Leadership Team

Jocelyn Blore is the chief content officer of Sechel Ventures and the co-author of the Women Breaking Barriers series. She graduated summa cum laude from UC Berkeley and traveled the world for five years. She also worked as an addiction specialist for two years in San Francisco. She’s interested in how culture shapes individuals and systems within societies—one of the many themes she writes about in her blog, Blore’s Razor (Instagram: @bloresrazor). She has served as managing editor for several healthcare websites since 2015. 

Feature Spotlight: Women Breaking Barriers in Government

“At a New Year’s Eve party in 2018, Oregon Representative Nancy Nathanson overheard me talking to a group about my ‘Women Breaking Barriers’ series, where I speak to female executives in traditionally male-dominated fields. She introduced herself and opened the door to all the other interviews for this piece. I hadn’t realized that Oregon was one of only three states with a female majority in the state legislature—and how different it is to be a woman in politics.”

Alex Stitt (they/them) is a content writer for Sechel Ventures, a licensed mental health therapist, and the author of both ACT for Gender Identity: The Comprehensive Guide, and Accepting Gender: An ACT Workbook for Trans and Non-Binary People. As a self-described Queer Counselor, Alex specializes in sexual and gender identity development, and how to apply Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to LGBTQ+ mental health issues. Incorporating passion, empathy, and a love of history into their articles, Alex writes for several online blogs, including Sechel Venture’s Counseling Schools, Psychology Today, and Psychwire. They also share their personal musings on Instagram: @QueerCounselor. 

Feature Spotlight: Addressing Existential Issues in Affirmative Therapy

“I like to give this article to aspiring counselors excited to help LGBTQ+ clients, as  Affirmative Therapy is far more than just social support and positive self-talk. It can be a deep exploration of identity, connection, agency, and mortality, and while this shadow work can certainly be intimidating, it’s where self-trust meets self-empowerment.”

Douglas Mark started writing for Sechel Ventures in February 2018, and as of August 2023 had written 198 bylined feature-length articles for four of the company’s websites. 

As a management education insider with years of experience as an academic advisor at the University of Illinois Gies College of Business, Doug researched and wrote the initial content driving the April 2018 launch of our graduate management education platform for MBA students, BSchools.org. Since then, he’s contributed 152 feature articles to that platform. 

Doug also researched and wrote 33 features for OnlineEducation.com, Sechel’s sister site, along with seven for the healthcare management education platform MHAOnline.com and six for the entrepreneurship platform BustedCubicle.com. 

While working as a partner in a San Francisco marketing and design firm, for more than 20 years, Doug wrote online and print content for the world’s biggest brands, including United Airlines, Union Bank, Ziff Davis, Sebastiani, and AT&T, plus B2B market leaders like E2open. For four years, he served as the publications editor for Residential Mortgage Capital, Northern California’s largest independent mortgage provider before the Great Recession. Doug’s client list also includes the global investment bank Harris Williams, the MBA admissions consulting firm Menlo Coaching, and the personal finance website Sound Dollar. 

Doug graduated in the top 1 percent of his class with a business administration degree from the University of Illinois and studied computer science at Stanford University. 

Feature Spotlight: Analysis: With University of Phoenix Acquisition, Idaho Gambles Big on Online Education

“The third report in our series on the University of Phoenix acquisition, this article focuses our audience’s scrutiny on the financial and career risks associated with purchasing online education from many of America’s for-profit schools such as Phoenix. In most states, prospective students will typically obtain much better educational alternatives among private nonprofit and public colleges and universities, and the articles in this series explain the many reasons why.” 

Elizabeth Kneeland is a writer and entrepreneur living in Philadelphia. As a small business owner, she spends much of her time creating content, researching markets, and refining financial models. Her career to date has straddled novel operational and financial modeling, and traditional academic research within the healthcare sector, providing her with a unique perspective in programmatic development. She built the first for-profit telemedicine program for the University of Pennsylvania Health System in 2015. She has helped build and scale sleep medicine startups in the U.S., China, and Taiwan. 

Elizabeth has co-authored publications in peer-reviewed journals on topics ranging from device validation to clinician-level educational interventions. She has been an invited speaker at medical conferences throughout the U.S., China, and Taiwan. She has contributed to recent discussions on healthcare technology as a research analyst focused on analytics, real-world data, and patient privacy legislation. She has begun learning how to program in Python and hopes to gain hands-on experience coding to support innovation in healthcare. 

Feature Spotlight: Getting Started with AI for Healthcare Leadership

“Artificial intelligence is a fascinating, often misunderstood field, particularly in its applications for the healthcare sector. Having spent over a decade working for large healthcare organizations, I understand the complexity of technology implementation from a hands-on perspective. I also learned how many misunderstandings persist among decision-makers for these institutions regarding technological investment. I hope to help dispel many of the common myths and help build a more accurate framework for discussions among rising leadership!”

Farheen Gani is a freelance writer. She frequently writes about software, business, healthcare, education, and marketing on websites such as Tech in Asia, Foundr, BuildFire, Appcues, and more.

Feature Spotlight: Guide to Online Computer Engineering Programs

“This piece includes a lot of detailed research on computer engineering programs. Since computer engineering is such a booming field, I really enjoyed putting together this detailed guide for prospective students.”

Kimmy Gustafson is a freelance writer passionate about sharing stories of bravery. Professionally, she has extensive experience writing about nursing careers, healthcare, education, engineering, and kiteboarding. Her love for traveling the world began when her family moved to Spain when she was six, and since then, she has lived overseas extensively, visited six continents, and traveled to 27 countries. When not writing or parenting, she can be found kiteboarding, hiking, or cooking.

Feature Spotlight:  Arson & Environmental Crimes Against The Earth: Expert Interview

“I write a lot about the effects of climate change, and it can often be disheartening. Our planet is in dire straits and we aren’t making changes fast enough to mitigate the damage. However, talking to Reinhold Gallmetzer, Founder and Chairperson of the Center for Climate Crime Analysis (CCCA), was a breath of fresh air. He and his colleagues are prosecuting climate crimes in the most creative of ways. The work they are doing is actively making an impact on deforestation in Brazil. If there is a way to hold people accountable for how their criminal activity impacts our planet, the CCCA will find it. They are my heroes.”

Dr. Laura Freberg serves as a professor of psychology at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where she teaches introductory psychology and behavioral neuroscience. She completed her bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD at UCLA. Dr. Freberg is the author or co-author of several textbooks, including Discovering Psychology: The Science of Mind, Discovering Behavioral Neuroscience, An Introduction to Applied Behavioral Neuroscience, and Research Methods in Psychological Science. She served as President of the Western Psychological Association (WPA) in 2018-2019.

Feature Spotlight: Why You Are Feeling Lonely—and What You Can Do About It

“Knowing that what we’re feeling is loneliness, why it’s there, and what it does to our behavior and cognitions are key steps on the way to feeling better. As with all psychological conditions, our tendency to feel like we’re the only ones on the planet with the same problem is a considerable obstacle to recovery. Understanding that what we’re experiencing is normal and well-understood takes some of that fear away.

“I chose my first feature for Sechel, published in 2021 because it previewed a growing concern about the health and well-being impact of loneliness. In May 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General released a formal advisory about the epidemic of loneliness and isolation.”

Lisa Hutchison, LMHC, is a licensed mental health counselor for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. She works for professionals who want to treat and prevent compassion fatigue. With over 20 years of psychotherapy experience, she helps her clients assert themselves, set boundaries, and increase their coping skills. Her specialty is decreasing stress, anxiety, and depression while increasing realistic methods of self-care for those who help others. 

Ms. Hutchison’s psychological advice has been featured in Reader’s Digest and the Huffington Post. Her articles have been published in numerous magazines, including Grief Digest and Today’s Caregiver. Lisa is the bestselling author of I Fill My Cup: A Journal for Compassionate Helpers and a faculty member writer for NetCE. Her latest continuing education unit publication is “Counseling Patients at the End of Life.” She has presented talks on boundaries for the compassionate helper; the use of expressive art to heal; inspirational and motivational topics; and creative writing techniques.

Feature Spotlight: How to Grieve a Client’s Death Ethically 

“I experienced the sudden death of a client, after she had a brief illness. I did not feel prepared for this type of loss and realized many of my colleagues felt the same. I share in this article what I learned from my own healing process to help other counselors.”

Matt Zbrog is a staff writer and researcher for Sechel Ventures. Born and raised in Southern California, he’s been based in Europe since 2016, with long spells in Ukraine, Georgia, Germany, and Denmark. His professional work centers around the power of practitioner-led advocacy efforts, with a strong focus on interview-based research that learns from those who know and live the subject at hand. Across a wide spectrum of topics, his articles advocate for empowered workers, strong social safety nets, and progressive education policies.

Feature Spotlight: NP Advocates to Know: Dr. Jessica Peck on Human Trafficking

“Over the past five years, I’ve interviewed over 100 nurse practitioners (NPs) across the United States. In addition to being an essential component of America’s healthcare workforce, many NPs dedicate their time and energy towards advocacy efforts that benefit their patients, their community, and their profession. Dr. Peck’s fight against human trafficking is just one example of the urgent and astonishing work that the modern NP is capable of doing.”

Nina Chamlou is a writer from Portland, OR who enjoys spotlighting topics worthy of more attention. Her main beats include education, human rights topics, mental health, personal health, gerontology, and the healthcare industry. She earned her bachelor’s degree in operations and technology management from the University of Portland in 2017. 

Feature Spotlight: Who was Henrietta Lacks? The Enduring Legacy of Hela Cells

“Henrietta Lacks is one of the most influential figures in modern medicine, yet her name is largely underrecognized outside academia. Lacks was an African American woman born in 1920 who sought cancer treatment at Johns Hopkins, the only hospital in her area that treated Black patients at the time. 

“After her death, her tissue became a highly sought-after commodity that was used for scientific purposes and resulted in major medical innovations. However, her family was kept in the dark for decades about how their mother’s cells were being used. 

“Lacks’ story drums up a myriad of conversations—not only related to her profound contribution to modern medicine—but also regarding themes of racial discrimination in healthcare, healthcare inequality, and patient property rights. More than 70 years after her death, her story is as relevant as ever. 

“Lacks’ story is one of the most memorable topics I’ve written about in my career because it uniquely encapsulates a number of problems in the U.S. healthcare system that remain unresolved. As we think about how to address systemic issues in our healthcare system, the themes of Lacks’ story serve as a reminder to keep fighting for human rights like equal access to healthcare because time has shown that these issues don’t resolve themselves.” 

Rachel Drummond is a writer, educator, and yoga enthusiast. With a master’s degree in education from the University of Oregon, she has more than 15 years of experience teaching and administrating international university programs in the United States and Japan. She is interested in how merging contemplative physical practices from Eastern and Western cultures creates well-being and writes about it on her blog and Instagram (@racheldrummondyoga). 

Feature Spotlight: The Impact of Covid-19 on Pediatric Patients & Teams: An Interview with Dr. Jessica Peck, DNP

“The World Health Organization designated 2020 as the “Year of the Nurse and the Midwife,” but the Covid-19 pandemic quickly quashed any celebrations before they could start. While the world struggled to navigate fear, hopelessness, and uncertainty, Dr. Jessica Peck, DNP, the former president of the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP), shared statistics, resources, and hope for pediatric nursing teams and families—validating vaccine efficacy and safety for children and adults.”

Sophia Khawly is a traveling nurse practitioner from Miami, Florida. She has been a nurse for 16 years and has worked in ten states. She likes to travel in her spare time and has visited over 50 countries. Being a traveling nurse practitioner allows her to combine her love of learning, travel, and serving others. Learn more about Sophia at her blog, TravelingNP.com.

Feature Spotlight: 5 Ways Travel Nursing Can Help You Pay Off Student Loans

“As a Millenial, it’s no secret that large amounts of student loans have become a burden to my generation. I wanted to show how travel nursing can help get rid of student loans at a quicker pace.”