Benjamin Ellis

GPR Committee Chair

Ben has been the GPR chair since Summer of 2022. He is currently a school psychologist in the Weld RE-3J School District and formerly Stellar Elementary in Adams 12 and Scott Carpenter Middle School in the Westminster Public Schools. He has had an interest in law, politics and public policy most of his adult life, having worked as a campaign coordinator for a state representative as his first job out of college. Among other policy priorities, Ben believes that the education system has a lot more it needs to do to serve families of color and that IDEA could use revisions to focus less on labels and more on getting services and protections to those who need them, regardless of socially constructed disability criteria. In his free time, Ben enjoys road biking, hiking, kayaking and the occasional road trip when circumstances permit.

Heather Travis

Legislative Chair

Dr. Heather Travis is a School Psychologist in the Cherry Creek School District. She has conducted research on the LGBTQ+ supports available in K-12 schools and the barriers to the implementation of supports. She proudly participated as a board member working to build and further the efforts of the Global Majority Collective, a student-led organization of the University of Colorado Denver (UCD) designed to empower students from racial or ethnic minoritized groups in the UCD Doctoral School Psychology program. Dr. Travis is passionate about building inclusive communities, supporting minoritized populations, as well as advocating for and furthering the field of school psychology.

Leigh Williams, MA, Ed. S, NCSP, LPC, NCC, CCMHC has twenty-five years of mental health experience. She started out working as a therapist with Aurora Mental Health and later worked for the Denver Department of Human Services as an adolescent social caseworker. She has worked for the Cherry Creek School District for 18 years. She has worked as a middle school psychologist, high school psychologist, mental health coordinator, elementary special education coordinator, secondary special education coordinator, gifted/talented coordinator, and director of clinical training and school support. She currently serves as a special education mental health director.  Leigh is also the Multicultural Affairs Committee chair for NASP.  She is dually certified as she is a licensed professional counselor and school psychologist. Leigh is passionate about school psychology and mental health.

Katelyn Collins

Katelyn Collins, Ed.S., is a School Psychologist in the Mesa County Valley School District 51 with over 15 years of experience in mental health and educational settings. Her clinical background includes serving as a Residential Counselor at the Larimer Center for Mental Health, where she specialized in crisis intervention and the management of complex behavioral and emotional needs within a residential treatment framework. As a School Psychologist, Katelyn specializes in individual and group counseling, mental health needs assessment, and the development of Behavioral Intervention Plans (BIPs). She has extensive experience in crisis response, serving on district-level crisis intervention and BrainSTEPS teams and contributing eight years of service as a Volunteer Victims Advocate for the Grand Junction Police Department. Katelyn holds an Education Specialist degree in School Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Northern Colorado. In her free time, Katelyn likes to take advantage of the beauty of Grand Junction with her family. 

Hello! I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Nationally Certified School Psychologist working in Aurora, CO. I worked in school in Illinois and Colorado for the first 20 years of my career, transitioning full time to Geek Therapeutics in summer 2024. I enjoy being able to connect with my clients on a deeper level than I could while working in schools. I bring a balanced approach that is designed to increase a client’s advocacy to work within school and community systems. In my free time, I enjoy hiking, bike, riding, reading, and playing games.

Mikayla Apodaca
Student Committee Member

My name is Mikayla Apodaca, and I am a first-year school psychology graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver. I graduated from Santa Clara University in 2023 with degrees in Political Science and Psychology. As a Denver native, I care deeply about the policies that shape our schools and communities, and I am especially passionate about understanding their real-world impact at the local level.

I am excited to serve as the student representative on the GPR Committee, where I hope to continue developing my passion for advocacy and policy within school psychology and education more broadly. I look forward to learning from and collaborating with experienced psychologists, while contributing a student perspective to important policy discussions.

Outside of my academic and professional interests, I enjoy travelling, baking, and have recently been exploring classic literature.