2020 NAMI Northern Virginia Board Officer Election Bios
Every year, NAMI Northern Virginia holds the voting for our Board Officer Elections at the Annual Membership Dinner. Due to COVID-19, the Annual Membership Dinner has been postponed and the voting for Board Officers will be done electronically. The electronic ballot will be sent to NAMI Northern Virginia members only. Please take a few minutes to review the 2020 Board Officer bios below, and submit your vote by Friday, May 15th. If you are not a NAMI Northern Virginia member, you can find out more about how to get involved here.

Jeanne Brown
Jeanne Brown joined the Board in 2019.  She is a criminal defense attorney who has dedicated her career to representing indigent clients in Fairfax and Prince William County.  She is a former Deputy Public Defender for Fairfax County.  Her practice focuses on those charged with serious criminal offenses, both children and adults. She finds deep satisfaction in advocating for those who cannot afford an attorney and are often most in need of a voice to let their stories be heard. Many of her former clients have been touched by mental illness.  Some of them live with mental illness themselves; some have been affected growing up with a parent or guardian who lived with mental illness as well.  She found that many of her clients had never received counseling, treatment, or support to help them cope with their mental health needs.  She hopes to use her position on the Board of Directors to advocate for those involved in our criminal justice system who need mental health services, as well as broaden access to education for law enforcement, prosecutors and judges.
 
Jeanne is a graduate of the University of Virginia where she received a B.A. in Psychology.  She graduated from the College of William and Mary Marshall Wythe School of Law with her Juris Doctor and has been a member of the Virginia Bar since 1999.  She currently practices law in Prince William County, where she joined the firm of Farrell and Croft, P.C. in 2017.  She is certified to represent juveniles and adults charged with misdemeanors and felonies in Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, General District Court and Circuit Court as well as appeals to the Court of Appeals of Virginia and the Supreme Court of Virginia.  She devotes a large part of her practice to court-appointed clients and pro bono work.

Jason Benedict
Jason Benedict has served on the NAMI-NOVA board of directors for over three years and has held the positions of Vice Chair (12/2017 - 7/2019) and Treasurer (7/2019 – Present). Throughout his tenure on the board, Jason has been impactful on many projects, ranging from financial process and visibility improvements to organizational strategy initiatives. His goals for the upcoming term include growing NAMI-NOVA’s core program offerings and keeping the organization financially sustainable through the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
Having been affected by mental illness through both family and friends, Jason’s experience with NAMI-NOVA continues to be extremely rewarding to him. He is very grateful that NAMI-NOVA has allowed him to support a cause he is passionate about and is excited to continue serving with NAMI-NOVA in the upcoming term.
 
Professionally, Jason works as a federal financial consultant with Deloitte Consulting. Prior to that, he worked in strategic pricing and finance at General Dynamics Information Technology. He holds a BSBA in Finance and a BA in Economics from Christopher Newport University.

Stacy LaMontagne
Stacy LaMontagne is a certified public accountant with more than fifteen years of experience working with financial data and deciphering that data with executive management of middle market companies.  She is fluent in reviewing budgets and financial analytics which have helped NAMI Northern Virginia with their budgeting process as well as reviewing monthly or quarterly financial information to ensure the organization is operating efficiently. 
 
Her father-in-law has started to show the symptoms of Alzheimer’s which has led to her mother-in-law retiring to become a caregiver.  While it’s very early and no diagnosis has been made, Stacy can see the effects the situation is having on my mother-in-law as well as her husband and his brother.  She wants to be on the Board of NAMI Northern Virginia to become more active in community service while learning more about mental illness.

Stephanie Lesko
Stephanie Lesko manages public affairs at the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, an independent federal agency that administers the AbilityOne Program, one of the largest sources of employment in the United States for people who are blind or have significant disabilities. During her nearly 19 years with the Commission, she has served in a variety of roles including Paralegal, Freedom of Information Act Administrator and Strategic Communications Committee Chairperson.
 
Ms. Lesko graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in International Affairs, and minors in Spanish, Music and History from James Madison University. She is a graduate of the two-year Public Relations Certificate Program at the University of Virginia. Additionally, she holds a Master’s Degree in Public Relations and Corporate Communications from Georgetown University.
 
Having had decades of experience working with individuals with mental illness, through family, friends, work and volunteering, she looks forward to joining the NAMI Northern Virginia Board and collaborating on ways to expand NAMI Northern Virginia’s reach in addressing the mental illness needs in the community.

Tania Romanoff
Tania Romanoff is a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State, and has been living in northern Virginia on and off for the last decade.  Several of her close family members live with depression and anxiety, and she discovered NAMI Northern Virginia  in 2017 when two family members were both in crisis.  She credits the support from the Family-to-Family program and family support groups for helping her and her family during that challenging time.  She feels strongly that grassroots advocacy is critical to end the stigma surrounding mental illness in our society.

Tania has a master’s degree in Business from MIT, and a BA in International Studies from American University.  She has been active in many community organizations around the world, and looks forward to bringing her analysis, planning and organizational skills to the NAMI board. 

Dan Scheinkman
Dan Scheinkman is Vice President of Compensation, Benefits, and Well-Being at Freddie Mac. Since joining in 2003, Dan has been responsible for the design, administration and communication of compensation, to include executive compensation, and benefits programs. As a seasoned HR practitioner, Dan delivers solutions that recognizes the right impact with the right rewards positively affecting employees’ total well-being.
 
Prior to joining Freddie Mac, Dan worked for Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen providing consulting services to organizations in the areas of compensation and equity incentive program design, litigation and bankruptcy support, and merger and acquisition impact and integration.
 
Dan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Washington University in St. Louis.

Melinda VanLowe

Melinda VanLowe is a trial attorney and owns her own law practice, The Law Office of Melinda L. VanLowe, PC, which she opened in 2011.  She litigates criminal, traffic and education matters in Virginia and the District of Columbia.

Melinda's journey to her current position began after graduating from law school, when she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Dennis J. Smith, former Chief Judge of the Fairfax County Circuit Court. Following her clerkship, Ms. VanLowe joined the firm of Greenspun and Mann, P.C., which is now Greenspun Shapiro PC.  Melinda focused her practice on criminal defense, domestic relations and general civil litigation.  She litigated a plethora of cases in federal and state courts ranging from reckless driving and driving while intoxicated to drug conspiracy and immigration fraud.  For her work, Ms. VanLowe has been selected for inclusion on the Virginia and District of Columbia Super Lawyers list. 
​
In addition to her practice, Ms. VanLowe served as an adjunct professor of legal writing with the George Mason School of Law for the Fall semester of 2004 and an adjunct professor of Counseling, Interviewing and Negotiation skills with the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, for the Fall semesters of 2011 and 2012.  Ms. VanLowe's peers elected her to serve on the Virginia State Bar Council in 2012 and she was re-elected in 2015.  She also began service on the Nominating Committee of the Bar Council in 2014.  Melinda was appointed to the Virginia State Bar Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board and served for almost 5 years.  Ms. VanLowe served as Vice Chair of the Fairfax County Circuit Court Committee.  She is  a former member of the Fairfax Bar Association Judicial Selection Committee.  Finally, in addition to statewide bar activities, Melinda was a member of the Fairfax Bar Association, Northern Virginia Women Attorneys' Association and Northern Virginia Black Attorney's Association.