Men’s Mental Health “Operation: YOU — The Warrior Within” Conference for Veterans

Johnny Sanchez, MEd
Assistant Director of Student Success
ASU Alumni ℅ 2009, 2012 

Derek Wilson BSW, CPSS
ASU at Luke AFB Success Coach
U.S. Air Force veteran
ASU Alumni ℅ 2024

Nathan Heredia, BSW 
Candidate Master of Social Work
PTVC Student Success Advocate
U.S. Air Force veteran
ASU Alumni ℅ 2024

• 10 a.m. – Welcome and introduction
  10:05 a.m. – Shawn Banzhaf: The Five Ls: A Practical Guide for Helping Loved Ones Heal After Trauma
  11:05 a.m. – Break
  11:10 a.m. – Richard Southee: The Many Faces of Trauma
  11:55 a.m. – Lunch and networking
  12:25 p.m. – Resilience panel
  1:10 p.m. – Break
  1:15 p.m. – Chris Hammer keynote speaker: Post-Traumatic Growth
  2 p.m. – Wellness exercise
  2:30 p.m. – Close

Shawn Banzhaf, MA
Executive Director
Pat Tillman Veterans Center

The Five Ls: A Practical Guide for Helping Loved Ones Heal After Trauma

As the executive director of the Pat Tillman Veterans Center since 2022, Shawn leads, directs, and inspires a department within Academic Enterprise Enrollment at Arizona State University. His team of twenty staff and over seventy VA work-study employees provides services to over 20,000 military-connected learners attending the university.

For twenty-one years, Shawn served the United States in the Army National Guard. He retired as the acting First Sergeant of the 1057th Transportation Company. He is an Iraqi War Veteran, during which he earned the Bronze Star and Combat Action Badge during 100 combat missions in and around Baghdad, Ramadi, and Fallujah. His unit, the 1074th Transportation Company, was awarded the Meritorious Unit Citation during its year-long campaign.

Shawn is the creator and author of the 5 Ls: A Practical Guide for Helping Loved Ones Heal After Trauma. He has trained thousands of individuals on how to use this method as a tool anyone can use with a loved one struggling with PTSD, whether veteran or not.

Richard Southee, PhD
The Many Faces of Trauma

Richard Southee has a PhD from Arizona State University in Global Health and is currently the Assistant Director of Programs at Central Arizona Shelter Services. Richard's work and research focused heavily on homelessness, program utilization, and the ways trauma impacts clients' experiences navigating the homeless services system. A former medic in the US Army, Richard is especially interested in the complex ways the veteran and homeless identities intersect, and the unique challenges that manifest in veterans resolving their homelessness. Other research interests include the cognitive effects of trauma on decision-making among people experiencing homelessness, trauma-informed education for frontline staff, semiotic constructions of the homeless identity in public and political discourse, and applications of trauma-informed care in program design and evaluation for homeless services.

Chris Hammer, PhD, MBA

Keynote Speaker

Chris Hammer, PhD, MBA, is a Paralympic Gold Medalist and World Champion in the sport of triathlon. Born without his left hand and with an underdeveloped left arm, Chris grew up competing in a range of sports—from hockey to baseball—but found his true calling in endurance athletics. A five-time NCAA All-American in cross country and track, he continued his athletic career post-collegiately, representing Team USA in para sports on the international stage for over 14 years, including four Paralympic Games.

Chris holds a PhD in Sport Psychology and an MBA from the University of Utah, as well as a master’s in Sport Administration from Eastern Washington University. He now works at Arizona State University, where he draws on both his academic training and elite athletic experience to support projects focused on optimizing performance and well-being through applied sport science and performance psychology.