Deborah is a small business owner and single mom, who has been in recovery from addiction to methamphetamine since 2005. A native of rural south central Iowa, she promotes positive community engagement by empowering people through humanitarian and environmental activism. Deborah spends her free time traveling, creating art, meditating, learning, and mentoring others.

Chris Buresh, M.D. is proud to serve as the Medical Director for the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition.  The medical director he is charged with the safe and responsible distribution and use of medications as well as for overseeing medical-related protocols and ensuring accountability with pharmaceuticals. Chris has training in public health, pediatrics, and emergency medicine. Through his work in these fields, he has seen and worked through some of the impacts that drug use has on individuals, families, and communities.  Chris has been involved with the founding or expansion of 3 other health related not-for-profit organizations in Iowa.  He and his wife have 4 children and are doing their best to raise them with a zeal for social justice.

Nicole Novak, Ph.D., MSc, is an outreach team leader and joined IHRC’s board of directors in 2017. She is passionate about health equity in Iowa and believes in grassroots action to make it easier for Iowans to care for themselves, their families, and their communities. Prior to returning to her home state of Iowa she was a friend and ally to Camp Take Notice, a democratically self-governing community of people experiencing homelessness in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was also a resident volunteer at Mercy House, a house of hospitality and intentional community affiliated with Camp Take Notice. She earned MSc degrees in Medical Anthropology and Global Health as a Rhodes Scholar at the University of Oxford, and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Michigan. Nicole conducts epidemiologic and community-engaged research on a number of topics related to health and social justice and currently works as a postdoctoral scholar in the University of Iowa College of Public Health. She lives in Iowa City with her husband, Ethan, and IHRC outreach sidekick, Ursa.

Jeana Hoeninghausen is human resources professional, mother of three, and a native of small town northern Michigan. She assists with the development of IHRC’s peer-based outreach program and provides guidance and support related to the organization’s growth. A natural nurturer, Jeana has worked as a medical assistant and studied nursing at the University of Michigan. As a former teen mother, she believes in the importance of building community networks of support and resiliency. Jeana is a former opiate enthusiast and passionate advocate for expanding access to naloxone. She lives in Cedar Rapids with her partner, children, and dog, and tinkers around with motorcycles in her spare time.

Liv Carrow joined the Board of Directors in February 2018. Liv came to Iowa in 2015 from Upstate New York, and began studying toward a Masters in Social Work from the University of Iowa in 2017. She graduated fro Bard College in 2006, moved to New York City and served for two years as a social-enterprise business manager for Housing Works Inc., a radical, comprehensive harm reduction nonprofit providing a full assortment of services for individuals living with HIV and homelessness. She returned to upstate New York in 2009 and managed operations of another social enterprise business funding the nonprofit educational farm and school Hawthorne Valley Farm. After a rough patch in her own journey with substances and the loss of several close friends to heroin overdose she became more committed to working for change in the way we treat substance use in our culture. As a social worker, she intends to work to address the systemic factors that maintain the status quo of ineffectual treatment methods, reduce barriers to accessing effective, evidence-informed treatment, and working to implement and develop new systems and paradigms of recovery which are compatible with the harm reduction model of care. She is also committed to addressing the stigma of drug use and recovery and help people find ways to share their experiences without shame. Her work is inspired and informed by a strong faith in the wisdom and ability of people to care for themselves and their communities, the power and healing potential of nature and plant medicine, and by the belief that another world is possible and that systems which are built by regular people can be changed by regular people. Liv has more than 15 years of experience as a professional Tarot reader and teacher. She has also been trained as a Hospice volunteer and as a Level 1 Death Doula. She has been a performing and recording musician and songwriter for over a decade, has recorded three solo albums and toured all over the US, Canada and Europe. Her hobbies include researching and making herbal medicines, collecting records, road trips, pulling over for flea markets, and spending time at home in the Quad Cities with her friends and puppy Roxy and cats Judy and Nori.

Sarah Ziegenhorn was the Executive Director and Founder of the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition (IHRC). Sarah has worked with people who use drugs for nearly a decade, including with the Washington, D.C. syringe services program HIPS. Before founding IHRC, she was the Special Assistant to the President and Research Associate with the Washington, D.C. health policy think tank, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (now the National Academy of Medicine). Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College in Geography, Biology, and Community Health. She is currently an M.D. candidate at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where her research interests include ethnography and the intersection of women’s health and the war on drugs. Sarah is the recipient of the 2017 United States Public Health Service “Excellence in Public Health” award and the 2018 City of Iowa City Ken Cmiel Human Rights Award. She is a member of the state of Iowa HIV and Hepatitis Community Planning Group and the Iowa Dept. of Public Health’s Health Initiative for People Who Inject Drugs. Sarah is a highly sought after public speaker whose work has been featured on Vice News on HBO, Splinter, and Iowa Public Radio, among others. She is most proud of IHRC’s current campaign to legalize syringe service programs in Iowa, credit with decreasing new hepatitis C infections in Iowa by 18% between 2016 and 2017, and establishment of the largest evidence-based overdose prevention and naloxone distribution program in the state. Sarah is a native Iowan, growing up on a family farm near the Mississippi River and in Iowa City. She is a yoga teacher (200-RYT) and lives in Iowa City with her dog, Callie.

Sarah Ziegenhorn is the Executive Director and Founder of the Iowa Harm Reduction Coalition (IHRC). Sarah has worked with people who use drugs for nearly a decade, including with the Washington, D.C. syringe services program HIPS. Before founding IHRC, she was the Special Assistant to the President and Research Associate with the Washington, D.C. health policy think tank, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (now the National Academy of Medicine). Sarah earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Macalester College in Geography, Biology, and Community Health. She is currently an M.D. candidate at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where her research interests include ethnography and the intersection of women’s health and the war on drugs. Sarah is the recipient of the 2017 United States Public Health Service “Excellence in Public Health” award and the 2018 City of Iowa City Ken Cmiel Human Rights Award. She is a member of the state of Iowa HIV and Hepatitis Community Planning Group and the Iowa Dept. of Public Health’s Health Initiative for People Who Inject Drugs. Sarah is a highly sought after public speaker whose work has been featured on Vice News on HBO, Splinter, and Iowa Public Radio, among others. She is most proud of IHRC’s current campaign to legalize syringe service programs in Iowa, credit with decreasing new hepatitis C infections in Iowa by 18% between 2016 and 2017, and establishment of the largest evidence-based overdose prevention and naloxone distribution program in the state. Sarah is a native Iowan, growing up on a family farm near the Mississippi River and in Iowa City. She is a yoga teacher (200-RYT) and lives in Iowa City with her dog, Callie.

Kent Hoskinson was born in Iowa, but spent much of adulthood living in south Florida. He has dealt with a substance use disorder most of his life, and has experienced firsthand all of the highs and all of the rock bottom lows of addiction. He gets motivation from the fact that helping others helps him in his recovery. He never did the wife and kids thing, but has enjoyed creating and performing music most of his life. Kent lives in Des Moines, where he co-leads the DSM chapter of IHRC.

Rachel Young (MPH, PhD) is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa. She has a master’s degree in public health and an MA and PhD in journalism, all from the University of Missouri. Her current research is at the intersection of public health and communication. She’s written extensively about how the media cover health issues, how media coverage affects audience perceptions, and how media affect our health and well-being. A child of two master teachers, she has a passion for introducing students to the notion that our health is determined by our environments, our social class, our privilege, and many other factors that constrain our individual choices. She is also trained as a StoryCenter facilitator and uses multimedia tools to help people tell meaningful personal stories. In spring 2019, she ran a workshop to help IHRC staff and volunteers create videos about drug use and harm reduction. She’ll continue the storytelling project in fall 2019 with a grant from the University of Iowa Office of Outreach and Engagement. Before going back to get her PhD, Rachel worked as a health and science writer and editor, most recently for the children’s magazine company Cricket. A native of Columbia, Missouri, she now lives in Iowa City with her husband, Gabe Bodzin, a therapist, and their two teenaged children. Her hobbies are reading fiction, thrift shopping, learning guitar, cooking, running, and trying out new hobbies.