Sam DeMello
Sam is an experienced early-stage startup builder, with over a decade of experience scaling successful organizations as a Customer Success and Talent Acquisition Leader. He is also a person with a gambling addiction in recovery. He combines his professional experience in the Technical and Digital Therapeutics industries with his lived experience as a person in gambling recovery to build technology-first solutions to reduce gambling harm in the growing community of gamblers.
Rob Minnick, ICGC-I
Rob Minnick, also known online as Rob_Odaat is a content creator who uses his lived-experience with gambling harm to reach 15 million people every month through Instagram, Youtube, Tiktok and Facebook to better educate them on the risks involved with gambling and where to find resources if they need the help. In addition to content creation and direct marketing campaigns, Rob advises organizations on how to craft more relevant content for a younger audience as his main demographic online is comprised of 18-25 year olds.
Dave Yeager
Dave Yeager is an eleven-year veteran of the United States Army and in recovery for a gambling addiction. Dave is the host of Fall In: The Problem Gambling Podcast for Military Service Members and Veterans and the author of Fall In: A Veteran with a Gambling Addiction.
Dave is a member of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of PA, and member of the military working group for the National Council on Problem Gambling, and serves on the National Council’s board of directors. Dave is also a member of the board of directors for the Evergreen Council on Problem Gambling, in Washington State. Dave speaks often and uses his story to help raise awareness about gambling addiction and its impact on military service members and veterans.
Dave has a BS in Human Services and has completed 30 hours toward a Masters in Social Work. In addition, Dave is an International Certified Gambling Counselor (ICGC-I) as credentialed through IGCCB. Dave has been a lived experience and veteran advisor for Kindbridge Research Institute since 2020 and began as a trainer and training developer in July of 2023. Dave is also a behavioral health coach with Kindbridge Behavioral Health.
Michelle L. Malkin
Michelle L. Malkin, JD, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology and the Director of the Gambling Research and Policy Initiative (GRPI) at East Carolina University. Dr. Malkin's research interests include a focus on gambling-related harms, gambling-motivated crime, and the gambling prevalence, behavior, and risk of under-researched populations. Her research has been recently published in the Journal of Gambling Studies and the Journal of Gambling Issues. She was awarded the 2022 Dr. Durand Jacobs Dissertation Award and the 2024 Denise Phillips Community Outreach and Multicultural Wellness Award from the National Council on Problem Gambling. She also was awarded the 2024 ECU Early Trendsetter Award for her research on gambling-related issues and ECU's Innovator of the Month Award for her creation and copyright of the Gambling-Motivated Crime Diversion Checklist.
Kasra Ghaharian
Kasra Ghaharian is the director of research for UNLV's International Gaming Institute. He is a global gaming expert who specializes in online settings and AI applications, machine learning, consumer protection, and payments modernization.
Ghaharian brings several years of industry experience in digital analytics, strategic marketing, e-commerce analysis and product management, enterprise strategy, and sales at several of the world's largest casino-hotel companies to the position. His scholarly works have examined ways to improve industry tech and user experience. While pursuing his Ph.D., Ghaharian explored the implications of digital payments for the gambling industry and applied machine learning to payment transaction data to uncover behavioral patterns and potential markers of problem gambling. His master's thesis was a first-of-its-kind study to apply mathematical methods to the age-old task of optimizing the casino floor. His current research projects include using consumer bank transaction data to support gambling harm prevention and investigating the efficacy of AI chat bots to educate consumers about responsible gambling.
Ghaharian has been called upon by media outletsvincluding BBC, Sports Handle, and Inside Asian Gaming to offer industry insights.
Alison Wood
Alison Wood has over 20 years of experience working with government and nonprofit agencies at the local, state, national, and international levels. She has become a seasoned professional in managing grant programs and educating professionals across the country on problem gambling outreach, education, and prevention evidence-based practices. Alison enjoys assisting organizations on how to evaluate and expand programs, increase awareness, and impact. She is the North Carolina Problem Gambling Program Prevention Coordinator with Morneau Shepell and manages over 60 statewide prevention grants, speaks at conferences and webinars to educate attendees on problem gambling prevalence rates and best practices in prevention, outreach, and education, and trains and provides technical support to school staff and prevention coordinators on, Stacked Deck, an evidence-based prevention curriculum. Alison holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work and a Master’s Degree in Public Administrator from West Virginia University.
Alyssa N. Wilson
Alyssa N. Wilson is an Associate Professor of Psychology at California State University Fresno. Dr. Wilson has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on interdisciplinary approaches to gambling etiology, assessment, and treatment. Her recently co-authored book titled The Gambling Disorder Treatment Handbook, is one of a few texts written for clinicians working with individuals with gambling disorders. She is the founding director of Fresno State’s Center for Behavioral Health and Addiction Studies, a community-research collaborative dedicated to understanding the etiology and treatment of behavioral addictions and co-occurring mental health considerations. Dr. Wilson’s work has been showcased on podcasts and broadcast docuseries on Netflix’s Bill Nye Saves the World.