project management to a variety of cross-sector behavioral health and substance use prevention and treatment initiatives. In partnership with Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and Synergy Health Consulting, Denise convened medical, municipal, and community leadership and compiled statewide best practices for developing drug overdose task forces, implementing emergency response strategies, and connecting to statewide harm reduction and prevention resources. With this invaluable information, she drafted the OHA funded Drug Overdose Outbreak Plan Guidebook to assist Oregon counties in developing interagency emergency response plans that intercept and prevent drug overdoses.

In partnership with Lines for Life, Denise conducted focus groups for special populations experiencing the highest rates of suicidality where the insights from participants will inform the development of OHA’s Adult Suicide Intervention and Prevention Plan. Denise conducted research and interviews to develop a multidisciplinary team workflow manual in partnership with the Oasis Center of Rogue Valley who is providing integrated primary care, Medication for Addiction Treatment (MAT), and coordination between substance use disorder treatment services, community justice, child welfare and self-sufficiency services for mothers, their children and families. In partnership with Synergy Health Consulting, Denise also developed an integrated behavioral health process manual for Tillamook County Community Health Centers. Denise comes to the work of healing trauma through building resource networks with passion and intensity that is rooted in her lived experiences.