Core Team Members

Alexis Decosimo, DrPH, ATR, LPCA
Founder, Executive Director and Clinical Team Leader

Alexis received her Doctorate in Public Health from East Tennessee State University and received her masters in Art Therapy and Clinical Counseling at The George Washington University. Alexis is currently working as an art therapist in Asheville, NC and is the Founder and Executive Director of Playing to Live! She specializes in trauma informed art therapy, program development, and international work. She has worked in Yekepa, Liberia, India, Jamaica, Florence, Italy, and Walter Reed National Military Hospital. She has worked as a clinician in wilderness therapy settings, autism, substance abuse, at risk youth in diverse populations, PTSD, military, and with homeless and displaced persons. She has experienced time and time again how artistic expression, play, and cultural empowerment can facilitate recovery and healing after a traumatic experience, and her passion and career path lies within developing global programs that provide children in low resource communities a safe and healing space for recovering from trauma.

Jessi Hanson, Ed.M
Cofounder, Monitoring & Evaluation Director

With a BA from Colorado State University, Jessi taught in the United States, the Dominican and Mexico. She is a return Peace Corps Volunteer from the Dominican Republic where she worked with children and youth clubs. Jessi holds a master from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in International Ed. Policy, and currently is seeking a Ph.D in child policy from for the University of Pittsburgh. Her passion is to help enrich the lives of marginalized children through opportunities for them to have access to quality and meaningful education and equitable child-centered services. Her specialties include: International Education Policy, public school teaching, poverty reduction, child social services and psychosocial support, community participation, monitoring & evaluation systems, and capacity development of national teams. She has worked in development aid for ten years, including over three years in Liberia including the child-focused programming. During the height of the Ebola Crisis, she supported the start of Playing to Live in child isolation wards (ICCs) and partnering with the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Gender. She continues to lead Playing to Live's growth on the ground including capacity development and program quality improvement with the Liberian team.

Catherine Reilly Boland, MS, CCLS, LMP
Clinical Program Manager

Catherine (Cat) believes that every child deserves the right to live to his/her fullest potential. As a Certified Child Life Specialist, she provides psychosocial and emotional support services to pediatric patients to meet the holistic needs of children impacted by illness, trauma, and hospitalization. She specializes in trauma processing, bereavement services, therapeutic and medical play, pain management, and international program development. She has presented nationally and globally on her work with psychosocial program development & pharmacological/non-pharmacological pediatric pain management. Cat has her masters in Global Health and has completed coursework specific to psychological first aid, public health in humanitarian crisis, and emergency response. Her work has focused in North America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. Cat is honored to be a part of a dedicated team paving the way to fight the impact of trauma through the power of play!