Who We Are
At We Rise International we believe that every community has strengths
to combat the health and wellness problems that face the world today.
Neighbors lift up neighbors.
Strangers help each other.
Working with communities of all sizes, We Rise empowers people of all backgrounds to maximize their strengths and respond to their struggles
– together.
We focus on three key health issues:
Mental Illnesses
Addictions/Substance Use Disorder (SUD)
Diabetes Types 1 and 2
Our Mission:
Empowering the World with Health and Hope
Our Values:
Interconnection, Equity, Respect, Compassion, Innovation, Resilience
Our Team
Board of Directors
Technical Advisory Team
Board of Directors
Executive Director
Technical Advisory Team
Board of Directors
Technical Advisory Team
Technical Advisory Team
Technical Advisory Team
With a Board of Directors, Executive Director, and Technical Advisory Team hailing from around the world, We Rise International brings global expertise, innovation, and creative solutions to address health, mental health, and social obstacles.
Board of Directors
Amy Vercler, JD
Karin Shank, MS, MA
Karin Shank, MS, MA
Board Chair
Karin Shank, MS, MA
Karin Shank, MS, MA
Karin Shank, MS, MA
Board Treasurer
Debora Weaver, PhD
Karin Shank, MS, MA
Debora Weaver, PhD
Board Secretary
Amy Vercler, JD
Amy (Board Chair) is an attorney who splits her time between Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Illinois, U.S.A. She also works as a consultant advising individuals and groups as they start non-profits. Her past work experience has involved non-profit program development, cross cultural instruction and managing international partnerships, including in the health sector. Outside of work and her commitment to We Rise, she enjoys spending time with her husband and their two adoreable young boys.
Karin Shank, MS, MLS
Karin (Board Treasurer) is a Senior Research Analyst in North Carolina, with professional experience in business, economic development, pharmaceutical, health, and agricultural information research. In her full-time role at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, she tracks the outcomes of grant programs and conducts market research and competitive intelligence for start-up entrepreneurs. Karin has a dual M.S. in Crop Science and Botany from NC State University and a Masters in Library Science from North Carolina Central University. She serves on the Alumni and Friends Society Advisory Board at NC State and previously served in volunteer leadership roles for both the North Carolina Chapter and the Food, Agriculture and Nutrition Division of the Special Libraries Association, and at International Focus Inc, where she was recognized as 2012 Volunteer of the Year. She also chairs her church leadership board. In her free time, Karin enjoys walking her rescue greyhound, and is making slow but steady progress towards the goal of reading a book from every country in the world.
Debora Weaver, PhD
Debora (Board Secretary) is a Professor in the Biology Department at Campbell University. She earned her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Maryland and a Certificate in Global Health from The Gillings School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill. She teaches multiple courses, including Biochemistry, The Molecular Basis of Disease, Histology, and Introduction to Public Health. She has traveled and worked abroad for many years with her family, while in college, and while leading college-level study abroad courses. She has experiences with many different cultures through living in Nepal, Poland, Spain, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Tanzania, East Africa. She has a passion for expanding student world view through teaching global health in low-to-middle income countries. During her tenure at Campbell University, Debora has been Chair of General College Curriculum, Program Director for the Honors Program, Chair of the Biochemistry Curriculum Committee, and a member of the Faculty Development & Evaluation Committee, as well as a founding member of the Global Engagement Office Committee. Debora is a certified yoga instructor and an avid yoga practitioner. She prefers the outside and spends much of her time walking or hiking, or traveling.
Executive Director
Janelle Bitikofer, MSW, LCSW
Executive Director
Janelle Bitikofer, MSW, LCSW
Janelle has over twenty-five years of social work experience, with expertise in mental health, trauma, addictions, international health, child protection, women’s empowerment, immigration, disaster response, and poverty alleviation. She has worked in all levels of mental health and substance abuse treatment from inpatient hospitals and substance abuse treatment programs, to outpatient counseling, emergency response services, and disaster mental health.
Janelle has worked in international development, international health, maternal and child health, and disaster response, on projects impacting more than fifteen countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, North America, and the Caribbean. Janelle served for three years as Clinical Programs Director for Health Horizons International in the Dominican Republic where she partnered with the National Ministry of Public Health to co-initiate a healthy living program and medical system capacity-building plan to improve prevention, treatment, and outcomes for Dominicans with diabetes and co-occurring diseases. Janelle has provided leadership in grants management for programs funded by USAID and the European Union. She taught for five years as adjunct faculty in the Nursing Department at Eastern Mennonite University on the topic of Global Health.
Janelle completed her undergraduate social work degree at Eastern Mennonite University, her Master’s in Clinical Social Work at Virginia Commonwealth University, and graduate coursework in Public Health at the University of London. She is dually licensed as a Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in Pennsylvania and North Carolina and serves as a clinical supervisor in both states.
As Executive Director of We Rise International, Janelle splits her time between our headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, her home office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and our international field office in Montellano, Dominican Republic.
Health Technical Advisory Team
Judith Siambe Opiyo, BS
Dr. Vicente Antonio de Peña, MD, MPH
Judith Siambe Opiyo, BS
Tracy Kaye, MPH
Dr. Vicente Antonio de Peña, MD, MPH
Judith Siambe Opiyo, BS
Dr. Vicente Antonio de Peña, MD, MPH
Dr. Vicente Antonio de Peña, MD, MPH
Dr. Vicente Antonio de Peña, MD, MPH
Dr. Rosalba Santana, MD
Janel Lehman-Long RN, MA
Janel Lehman-Long RN, MA
Janel Lehman-Long RN, MA
Janel Lehman-Long RN, MA
Janel Lehman-Long RN, MA
Tresor Medju, MPH, MA
Janel Lehman-Long RN, MA
Tresor Medju, MPH, MA
Selena McCoy Carpenter, MEd
Edith Rodriguez Melendez BSN, RN, MHSA
Edith Rodriguez Melendez BSN, RN, MHSA
Edith Rodriguez Melendez BSN, RN, MHSA
Edith Rodriguez Melendez BSN, RN, MHSA
Edith Rodriguez Melendez BSN, RN, MHSA
Beth Good, RN, MSN, PhD
Edith Rodriguez Melendez BSN, RN, MHSA
Beth Good, RN, MSN, PhD
Mental Health and Addictions Technical Advisory Team
Dr. Bobbie Legg MSW, LCSW, PhD
Dr. Bobbie Legg MSW, LCSW, PhD
Dr. Bobbie Legg MSW, LCSW, PhD
Jacqueline Hill, RN
Dr. Bobbie Legg MSW, LCSW, PhD
Dr. Bobbie Legg MSW, LCSW, PhD
Judith Siambe Opiyo, BS
Judith Siambe Opiyo is a passionate Kenyan public health professional, with extensive experience in project management, implementation, leadership, and research. She has a proven track record of successfully leading health programs and projects and providing technical assistance in project planning, management, monitoring and evaluation. Judith's expertise spans prevention and management of non-communicable diseases, maternal and child health, and research for health. She is experienced and published related to adapting the care groups model to urban slum environments. Judith is passionate about contributing to the improvement of health, capitalizing on strengths in local communities as a social asset for making a difference. Judith earned her Bachelor’s degree in Food, Nutrition and Dietetics from Egerton University and she is currently completing a Master’s in Public Health at the University of Nairobi. Her diverse professional experiences include research at Aga Khan University Hospital and serving as Program Manager at the Center for Peace and Nationhood, a faith-based health NGO serving low-income neighborhoods and urban informal settlement communities in Nairobi, Kenya. She serves as the Nairobi-based liaison for We Rise International’s work and partnerships in Kenya.
Tracy Kaye, MPH
Tracy Kaye has served a Deputy Chief of Party for Catholic Relief Services in Uganda, where she provided program oversight and direction for the Nuyok Project, a food and nutrition security project funded by the office of Food for Peace/USAID. She has project management and research experience in SE Asia, East Africa, and Latin America, with expertise in social behavior change communications. Tracy has provided oversight for projects funded by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the USAID Office of Disaster Assistance, and has managed programs in Health, Nutrition and HIV/AIDs in Cambodia, The Sudan, and East Timor. She started the first CRS activities in Darfur for the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition, and she spent two years in the Dominican Republic serving as the Public Health Director for Health Horizons International. In that role she started the first healthy living program in the area for people living with diabetes and hypertension. Tracy holds a Masters in Health Sciences from The Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
Dr. Vicente Antonio de Peña, MD, MPH
Dr. Vicente Antonio de Peña, MD, MPH has served the health and public health needs of the people of the Dominican Republic for almost 30 years. From 1995-2000 he worked on the hospital and clinic side of public health, serving as a physician and manager of epidemiological surveillance at Hospital Maternidad Dolores de La Cruz, in Montellano, Dominican Republic, then as director of epidemiology and epidemiological surveillance at the Puerto Plata Province Regional Hospital Ricardo Limardo. From 2000 until the present he has served in various leadership roles in the Puerto Plata Province Ministry of Public Health, where he has supervised and led departments and initiatives in Epidemiological Surveillance, Family and Community Health, Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs), Transmissible and Tropical Illnesses (HIV/AIDs, Tuberculosis, Dengue, Cholera, Malaria, Leptospirosis, COVID19), Community Health Integration, and Environmental Health. From 2011-2021 he served as the Ministry of Health’s focal point for Mental Health, NCDs/Chronic Illnesses, Community Health Risk Assessment, and other Collective Health programs. He has also served as a consultant for various NGOs implementing public health projects in the Dominican Republic. Dr. De Peña, earned his Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree in 1990 from Universidad Autonoma de Santo Domingo (UASD), Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and his Master’s in Public Health in 2008 from Universidad Eugenio Maria de Hostos UNIREHEMOS, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Dr. Rosalba Santana, MD
Doctor Rosalba Santana is an Internal Medicine Physician originally from the Dominican Republic. She currently works as a House Physician at Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, in Brooklyn, New York. Dr. Santana completed medical school at Pontificia Universidad Catolica Madre y Maestra, and her Internal Medicine residency at Hospital Regional Universitario Jose Maria Cabral y Baez, in Santiago, Dominican Republic. Dr. Santana is passionate about internal medicine, particularly targeting chronic illnesses. She notes that “chronic Illnesses are one of the leading causes of death around the world, and yet they are preventable. So, by helping people learn to modify their risks we can give them a better quality of life.”
Janel Lehman Long
Janel is a nurse and anthropologist who has worked in health care for over 20 years. Her U.S. experience includes community health, family practice, and working with the homeless. She has served in Chad and Central African Republic with Doctors without Borders, managing clinics serving refugees, internally displaced people and the local population. She also spent 4 years in international development as a school nurse in the country of Djibouti. Currently she works with migrant health clinics in Pennsylvania. Janel received her BSN from Eastern Mennonite University in 1997 and her Master’s in Applied Anthropology from North Texas University in 2015.
Tresor Medju, MPH, MA
Tresor Medju is a public health educator and special education instructor who is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He previously lived in a refugee camp in Uganda and served there in a program responding to the health, education and shelter needs of children orphaned by war and HIV. In the U.S. he has worked for AmeriCorps ACCESS and World Relief Durham as a health specialist, improving health outcomes for refugees and immigrants in North Carolina. Tresor spent several years coordinating the Centers for Disease Prevention One and Only and Antibiotics ResistanceCampaigns in Raleigh, through the North Carolina Division of Public Health. He previously conducted research on HIV incidence and treatment outcomes in the NC prison population, and has recently accepted a special education position in the Wake County Public Schools. Tresor speaks six languages including five languages of Africa. He holds a Master’s in Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a Master’s of Arts in Special Education from NC State University.
Selena McCoy Carpenter, MEd
Selena McCoy Carpenter is the Engagement Liaison for the Engagement Core of the All of Us Research Program, housed at the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, in Nashville, Tennessee. She previously served as co-country director in Kenya for Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), an international NGO working in development, peacebuilding and disaster response. As co-country director she oversaw funding and provided technical support in project planning, management, and monitoring and evaluation, to Kenyan partner organizations implementing projects focused on maternal and child health, HIV prevention, food security and agriculture, sustainable livelihoods development, education, and disaster response. Prior to her work in Kenya, Selena worked in Nashville as a Research Coordinator in Pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, and in both Pediatric Neurology and on an NIH-funded pediatric obesity prevention study. Selena holds a BS in Special Education, with a focus on behavioral disorders from the College of Charleston and a Master’s in Education in Health Promotion and Behavior from the University of Georgia. Her earlier professional experience includes teaching, and working in Haiti on a disease elimination project targeting lymphatic filariasis.
Edith Rodriguez Melendez RN, BSN, MHSA
Edith Rodriguez Melendez hails from Puerto Rico where she works as a nurse in the emergency department at Javier Anton Hospital in San Juan. She earned her Bachelor’s degree and RN in nursing from the University of Puerto Rico, and her Master’s Degree in Health System Administration (MHSA) from Metropolitan University Bayamon Campus.
Edith has served in international health in medical clinics and hospitals in Haiti, the Dominican Republic and India, treating women, children and patients with HIV and Leprosy. She subsequently served in Nigeria with Mennonite Central Committee, working as a labor and delivery nurse in the HIV and high-risk pregnancies department at Faith Alive Hospital in Jos, Nigeria.
Beth Good, RN, MSN, PhD
Beth Good, RN, MSN, PhD previously lived in Nairobi, Kenya, where she and her husband directed the Kenya office of Mennonite Central Committee (mcc.org), an international NGO working in health, livelihoods, education, agriculture, and peacebuilding. Prior to that Beth worked as the MCC global Health Coordinator, supporting health projects in 57 countries, and provided technical advisory support to MCC Maternal and Child health programs in Kenya, Somaliland, Tanzania and Burkina Faso.
Beth’s prior experience includes serving as Director of Clinical Health Services at Hope Within Community Health Center; founder and board president of River of Life Health Center; Catalyst for a Response to HIV/AIDS with Eastern Mennonite Missions (EMM); staff nurse at Hershey Medical Center; and community development worker in Kenya with EMM. She is an adjunct professor of Nursing at Eastern Mennonite University.
Beth and her family have lived in Kinshasa, DRC (1984-1985), Kenya (1989-2001) and Bukavu, DRC (2016-2018) and Kenya (2018-present). Beth has expertise in health programming in the areas of HIV/AIDS, sexual & gender-based violence, trauma, and public health, especially for underserved populations. She earned her MSN & PhD from Widener University in Public Health Nursing and Nursing Science & Research and her undergraduate nursing degree from Eastern Mennonite University. Outside of work, Beth loves spoiling her grandchildren.
Dr. Bobbie Legg, MSW, LCSW, PhD
Dr. Bobbie Legg is an international trauma expert and mental health clinician who serves as a faculty associate in the Social Work Department at Arizona State University. She is a state and national speaker on Trauma Treatment, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, Adolescent Treatment, Suicide Prevention and Adolescent Self-Expression.
Her clinical and trauma work has included over ten years of specialty work with inner-city youth and families in the United States, living and working with Native American communities, and ongoing work with child survivors of human trafficking in Nepal. She previously served as the Clinical Director for multiple residential treatment programs and is recognized as a Clinically Certified Juvenile Treatment Specialist through the American Academy of Forensic Counselors.
Bobbie received Social Work degrees as a BSW, MSW, and PhD from Eastern Mennonite University, The Catholic University of America, and The Clinical Social Work Institute. She also completed the Post-Graduate Trauma Treatment Program at the University of Maryland. Her clinical work focuses on the treatment of child and adolescent survivors of trauma and abuse and she specializes in using neuroscience informed psychotherapy, art therapy and other therapies for trauma recovery.
Jacqueline Hill, RN, BSN
Jacqueline Hill has more than 30 years of experience in the fields of addictions and mental illness. She worked for 28 years as a nursing supervisor/nurse therapist at the Wake County Behavioral Health/Alcoholism Treatment Center (ATC), in Raleigh, North Carolina. ATC is an inpatient drug and alcohol addiction treatment and medical detox center run by Wake County government. At ATC Jacqueline treated individuals with addictions from all walks of life, including men and women struggling with dually-diagnosed addictions and mental illness, medical issues, homelessness, and sex-trafficking. While at ATC she also worked with individuals and their families in mental health crisis at Wake County Mental Health Crisis and Assessment Services, a mental health and addictions emergency room and short-term stabilization and referral center.
Earlier in her career Jacqueline worked with adults and adolescents in mental health inpatient treatment as a team nurse at Charter Northridge hospital. Now semi-retired, she serves as a Private Duty nurse for a Dementia client at The Cypress of Raleigh, and has served as a volunteer at Hope Reins, a horse ranch ministry providing equine therapy for abused and traumatized children, where she provided support to the children’s parents and adult caretakers. Jacqueline obtained her nursing degree from the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill in 1984.