About Us

MEET THE TEAM

Joanne Trimmer

Administrative Director of Project Horse

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Joanne Trimmer graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1996 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology and minor in Statistics. From her experience in behavioral and mental health at her first job at United Health Care’s Employee Assistance Program to her last four years working in youth suicide prevention, she brings years of knowledge in theoretical and applied mental health program development to her work at the Arc of Loudoun, and, more specifically, to Project Horse. She is certified as a Sources of Strength Trainer, an ACE Interface Trainer, in Mental Health First Aid, and in Youth Mental Health First Aid. Additionally, she is certified in Restorative Practices, Restorative Justice and Restorative Community Conversation Circles. Joanne proudly serves on the Loudoun Trauma Informed Community Team and Steering Committee and raises awareness of trauma sensitivity in the community. Joanne is a member of the Loudoun County Community Veteran Service Board focused on partnering to support Veterans and their families in Loudoun County. She is the 2023 Vice Chair of the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce Business Women of Loudoun Committee and serves on the Non-Profit Committee for the Loudoun Chamber. Joanne is an involved participant in the Loudoun County Behavior Health Workgroup focused on collecting information on the resources available in to connect community members specific to the mental health. Joanne brings more than 20 years of Non-Profit and Organizational Development experience to Project Horse including working at Starlight Children’s Foundation, Stillbrave Childhood Cancer Foundation, and the Ryan Bartel Foundation. Having “doing no harm” and “rising by lifting others” as forefront mottos in her decision making, she passionately includes diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility as she advocates for individuals and families get connected to the resources needed to help them live their best lives.

Maria Kimble, CES

Director of Operations and Equine Wellness

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Maria left a successful management career in telecommunications to immerse herself in her lifelong passion of helping animals, with a specific focus on horses. She has volunteered with horse rescues, dog rescues, avian rescues, and more.

Maria served on the Board of Directors of an organization that rescued wild horses and burros from horrible circumstances, rehabilitated them and then secured lifetime sanctuary for each. She is a citizen lobbyist, making many trips to Richmond and Capitol Hill to advocate for equine welfare. Maria’s dedication to equine welfare led to her starting her own non-profit, an organization that advocates for and provides a safety net for at-risk equine in Virginia.

Since 2010, Maria has been a full time volunteer with Project Horse Empowerment Center. While her intent was to serve the horses in her care, Maria soon found herself drawn to the therapeutic work and wanted to help humans through the power of the equine spirit. Maria is a Certified Equine Specialist under the EAGALA model, co-facilitating individual and group sessions at Project Horse. She also co-facilitates Mobile Minis visits in the community and is certified in Mental Health First Aid for Adults and Military. Maria is pursuing an Equine Specialist certification in Trauma Focused-Equine Assisted Psychotherapy™ and is also pursuing her EAGALA certification to work with the military.

Maria is a Certified Equine Sports Massage Therapist and is trained in the application of kinesiology tape for equine. She regularly donates her services to equine rescues and sanctuaries, and also has several equine athletes as clients. The horses at Project Horse also enjoy massages on a regular basis.

Leslie Roberts, LPC, CSAC

Licensed Professional Counselor

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Leslie Roberts, M.Ed, LPC, CSAC is a licensed professional counselor with over thirty years of experience as a clinical supervisor, program administrator and direct service provider. She specializes in substance abuse, trauma informed care and mental health treatment, family therapy, relapse prevention, and continuing care services. She has been a clinical director and relapse prevention coordinator for residential Substance abuse programs in the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board. She is a certified equine assisted therapist for fifteen years with EAGALA , Natural Lifemanship and PATHI serving veterans, adolescents and families at Project Horse and veterans at Spirit Serving Veterans, both in Northern Virginia. Additionally, she has been a trainer for Mental Health First Aid- Adult, Public Safety, Veterans and Youth Versions for the past five years. Currently training the Fairfax County Sheriff’s department and Fire and Rescue in mental health first aid. She also is a trainer for Person Centered Treatment Planning for the Fairfax -Falls Church CSB Youth and Residential Divisions for Commission for Accreditation for Residential Facilities (CARF). She has provided Person Centered Treatment Planning trainings at Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute, the state psychiatric hospital serving civil and forensic patients in the Northern Virginia region. Ms. Roberts has won an Outstanding Performance Award from Fairfax County for program redesign, implementing Stages of Change and Motivational Interviewing. She has also been awarded A Team Excellence Award for teaching Mental Health First Aid in her community. For five years she produced a benefit concert, The Recovery Road Show, for clients in the Fairfax County CSB residential divisions. She has received awards for Team excellence for CARF accreditation and Most Creative Counselor. She also performs Irish music with The Silver Linings in Loudoun County, VA.

Allison Swisher, LPC, RPT, NCC, NCSC

Licensed Professional Counselor

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Allison Swisher is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist, National Certified Counselor, and National Certified School Counselor. She has enjoyed many years working with children in private practice and public schools. She became interested in play therapy while working with children who had been impacted by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Allison’s interests in therapeutic approaches/interventions for children has grown and led to experiencing the usefulness of Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP). She believes EAP can be beneficial as the primary therapeutic approach or as adjunct therapy for clients. Allison continues to learn more about EAP through experience at Project Horse, self-study, and consulting with her professional colleagues. Allison has been a member of the Project Horse therapeutic team since 2011 and co-facilitates the Horse Budz services for Project Horse focused on Equine Assisted Learning experiences for youth 10-13 years old.

Melissa Herbert, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

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Melissa Herbert is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over 10 years of experience treating children, adolescents, and adults. Melissa specializes in working with clients who have experienced severe trauma, especially childhood sexual abuse (CSA), military sexual abuse (MST), and serious mental illness (SMI). Some of the arenas Melissa has worked includes, dept. of juvenile justice, dept. of social services, CSB crisis services, schools, chronic disease/outpatient hospital settings, and the dept. of veterans affairs. Melissa has been a certified mental health provider in EAGALA since 2018 at which time she also began partnering with Project Horse to provide group equine psychotherapy to veterans with serious mental illness. Melissa is certified in the following VA evidenced-based trainings/specialties: social skills training, multidisciplinary eating disorder team, and CALM Mindfulness facilitator certification. Melissa currently works in women’s health at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs as well as in private practice. In fall 2022, Melissa also started providing women’s wellness workshops at Project Horse, which include mini (3hr.) & full day (6hr.) workshops for women. Melissa has a strong passion for horses and mindfulness, both of which have the amazing ability to bring divine and holistic healing.

Hannah Van Buiten, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

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Hannah Van Buiten is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with a Masters in Social Work from the University of Denver and a Bachelors in Psychology from the University of Maryland. She focused her MSW coursework and research on animal-assisted interventions and earned an Animal-Assisted Social Work Certificate from the University of Denver’s Institute for Human-Animal Connection in 2020. Her clinical experience has been focused on work with veterans, treating PTSD and a variety of other diagnoses in group and individual formats. She also has years of experience working with children and families. Hannah is a lifelong horse person and became EAGALA certified in 2022. Hannah is passionate about the healing power of connecting with animals. In addition to being EAGALA certified, she is a certified therapy dog handler and published researcher on human-animal interactions. She works for the Department of Veteran Affairs in addition to her work with Project Horse.

Kelly Cregan, LCSW, SEP, RCST^®

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

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Kelly Cregan is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and a Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist. Kelly has an office-based therapy practice in Silver Spring, Maryland. For 15 years, Kelly has developed a specialty in partnering with adult clients healing from a variety of traumatic experiences (including physical & sexual abuse, accidents, medical trauma, PTSD, and Complex PTSD).

Kelly supplements traditional talk therapy with body and sensation-based (including Somatic Experiencing and Craniosacral Therapy) approaches to healing trauma. In 2015 Kelly attended two Women’s Wellness workshops –-one in Colorado and one at Project Horse. New to the horse world (though a life long animal lover), Kelly was deeply drawn to the grounded, intuitive power of these sensitive prey animals.

In 2016 Kelly began volunteering with Project Horse to get hands on experience in the care and welfare of horses. Shortly thereafter (and to her great surprise), she was introduced to Gracie, a 14 year old thoroughbred mare who was in need of a new owner and home. It was love at first sight for Kelly and Gracie. Gracie is now a member of the Project Horse healing herd and was adopted by Kelly in March 2017.

Kelly is trained in Natural Lifemanship’s Trauma-Focused Equine Psychotherapy. Kelly is also trained as a facilitator in Systemic Family and Nature Constellations. She enjoys working with individual adult clients as well as groups.

Eliina Stephenson, M.Ed., LPC

Licensed Professional Counselor

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Eliina has a Masters degree in Counseling and Development from George Mason University and a Bachelors degree in Psychology from John F. Kennedy University. Eliina is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in Virginia and has a private practice in Loudoun County. Eliina is an EAGALA-certified Mental Health Professional as well as a EAGALA-certified Equine Specialist. Additionally, Eliina is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional through the International Association for Trauma Professionals. Eliina is also EMDR Trained through an EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) approved training program.

Eliina’s clinical experience spans over 10 years and includes experience working with children, teens and adults in a variety of settings, including inpatient residential treatment programs, outpatient community mental health programs, outreach counseling, and groups.

Eliina has also presented nationally and internationally in the field and has been invited to speak on several different platforms.

Liz Moran, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

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Liz Moran is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with over 25 years of experience working with children, teens, young adults, and families in a variety of settings. Liz has extensive knowledge working with clients who suffer from depression, anxiety, school-related issues, grief, and trauma. She has been certified in Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy through Eagala since 2010. Liz has also volunteered with therapeutic riding programs and helps facilitate a dog therapy program in the schools. Liz works in Fairfax County Public Schools as a school social worker and has an office practice in Fairfax City where she works mostly with teens in a more traditional talk therapy modality.

At Project Horse, she currently assists part-time as a co-facilitator of the Teen Empowerment Group. Liz values partnership with animals in a therapeutic setting, and believes the client-centered and creative approach of animal assisted therapies and activities is what makes it such powerful work.

Martha Briggs, CES

Certified Equine Specialist

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Martha has been with Project Horse since 2014, taking care of the horses as well as participating in individual and group sessions as an EAGALA Certified Equine Specialist. The youngest of nine children, she grew up in Northern Virginia and has been involved with horses since the age of 8. When Martha wasn’t with her family, her favorite place to be was at the barn with the horses, enjoying their quiet solace together.

As she became an adult, her life steered her away from the barn into the corporate world, and then into becoming a mother and raising her children.After working in the legal field for 18 years, she decided to return to her true passion of working and being with horses, and exploring their relationship with people. This experience resulted in her EAGALA certification. She and her family currently reside in the beautiful rolling hills of Western Loudoun County, Virginia.

Karen McMullen, M. SpEd.

Certified Equine Specialist

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Karen has a Master’s degree in Special Education from WVU and a Bachelor’s in Biology from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. She worked at a Residential and Day treatment center for adolescents for over 23 years where she taught biology, physical science, chemistry, horticulture, English, and equine studies classes for middle school and high school students. Additionally, she helped establish and ran the equine and barn program for 20 years and facilitated Equine Assisted Services as part of the treatment team for the adolescents at the school. She conducted individual and group sessions in Equine Assisted Psychotherapy and Learning for students and team building activities for staff.

Karen is a Certified Equine Specialist under the EAGALA model, a PATH Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor and Equine Specialist in Mental Health and Learning, and is currently pursuing Natural Lifemanship Certification for Equine Professionals. She currently volunteers at a PATH center in Martinsburg, WV, where she facilitates Equine Assisted Learning activities for adults in recovery, children and adolescents with trauma histories, and assists with horse care and handling.

She is the proud partner in crime to an Arab Chestnut Mare, Two Labradoodles, several Chickens, a Duck, a Rabbit and her Vietnam Vet Husband!

PROJECT HORSE EMPOWERMENT CENTER in colorado

The Eagala Model incorporates a licensed Mental Health Professional and a qualified Equine Specialist working together with horses and clients as equal partners in an experiential process that empowers life-changing outcomes. » Learn more

We are honored and thrilled to announce we have received The Guardian Seal of Transparency from The EQUUS Foundation! Project Horse has held this designation for several years and the commitment to transparency and accountability continues with Project Horse under The Arc of Loudoun umbrella. » Learn more

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About Us

MEET THE TEAM

Joanne Trimmer

Maria Kimble, CES

Leslie Roberts, LPC, CSAC

Allison Swisher, LPC, RPT, NCC, NCSC

Melissa Herbert, LCSW

Hannah Van Buiten, LCSW

Kelly Cregan, LCSW, SEP, RCST®

Eliina Stephenson, M.Ed., LPC

Liz Moran, LCSW

Martha Briggs, CES

Karen McMullen, M. SpEd.

Kelly Cregan, LCSW, SEP, RCST^®