Healing Together: Our Advisory Council
Pearl Evans
Pearl Evans has extensive experience in legislative advocacy and non-partisan civic engagement through a racial equity lens. Through her leadership and community outreach, she has built community coalitions, facilitated community conversations to reduce stigma related to opioid use, and has experience in seeing a bill from strategic planning to authorship.
Her professional background includes direct service as a peer recovery specialist and resident advocate, and she brings lived experience to this work. Pearl was nominated by Governor Walz to serve as the Person in Recovery on the Opioid Epidemic Response Advisory Council (OERAC). During her time on the OERAC, Pearl worked to allocate funding for investment in culturally responsive recovery supports.
In her current role as an Overdose Prevention Program Administrator with the Minnesota Department of Health’s Injury and Violence Prevention Section (IVPS), Pearl is leading the development of county profiles to share data with local public health, connecting with community organizations, and building upon IVPS community engagement work.
Nate Hurse, MBA, MSW, LICSW, LADC
Nate Hurse is a Licensed Independent Clinical social worker. He comes with a wealth of expertise in the areas of clinical and program development, substance use disorders, successful treatment of co-occurring disorders, recovery coaching, as well as specializing in culture-centered counselling. He is also a licensed alcohol and drug counselor in multiple states and has achieved a certification earning him the distinction of advanced alcohol and drug counselor. Nate is also a qualified Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) and a National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) registered trainer. Nate is also currently the vice president on the board of NADA.
His career spans over 30 years, having worked in Connecticut, Indiana and spending the last 20 years in Minneapolis at various chemical health treatment centers where he specialized in culturally diverse populations. Nate is also a consultant with the Minnesota DHS Alcohol Drug Abuse Division as a peer reviewer. Nate is also in long term Recovery and is a strong advocate or Peer Recovery/Recovery Coaching.
Angela Reed
Angela is the Director of the Support Services & Training Divisions at Turning Point, Inc., where she works to establish and maintain relationships with partner organizations and to address the needs of Turning Point clients. She is the lead facilitator for cultural training, and is a certified trainer with more than 15 years’ experience in her field.
Angela has a bachelor’s degree in Human Development and Family Studies from Univ. of Wisc.-Stout and is pursuing her master’s in Education Administration at Concordia University. She was a member of the program design team that worked with The University of Minnesota to develop Turning Point’s Best Practices Report.
Yussuf Shafie, MSW, LICSW, LADC
Yussuf Shafie MSW, LICSW a graduate of the University of MN. Yussuf is an active and well-respected member of the addiction community. He is a licensed Drug and Alcohol Counselor (LADC) with the Board of Behavioral Health. He completed his internship with the Community University Health Care Center as a Social Work Triage Specialist, and he continued on as a Mental Health Practitioner with CUHCC.
In 2015, Yussuf opened Alliance Wellness Center in Bloomington, MN, a DHS licensed Substance Abuse Outpatient and Inpatient Treatment Program. He is Board member of the Minnesota Trauma Project and Minnesota Recovery Connection. Yussuf’s passion is to bring wellness to those affected by addiction and mental health problems.
William Westberry, BS, LADC
William has over 20 years of experience in the chemical dependency treatment field. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Addiction Studies from Metro State University. William’s previous experience includes working at House of Charity and HCMC. He worked at Park Avenue Center as a Counselor for five years before transitioned to Vallhalla Place Inc. where he started the outpatient program.
William returned to Park Avenue Center in 2014 as a Clinical Supervisor leading the Culturally Specific Program and is involved with the Hennepin County Drug and DWI courts
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