Who We Are

 Dr. Thielman, Director of Still Waters Global in Montreat, NC, is a trainer and clinician with extensive experience in supporting people working overseas. During his 20+ years of service to the U.S. government, he travelled widely in the developing world and worked many years overseas, first as the State Department’s psychiatrist at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, then later in Western Europe. He is Adjunct Associat Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine and has published widely on the psychological effects of terrorism, drawing from his work with Americans and others affected by trauma in East Africa and the Middle East. He has served as the Senior Advisor for Resilience at the State Department’s Foreign Service Institute and as Director of Mental Health Services for the State Department. His work has appeared in many professional publications, including the American Journal of Psychiatry, Psychiatry, the British Journal of Psychiatry, and the New England Journal of Medicine. His clients have included, among others, Samaritan’s Purse, Open Doors International, and the Konterra Group.

Jessica is a licensed clinical social worker and care coordination specialist who joined Still Waters Global in 2018.  She has served as a staff care consultant since 2015, providing both direct support to internationally-based staff and consultative services for domestic employees.  She has also worked as a clinical social worker in community mental health, hospice, and corrections facilities.  Jessica has served with Samaritan's Purse in Lira, Uganda, working with the HIV/AIDS program that provided support to Ugandan nationals living in internally displaced people camps.  She has broad experience in telemental health assessment, support and triage.  She works predominantly  with international workers in high threat or high stress environments.  She can also provide on-site organizational support to international field offices regarding behavioral health issues. Jessica is knowledgeable about evidence based disaster mental health support models and uses a Christian spirituality framework in her clinical approach.

Tracy Staton is a trainer and former corporate public relations professional and speech writer who changed careers to become a Christian worker in Thailand, where she and her husband lived from 1999 to 2017.  She received her Master of Divinity degree from Asbury Theological Seminary. 

Tracy is known as one of the pioneers of an explosive dance fitness movement in Chiang Mai, mentoring and empowering Thai women and men to healthy lifestyles, that still continues today. Her training style reflects her commitment to see communities transformed by better health in mind, body and spirit.

Tracy’s long-term overseas work began with living among the Akha hilltribe of Elephant Mountain, where she learned to speak Akha fluently.  With her husband, she worked and raised her children in this austere environment until 2007.   Then, their focus shifted to the Akeu people, for whom their work involved contextualizing the gospel and helping to preserve their culture through pictures, and audio and video recordings with Global Recordings Network (GRN) International.

Tracy’s home served as a refuge for numerous Akha and Akeu youth, allowing them to continue their education through high school, and some through college.  Her training approach reflects her long-term experience in this difficult environment and draws from her focus on counseling, the arts, and spiritual growth.

Blake is Cultural Consultant and Missiologist for All Nations International. He holds an MA in Intercultural Studies from Biola University and is a veteran missionary of nearly 18 years in Thailand,. He relocated permanently to the USA in June 2017 along with his wife and two teenaged-children, both born and raised in Thailand. Their first seven years were spent living among the Akha hilltribe and learning their language. Their focus shifted in 2007 to a subgroup of the Akha, called the Akeu, an unreached people group for whom they helped preserve their culture through pictures, audio recordings and videos. From there, as cultural consultant with Global Recordings Network (GRN) International, Blake’s experience expanded to four other unreached people groups. Blake is most passionate about incarnational missions and intercultural preaching and teaching, with special emphasis on contextualizing the gospel for illiterate people groups with no written language, nor knowledge or worship of Christ in their mother tongues. His previous short-term missions experience included China, Guatemala, Mexico and Costa Rica.