About Noah Finz, Program Host
Noah Finz is the president of Finz Creative Programming, which created Vantage SportsNet, an all-Connecticut sports network, for Frontier Communications. He is responsible for all the programming on the network including the popular show CT Sports Now, which he co-anchors and produces. Prior to that, Mr. Finz was the Sports Director at WTNH-TV for 18 years, and before that, he worked in television news in Austin, Texas and Santa Barbara, California. Mr. Finz has been awarded for his work with multiple Emmy, Golden Mic, and Associated Press awards. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Old Greenwich, Connecticut.
About Marc Brackett, Ph.D., Panelist
Marc Brackett, Ph.D. is founding director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and professor in the Child Study Center at Yale University. Dr. Brackett has published 125 scholarly articles and has received numerous awards, including the Joseph E. Zins Award for his research on social and emotional learning and an honorary doctorate from Manhattanville College. He also is a distinguished scientist on the National Commission on Social, Emotional, and Academic Development. Dr. Brackett is the lead developer of RULER (an acronym for the five key emotion skills of recognizing, understanding, labeling, expressing, and regulating emotions), an evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning that has been adopted by over 1,500 public, charter, and private pre-school to high schools across the United States and in other countries, including Australia, China, England, Italy, Mexico, Spain, and Sri Lanka. Dr. Brackett regularly consults with large companies, including Facebook and Google, on best practices for integrating the principles of emotional intelligence into training and product design. With Facebook, he has developed a number of products, including social resolution tools to help adults and youth resolve online conflict, the bullying prevention hub to support educators, families, and teens, and InspirED, an open-source resource center to support high school students in leading positive change in their schools. Dr. Brackett also holds a 5th-degree black belt in Hapkido, a Korean martial art.
About Miriam E. Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D., Panelist
Miriam E. Delphin-Rittmon, Ph.D., is the commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS). Prior to her appointment, she held varied roles at DMHAS, including deputy commissioner, senior policy advisor, and director of the Office of Multicultural Healthcare Equality. Under the Obama Administration, Dr. Delphin-Rittmon served as senior advisor at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration with the Department of Health and Human Services, working on a range of policy initiatives addressing behavioral health equity, workforce development, and healthcare reform. Dr. Delphin-Rittmon has also held positions as assistant professor and director of health equity and multicultural research and consultation with the Program for Recovery and Community Health in the Yale Department of Psychiatry.
About Kate Fagan, Panelist
Kate Fagan is the author of the instant New York Times bestseller What Made Maddy Run, which spent a month as the No. 1 New York Times bestseller on the sports list. What Made Maddy Run was long-listed for the PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing. Fagan is also the author of the coming-of-age memoir The Reappearing Act, about her experience coming out while playing basketball at the University of Colorado. Fagan spent seven years as a columnist and feature writer for ESPN.com and ESPN The Magazine and as on-air talent for ESPN. Fagan hosted Outside the Lines and E:60 and was a core member of OTL‘s staple Friday afternoon show, The Friday Four, alongside Bob Ley and Jeremy Schaap. She also made 150 appearances on ESPN’s Around the Horn, and served as the show’s first female host in 2017. While at ESPN, Fagan was a founding member of the first all-female national sports radio show, The Trifecta. She also co-hosted, on ESPN radio, the national radio show Will & Kate with Will Cain, and was a co-host for three years on the popular FiveThirtyEight podcast Hot Takedown. Fagan’s writing has won numerous awards, including being selected for The Best American Sports Writing. Before joining ESPN, Fagan spent three seasons covering the Philadelphia 76ers for the Philadelphia Inquirer. She also played professional basketball in Ireland and in the NWBL, for the Colorado Chill. She and her wife, Kathryn Budig, live in Charleston, S.C., with their two dogs.
About Nick Pinkerton, Psy.D., Panelist
Nick Pinkerton, Psy.D. is a licensed psychologist and the director of counseling services at Southern Connecticut State University. Dr. Pinkerton has over 15 years of clinical experience working in community mental health centers, hospitals, and other treatment facilities working with children, adolescents, and adults with a wide variety of conditions and diagnoses. He has over a decade of experience working in college counseling as a clinician and administrator, and has trained and worked at Connecticut College, Eastern Connecticut State University, Northwestern University, the University of Hartford, and Southern Connecticut State University. He has taught several doctoral-level classes on group therapy and foundations of clinical practice, is involved in professional organizations related to college counseling at the state, regional, and national levels, has conducted numerous presentations related to college mental health, and has been featured on news and media outlets for his prevention efforts focusing on stigma reduction, suicide prevention, and well-being promotion. Dr. Pinkerton not only brings expertise regarding the treatment of mental illness, but also the promotion of mental health and well-being.
About Jermaine Wright, Ph.D., Panelist
Jermaine Wright, Ph.D. has approximately 15 years of experience in organizational effectiveness, leadership development, performance measurement and improvement, diversity and inclusion, management and operations, and fundraising/development. His leadership reflects an abiding commitment to the core values of educational access and excellence. Dr. Wright is currently the associate vice president for student affairs at Southern Connecticut State University (SCSU), where he is responsible for the management and stewardship of the following departments within the Division of Student Affairs: University Access Programs, Student Involvement and Leadership Development, the Multicultural Center, the Michael J. Adanti Student Center, the Sexuality and Gender Equality (SAGE) Center, and the John Lyman Performing Arts Center. Dr. Wright provides oversight for broad-based engagement and retention programs and services for students to create an environment in which students are engaged, persist, and thrive. He also provides leadership for divisional initiatives to enhance the cultural awareness and competency of staff and students and create a more welcoming, just, and inclusive community. Prior to his arrival at Southern, Dr. Wright worked at the City University of New York (CUNY) for about a decade in a variety of roles, ranging from associate director of the CUNY Black Male Initiative (BMI) to interim associate dean for the Office of Special Programs. Dr. Wright has dedicated himself to advocacy and equity work in education and mental health, including working with Black-male leadership organizations to train 10,000 New Yorkers in Mental Health First Aid.