Shannon Shy, President
Shannon Shy, a resident of Woodbridge, VA, since 1998, is the President of the Trillium Board of Directors. The Board elected Shannon President in 2012. Shannon is a retired United States Marine Corp Reserve Lieutenant Colonel and a retired civilian attorney with the Department of the Navy, with a total of thirty years of federal service. In 2018, Shannon deployed to Afghanistan for a two-year tour as a civilian advisor to their Ministry of Defense Chief Legal Officer. Shannon was diagnosed with a severe case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in 1997 when he was thirty-four years old and a Major on active duty in the Marine Corps. Through treatment, he successfully developed a unique strategy to fully recover. A Certified Peer Recovery Specialist, he has written three books on overcoming OCD, produced an on-line video course about providing peer support to people suffering from OCD, and provided peer support to over six-hundred OCD sufferers around the world since 2016. He was the Keynote Speaker at the 2010 International OCD Foundation (IOCDF) annual conference in Washington DC. The IOCDF Board of Directors then selected Shannon to join the Board in 2011. He served as Secretary to the Board from 2014 to 2016 and as the President of the Board from 2016 to 2018. Shannon co-founded OCD Mid-Atlantic, an IOCDF affiliate, in 2013 and served as its Vice President. Shannon serves as the Director of Scholastic Achievement for American Youth Football and Cheer (AYF/AYC) and served as the AYF/AYC National Membership Director from 2007 to 2018. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors for the National Council of Youth Sports. From 2013 to 2014, Shannon served on a committee with the National Council on Youth Sports Safety, which was led by former United States Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, to review the issue of concussions in youth sports. In a volunteer capacity, Shannon has coached youth football, baseball, and soccer. He co-founded a youth football and cheer association in Dale City, Virginia, that ultimately won five national AYF championships. Shannon volunteered as the stadium announcer for C.D. Hylton High School’s football program from 2005 - 2023. Shannon hails from High Ridge, Missouri. He is a graduate of Missouri State University (1985), where he wrestled, and the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law (1988), where he served as the Student Bar Association President. In 2017, he was inducted into the American Youth Football Volunteer Hall of Fame and the Northwest High School (Cedar Hill, Missouri) Alumni Hall of Fame. In 2023 the Virginia Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association presented him with their Distinguished Service Award. Married in 1989, he and Debbie have three children and two grandchildren.

Andrea Hess, LPC, Vice President
Andrea Hess is currently an Emergency Services Manager for the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, located in Fairfax Virginia. She has over 20 years of experience working with individuals who are experiencing a mental health crisis. Prior to joining Fairfax CSB, she was a supervisor in the Co-Responder Program with Prince William Community Services Board where she began her career as a student intern with PWC CSB back in 2002 and joined the Emergency Services Department upon graduation later that same year. Throughout her tenure at PWC, she was an integral part of the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) which is responsible for training law enforcement on how to better interact with individuals experiencing a mental health crisis. Through this training, she began collaborating with Trillium and their former Executive Director, Cynthia Dudley. This partnership led to developing various opportunities such as law enforcement touring Trillium, collaborating with VDOT to put up a crisis sign at the Occoquan River Bridge on Rte 123, and providing hundreds of stress balls with the Trillium and CIT logo to hand out to law enforcement officers. Most recently, she assisted in reviewing applications and being a part of the interview process and selection for Trillium’s new Executive Director.

Marie Stevenson, Treasurer
Marie Stevenson brings over 30 years of human services experience to Trillium. She began her career at ACTS serving in multiple roles including development assistant, management assistant, and office manager. After ACTS she became the CFO and Special Needs Parenting Director at Change in Action, from there she moved on to her work as a Medicaid Service Facilitator. After her time as a Service Facilitator, she took on the role of HelpLine Director for Mental Health America in Fredericksburg. She has served as a CIT presenter on Autism for the Prince William County Police for over a decade. She is a member of Destiny and Virginia 1 courts of the Order of the Amaranth.

Christopher Stowers
Christopher Stowers brings a deeply personal and professionally grounded commitment to mental health and substance use advocacy to his role as a Board Member of Trillium Centers. Christopher’s passion for this work is rooted in lived experience. Growing up in a family impacted by mental health challenges, he witnessed firsthand the complexity, resilience, and quiet strength required to navigate these realities. Those early experiences shaped his perspective, instilled lasting empathy, and motivated him to help reduce stigma while expanding access to meaningful support and care. Professionally, Christopher serves as a Relationship Manager within the substance use and mental health field, with more than 15 years of experience spanning healthcare, behavioral health, finance, and business development. His work focuses on building sustainable partnerships, strengthening referral networks, and bridging gaps between clinical care, community resources, and the people who need them most. He is known for his ability to connect organizations through trust-driven, human-centered relationships rather than transactional approaches. In addition to his role with Trillium Center, Christopher is actively involved in mental health advocacy and education through media, community initiatives, and board service, including his work with Zero Overdose. He is also the founder and co-Creator of Mind Split Cafe, a platform dedicated to honest conversations around mental health, substance use, recovery, and wellness. Christopher is deeply committed to advancing compassionate, evidence-informed approaches to care. As a board member, he brings a blend of strategic insight, relationship-focused leadership, and lived understanding—guided by the belief that mental health is not a side conversation, but a foundational component of overall well-being.

Dennis Hunt, Member At Large
Dennis, a native of Chicago and avid Cub & Bear fan, relocated to the Northern Virginia area in May of 1985 to begin employment with the IBM Corporation. Since then, Dennis has lived in Manassas, Bealton and Dumfries, before settling in the Woodbridge area. As parent of a Mental Health consumer, Dennis was introduced to the Trillium Center through the Prince William Community Services Board in 2007. Since that time, Dennis has been an ally and supporter of Trillium’ mission in the community. Dennis joined the Trillium Board in 2012 and continues to assist & support Trillium in providing a sigma free environment for the local mental health community.

Sharon Runge, Member At Large
Sharon Runge has been a Trillium Center Employee since 2007, when we first opened our doors. She has served in many roles – webmaster, group facilitator, database tech, pool shark, driver, and many others. Her current role is Director of Operations. She actively represents Trillium on a couple regional committees; the Northern Virginia Recovery Initiative and the Prince William County Mental Health Awareness Event planning committee. She has been a certified Peer Recovery Specialist since 2016, when certification became available. Sharon has a BA in Mathematics from Beloit College, Beloit, WI. Sharon is also on the board for her church in Southern Maryland, where she lives an easy walk from the Chesapeake Bay, where she loves to hunt for Miocene era fossilized sharks’ teeth. She is active in sailing on the Bay, racing and cruising. She and her husband, John, plan to sail north when they retire, to explore the Maine coast and further afield. She has two beautiful amazing daughters and a couple of cats and grand-kitties.

Vicki Graham, Member At Large
Graduate of Liberty University, Lynchburg, Virginia, BS Psychology Joined Action in Community Through Service (ACTS) Helpline, a 24-hour crisis hotline, as a volunteer crisis listener in 1986. ACTS Helpline program director 1990-2016 Certified instructor ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and QPR (Question, Persuade, and Refer). Created training and presentations for numerous groups, to include law enforcement, firefighters, school personnel, senior adult groups, and churches. Initiated the application, and eventual certification, of ACTS Helpline to become an AAS (American Association of Suicidology) certified crisis center. Helpline continued to be a certified center culminating in being one of five centers participating as a backup center for the (NSPL) National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Creator and facilitator of SAS (Surviving After Suicide) support group, Traumatic Death Bereavement, and Parents of Suicide Loss support group. One of several presenters to address a Senate sub-committee hearing, 2008, on older adult suicide. Created and implemented Senior Link, a call out program to shut-ins, particularly senior adults, to offer support. ACTS Chief Program Officer (CPO) 2016-2020 Assisted the CEO in providing vision, leadership, and strategic planning for the organization. Performed the duties of the CEO in his absence. Oversaw the Directors of ACTS Helpline, Sexual Assault Services, Domestic Violence Services, Housing Services, and Emergency Services.

Geraldine Weeks, Member At Large
Geraldine(Jeri) has been a board member at Trillium since 2015. As a parent of a Mental Health consumer Jeri became active in the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 1994.She trained for, then ran the first NAMI Family Support Group in Prince William County. She continued running this group for 20 years. From 1985 until 2015 she taught Visions for Tomorrow, Nami Basics, and Family to Family education courses. She trained new instructors for these groups at the state and local level. As a retired PWC school Elementary Guidance Counselor and former teacher Jeri enjoys decorating, reading, Mah Jongg, and visiting family and friends. She has three adult children and four adult grandchildren. Two grandchildren on the East coast and two on the West coast.