Our Faculty

Danny Frazer - Danny is a seasoned executive, consultant, and leadership coach with more than 25 years of experience in behavioral healthcare and education. As a founding partner of Open Sky, Danny helped shape one of the field’s most respected programs, serving in executive leadership roles including Field Director, Marketing and Business Development Director, Admissions Director, and Program Director. His work has been grounded in a belief that strong organizations and healthy cultures are essential to creating meaningful outcomes for the people and families they serve.

Danny played key leadership roles in the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council for more than a decade, including serving as Chair-Elect from 2016–2018, helping advance collaboration, professional standards, and the evolution of the field.

Today, Danny is a partner and strategic advisor to Lifeways, a community-based outdoor behavioral healthcare organization in Durango, Colorado, providing outpatient therapy, nature-based mentoring for at-risk youth, and mental health readiness training for outdoor professionals.

In 2024, Danny founded Gain the Ridge Consulting to help leaders in behavioral healthcare navigate change and uncertainty, build successful programs and high-functioning teams, and create healthy cultures where staff, families, and clients can thrive. His work is driven by a simple purpose: to help the people who dedicate their lives to helping others thrive—because heroes deserve that. Danny is a certified System and Soul Business Coach and a certified leadership coach through the Leadership Practices Inventory 360 and The Leadership Challenge.

In 2025, Danny approached longtime friend and colleague Dr. Will White with an idea that would eventually become the Leadership Growth Guild. Together, they created a community designed to help leaders in behavioral healthcare grow not only as executives, but as people—because the future of the field depends on developing leaders who are capable of leading with courage, wisdom, and purpose.

Dr. Will White, LCSW- Will has worked in behavioral healthcare since the 1980s across various settings including boarding schools, residential treatment, adventure therapy, anxiety treatment, and a young adult program. A licensed clinical social worker since 1987, Will also earned a Doctor of Arts in Leadership in 2010, which informs his work at the intersection of personal transformation, experiential education, and systems change.

In 1996, Will co-founded Summit Achievement, a residential treatment program with an adventure therapy component. During his 26 years with the organization, he served as CEO, Clinical Director, and Outreach Director, helping guide its clinical services, staff development, organizational leadership, and professional outreach.

Will is the longtime host of the Stories from the Field: Mental Health and the Outdoors podcast and author of Stories from the Field: A History of Wilderness Therapy, which chronicles the people, programs, and events that shaped wilderness therapy and outdoor behavioral healthcare.

His contributions have earned national recognition. In 2021, the Outdoor Behavioral Healthcare Council presented Will with its Eagle Award for his significant contributions to the field. In 2023, he received the National Association of Therapeutic Schools and Programs’ Leadership Award for his leadership in behavioral healthcare.

Since leaving Summit Achievement in 2022, Will has focused on consulting to individuals and organizations via coaching, leadership development, and retreat-based work. Drawing on decades of experience as a clinician, supervisor, entrepreneur, and organizational leader, he helps individuals and teams cultivate greater clarity, resilience, purpose, and connection. Learn more at wmai.org.

Leah Madamba, MS, NCC, LCMHC, CPC- Leah brings more than 25 years of experience as a therapist, clinical leader, and mentor. Her career spans wilderness therapy, residential treatment, community-based programs, family services, and private practice. After earning bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Spanish from Vanderbilt University, she worked as a field instructor with Hurricane Island Outward Bound School before completing a Master of Science in Community Counseling at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Throughout her career, Leah has held a wide range of clinical and leadership roles. She has provided direct therapy, supervised and supported multidisciplinary teams, developed family programming, led parent workshops and intensives, and directed a national transition program for adolescents and young adults returning home from residential treatment. These diverse experiences have given her a deep appreciation for both the art of clinical work and the complexities of leadership within behavioral healthcare organizations.

In 2024, Leah founded her private practice, where she provides therapy, parent coaching, and clinical mentorship. She enjoys partnering with emerging and experienced clinicians who want to deepen their clinical confidence, navigate professional challenges, strengthen their therapeutic presence, or explore leadership opportunities. Her mentoring style is collaborative, thoughtful, and grounded in curiosity rather than criticism. She believes clinicians grow best when they have a trusted space to reflect, ask difficult questions, and integrate evidence-based practices with authentic clinical intuition.

Over the years, Leah has learned that therapists’ effectiveness depends not only on their clinical knowledge but also on their willingness to remain reflective, connected, and committed to continued growth. Whether supporting someone who leads a clinical team, shapes program development, or seeks consultation on challenging clinical or organizational issues, Leah offers a seasoned perspective grounded in decades of leadership across diverse behavioral healthcare settings.