Meet The Team: Morgan Scibetta

Hi! My name is Morgan Scibetta. I grew up in a town outside of Philadelphia, PA, a few towns over from Kelsey's hometown. Kelsey and I logged many hours together snowboarding and working at the rental shop at our little local resort. I have always looked up to Kels (& still do), she has been an amazing snowboarder, friend and all around inspiring human from the beginning.

I moved to Salt Lake City, UT once I graduated high school to do the college thing, but I really just wanted a good excuse to live closer to the mountains. I graduated with a marketing and graphic design degree. I’m happy to say I still live in Salt Lake many moons later, with the exception of a few summers spent working at Mt.Hood.

I have always had a huge passion and love for the arts. Whether it was music, dancing, painting or drawing, I knew that I wanted a career that allowed me to have fun and tap into my creative side. Originally, I was attending college to become an occupational therapist because I love the idea of being able to heal people through art and music. Although I decided to switch paths later down the road, this is one of the reasons why I am SO excited to be a part of the creative portion of Save a Brain and use creativity to indirectly help others heal.

A majority of my creative time these days are spent illustrating and designing for a company called Traeger Grills. I also work with a lot of people and businesses within my community to design logos, illustrations, chalk board signs & merchandise. When I’m not getting crafty indoors, you will find me split boarding in the Wasatch, on a camping trip, or riding my mountain bike with my dog, Buddy. The outdoors really gets my creative juices flowing and the balance of enjoying fresh air and creating things at my desk is so important to me.

A few other fun facts, I’m a big fan of traveling south of the border for waves & margaritas, playing Dixie Chicks on my guitar, and having art shows over face time with my 6-year-old niece.

It has been so inspiring to watch Kelsey throughout her healing journey and see her turn personal experiences into an outlet that is helping and impacting others. I am so excited and honored to be a part of Save A Brain. Cheers!

Meet The Team: Danika Duffy

Hi! My name is Danika Duffy. I’m currently based in Seattle, Washington, but I spent most of my young adulthood in Mammoth Lakes, California. I joined the Mammoth Snowboard Team at 15 and dreamed of becoming a professional snowboarder. Admittedly, I didn’t have a ton of natural talent, but everyone said I was “coachable.” Read: I would try a trick over and over and over again, no matter how hard I fell. I ended up banging my head a few times. That’s how people referred to it then...just a bang to the head; something you could power through if you really wanted to do well at the next contest. I always felt nervous when I hit my head, like I should slow down or take a break. But when you’re young and you have people you trust assuring you your head is fine, you believe them. 

As the years went on, I gradually spiraled into anxiety and depression. I struggled with my vision and developed insomnia as well. I didn’t connect my symptoms with my head injuries until conversations about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) became more mainstream. At that point, I started to suspect I had post-concussion syndrome. Finally pinpointing the source of my symptoms brought temporary relief---quickly followed by panic. I wasn’t aware of any proven treatments for  post-concussion syndrome, nor of any measures I could take to prevent CTE. This panic started to consume my every waking moment. I became obsessed with the possibility that I could have CTE, or that I could be forever plagued by my symptoms. When I finally worked up the courage to speak with a doctor about my fears, I did not receive any reassurance; instead, I was told my symptoms would only get worse as I got older. 

I let this one conversation, this one opinion, dictate the course of my life for many years. I stopped snowboarding. I took jobs that seemed easy, that I could perform while still ruminating over my head and my post-concussion symptoms all day. It truly wasn’t until I saw my friends (including Kelsey!) come forward and publicly talk about their experiences with post-concussion syndrome that I realized I didn’t have to live my life this way. Slowly, I began to regain control over my life. I adjusted my diet, integrated mindful movement into my life, and started cognitive behavioral therapy. While this minimized many of my symptoms, I still didn’t feel completely right. It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to do hyperbaric treatment that I finally, finally started to feel like myself. After completing the hyperbaric treatment, and attending Plasticity Brain Center in Orlando, Florida, 99% of my symptoms went away.

I am so grateful to have had the resources and support to seek these treatment options. I attended (and recently graduated from!) law school in hopes that I could somehow advocate for individuals with TBI’s and facilitate treatment for them. I am confident my role at Save a Brain will enable me to connect others to the help and support they need as they navigate their TBI recovery. 

Yoga, Meditation and Your Brain

The first and most important thing to know if you want to start practicing yoga and meditation is that there are no prerequisites. You don't need to be flexible, have special clothing, or even have a ton of space. All you need is a willingness to learn, something comfortable to move in, and just enough space for your yoga mat.

Something yoga and meditation practitioners have known is that they both help your brain and mental state immensely. It's been in more recent years this has actually been measured and proven by science. With the use of fMRI and EEG, you can see changes in the grey matter volume in your brain as well as changes in other structures. They also can see less activation in the parts of your brain that control your “monkey mind” or the part of your brain that likes to wander.

It's funny to think that less activation in your brain could be a good thing, but really when your mind is still you can really use your brain more efficiently! Think of having too many tabs or apps open on your computer, or trying to balance on one foot with your arm tied behind your back and make dinner at the same time. You can get the picture, your brain when bogged down with too much won't be as optimized.

A study conducted at Harvard University found mindfulness meditation actually changed key structures of the brain. The changes consist of increase in cortical thickness within the hippocampus, decrease in brain cell volume in the amygdala, and increase in grey matter. These areas control emotional regulation, fear and anxiety responses, as well as stress. Participants in the eight week study reported to feel all around improved well-being and mood.

At UCLA they did a study on the aging brain, finding that a person who has practiced meditating for around 20 years had more grey matter throughout their brain. Not to say they didn't experience some loss on volume, it was significantly less than a person who didn't meditate at all.

The list can go on with the positive findings from some of the country's leading scientists. It doesn't hurt to give it a try! This doesn't mean you have to jump right into an hour every day. Find something sustainable, something that works with your life. Even if that is just one minute, timed on your phone, and just focusing on your breath. Just letting your eyes close... noticing your breath. Begin to feel your chest rise and fall with every inhale and exhale. Can we find time throughout our busy days to live in the present moment? 

Study from UCLA | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01551/full

Study from Harvard University | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/

Meet The Team: Jen Chang

My name is Jen Chang. I fell in love with snowboarding the first time I strapped in when I was twelve years old. Snowboarding was always one of those things I obsessed about, even if I couldn’t do it that often when I was young. I grew up in San Marino, CA, a suburb north of Los Angeles. I would often only get to go to the mountains a few times a year, but I loved riding so much and always dreamed of living in the mountains. I eventually landed full-time in the mountains, but the path I took to get there was not a traditional one.

During my early adulthood, I was living a life that I thought I wanted to live—a picture that society very much painted, but that I believed at the time. I went to college, fell in love with the guy who lived across the hall from me in my freshman dorm, and thought my fate was pretty much decided. I ended up marrying that same guy. Fifteen years later, we divorced.

To spend that amount of time with someone and then to not have them in your life is heartbreaking and gut-wrenching, but the shift gave me the opportunity to really find myself and what is truly important to me. I went to Japan in 2019 with a group of amazing women from Beyond the Boundaries. My life changed when I was there. I recognized myself for the first time in a long time and I finally felt like I was being true to myself. To connect with people at a deeper level who share the same passion—in this case, spending time outside and snowboarding—is an incredible thing; it makes life so much more meaningful and fun. It was such a turning point for me in following my heart and diving headfirst into the things that are important to me, whether they follow the picture prescribed by society or not.

I am deeply passionate about snowboarding and spending time outdoors being active, but even more so, I am devoted to connecting with and helping others. Luckily, with Beyond the Boundaries, I get to do all of these things! Since that first trip to Japan, I have joined the BTBounds staff and help on all levels to make the camps and trips happen and grow the women’s snowboarding community. It’s been a rewarding experience that has introduced me to new places and incredible people—and that is how I met Kelsey! The community of women is truly special, and I am so grateful to be a part of it all. 

Also, my dream of living in the mountains came true: I moved to Truckee in May of 2019! As I settled into mountain town life (with snowboarding, mountain biking, and an amazing crew of friends just outside my door!), it was serendipitous that my professional background in economics and finance could be a valuable resource to Save a Brain.

In addition to my love of the outdoors, I also enjoy budgeting and anything to do with numbers. After graduating from the University of California Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Economics with an emphasis in Accounting, I obtained my certified public accountant license. I worked for Deloitte and Touche as a corporate auditor for about three years, and then I worked for Avery Dennison, a Fortune 500 company, where I gained corporate financial reporting experience and assisted with the Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Most recently, I led the finance and accounting team at Apex Global Brands (formerly Cherokee, Inc.) for over eight years. At Apex, I managed multiple processes, which included financial accounting, financial budgeting, financial planning, as well as financial reporting and systems implementations.

I am excited and grateful to be a part of the Save a Brain team. Thank you, Kelsey for doing all that you do!