Zach Collins, PhD has been working with active duty soldiers at Ft Drum, NY for the past 10 years. He currently serves as the Team Leader of the Embedded Behavioral Health Clinic for the Second Brigade Combat Team, Tenth Mountain Division (Light Infantry). Dr. Collins specializes in treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Relationship issues. He earned a PhD in clinical psychology from Binghamton University in 2008 and completed his clinical internship year at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Syracuse, NY. He also has a strong interests in military history, leadership development, and performance improvement.

Helen Demong grew up in an Army family and learned firsthand some of the challenges men and women who serve in the military experience. Graduating from the Crane School of Music in 1976, she has brought music to the lives of countless students and families in Saranac Lake as Music Educator and Choir Director.  Her professional philosophy has been to be a teacher and her vehicle has been music. Helen has experience working with a cross section of people from all walks of life.  For the last twelve years, she has been working with Creative Healing Connections specifically facilitating Adirondack Arts Retreats for women who have served in the military and women surviving chronic illness. She has found music and the arts can be a powerful source of inner joy, peace, and healing.

Daniel Way, MD, a native of Glens Falls, New York, practiced rural family medicine in the Adirondack Park for thirty-seven years as a member of the Hudson Headwaters Health Network. Dr. Way is also a noted photographer and author, having published three books of illustrated patient vignettes that venerate the doctor-patient relationship and describes the joys and frustrations of practicing rural primary care in Upstate New York’s Adirondack Park. His father Donald Way was a sergeant in the Army Corps of Engineers on Guam during WWII, where he helped produce bombing maps for General Curtis Lemay’s 20th Air Force.

Tom Williams, of Hudson, NY, is a marketing professional and entrepreneur working with clients in upstate New York and throughout the Northeast. He is a lifelong outdoorsman, Eagle Scout, licensed guide, and currently serves on the NYS DEC Conservation Fund Advisory Board. His military connections started with his father who served in the US Navy during the Second World War. He has been a supporter of Wounded Warrior Project programs along with fundraising efforts for other veterans’ causes in New York State. He and his wife Karen were instrumental in the development and hosting of a series of unique North Country events for veterans called the “Adirondack Adventure”.