Appendix C
Biographies of Workshop Speakers
Shikha Anand, M.D., M.P.H., is a pediatrician with expertise in community health and the patient-centered medical home. She has more than 10 years of experience championing children’s health and creating innovative programs to integrate community supports with health care resources for underserved children to improve care for children with obesity, autism, asthma, behavioral health concerns, and special health care needs. She created the Healthy Weight Clinic, a community health model for multidisciplinary obesity care, and the Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program, a national program to provide healthy food access for underserved families. She is a graduate of Union College, Albany Medical College, and Boston University School of Public Health. She completed her residency training at Yale New Haven Hospital and her fellowship in general academic pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. She is a community health center pediatrician, having served for 5 years as the Pediatric Director at the Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Since 2011, she has been providing care for vulnerable families at the Codman Square Health Center in Dorchester, Massachusetts. She serves on the Board of Directors of Healthcare Without Harm and Chairs the Advisory Board for Wholesome Wave’s Fruit and Vegetable Prescription Program.
Joan Rosenbaum Asarnow, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), David Geffen School of Medicine and a clinical psychologist. Dr. Asarnow served as President of the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology/American Psychological Association Division 53 during 2014 where she
developed and continues to lead a national initiative focusing on optimizing the success of the transformation in the U.S. health care system through our science. Her current work focuses on interventions and service delivery strategies for improving health and mental health in youth, with an emphasis on suicide/suicide attempt prevention and depression. She has led efforts to disseminate evidence-based treatments for child and adolescent depression and suicide prevention, working across multiple service settings including primary care, emergency departments, mental health, and school settings. Dr. Asarnow has received grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the MacArthur Foundation. At the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Dr. Asarnow directs the Youth Stress and Mood Program, a depression and suicide prevention program.
Julianne Beckett worked at the University of Iowa for the past 34 years, retiring August 2014. During her tenure there, she worked for the Title V program, Child Health Specialty Clinics, the University Centers on Disability and Development, under a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grant and for the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disability at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is a cofounder of an organization called Family Voices, and currently serves as the co-chair of the FamilY Partnership Network with the American Academy of Pediatrics. Her daughter, Katie, was the first home and community-based services Medicaid waiver person and passed away in 2012 at age 34.
Anthony Biglan, Ph.D., is a Senior Scientist at Oregon Research Institute. His research over the past 30 years has helped to identify effective family, school, and community interventions to prevent the most common and costly problems of childhood and adolescence. Dr. Biglan is a former president of the Society for Prevention Research. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine Committee on Prevention, which released its report in 2009 documenting numerous evidence-based preventive interventions that can prevent multiple problems. His recent review of preventive interventions concluded that diverse psychological, behavioral, and health problems can be prevented through the promotion of nurturing families, schools, and communities. Dr. Biglan’s book, The Nurture Effect: How the Science of Human Behavior Can Improve Our Lives and Our World (New Harbinger Publications), is a union of his experience and knowledge and experimental evidence emphasizing the importance of nurturing in raising happy children who become thriving and successful as adults.
Rahil D. Briggs, Psy.D., is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Director of Healthy Steps at Montefiore, and the Director of Pediatric Behavioral Health Services at Montefiore Medical Group. Dr. Briggs joined Einstein and Montefiore in 2005 as the Director and founder of Healthy Steps at Montefiore. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in 2008, and expanded the Healthy Steps program to multiple sites within Montefiore Medical Group in 2009 and 2013. She was named the Director of Pediatric Behavioral Health Services at Montefiore in 2013 and asked to spearhead the formation of one of the most comprehensive integrated pediatric behavioral health systems in the nation. Her work concentrates on integration of mental health specialists within primary care pediatrics, with a focus on prevention, early childhood mental health and development, and parent–child relationships. She has received more than $4 million in funded grant support since 2006, and is currently working on a book regarding integrated early childhood mental health in primary care, to be published by Springer in 2016. Dr. Briggs completed her undergraduate work at Duke University (magna cum laude) and her doctoral work at New York University.
Jorielle Brown, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with more than 15 years of behavioral health experience in government, academia, and consultation services. Dr. Brown currently serves as Director of the Division of Systems Development in the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the Department of Health and Human Services. Lieutenant Brown was commissioned in the U.S. Public Health Service in February 2015. She has worked in various capacities in SAMHSA to include Special Assistant to the Administrator, Special Assistant to the Deputy Administrator, Acting Division Director, Branch Chief, and Public Health Advisor. Dr. Brown came to the SAMHSA in 2005 from Morgan State University where she conducted National Institutes of Health–funded research in the Center for Health Disparities Solutions and the Drug Abuse Research Program. She earned her bachelor degree in chemistry and went on to earn a masters and doctoral degree in clinical psychology with a specialization in children and adolescents at Howard University. Following postdoctoral training in Prevention Science at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. Brown served as assistant professor of psychology, research and statistical methods, and counseling methods at Johns Hopkins University and Howard University. Dr. Brown’s research and clinical experience with diagnosing, treating, and testing individuals with mental health, substance abuse, and co-occurring disorders has allowed her to publish peer-reviewed articles, present at national conferences, and provide workshops on the top-
ics of prevention, treatment and recovery from mental and substance use disorders. She has received numerous honors that include the Hubert H. Humphrey Award for Service to America, American Psychological Association’s Dalmas Taylor Award, and the SAMHSA Administrator’s Award.
Lindsey Browning, M.P.P., joined the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) in early 2014 as a policy analyst. In this role, Lindsey works with the team at NAMD to provide an information network among states on key issues for Medicaid programs and to represent the views of state Medicaid directors in the federal policy process. Her primary areas of focus include behavioral and physical health integration, managed care, and maternal and child health policy issues in Medicaid. Before coming to NAMD, she worked at the Children’s Hospital Association, where she conducted research and analysis on children’s health policy issues, including on state Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program policy trends. She began her career as a public policy intern for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Lindsey received her Master of Public Policy degree from George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia and graduated from McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland, with a Bachelor of Arts in political science and international studies.
Mark Chaffin, Ph.D., is a psychologist and Professor of Public Health at Georgia State University. His recent work focused on methods for adapting, implementing, and scaling up evidence-based service models in systems serving families in the child welfare system, and testing their effectiveness for improving parenting, child safety and well-being outcomes.
Wilson M. Compton, M.D., M.P.E., is Deputy Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) of the National Institutes of Health. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug abuse and addiction related to preventing drug abuse, treating addiction and addressing the serious health consequences of drug abuse, including related HIV/AIDS and other health conditions. In his current role, Dr. Compton’s responsibilities include providing scientific leadership in the development, implementation, and management of NIDA’s research portfolio and working with the director to support and conduct research. Prior to his current appointment, Dr. Compton served as the director of NIDA’s Division of Epidemiology, Services and Prevention Research from 2002 until 2013. In this leadership role, he oversaw the scientific direction of a complex public health research program of national and international scope addressing: (1) the extent and spread of drug abuse, (2) how to prevent drug abuse, and (3) how to implement drug abuse prevention and treatment services as effectively as possible. Of note, he led the development of a large-scale
longitudinal population study with 45,995 study subjects ages 12 and older in the baseline sample to assess the impact of new tobacco regulations in the United States. This project is jointly sponsored by NIDA and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and includes prospective data collection, using both surveys and biological assessments of tobacco exposures, risk factors, and health outcomes. Before joining NIDA, Dr. Compton was Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Master in Psychiatric Epidemiology Program at Washington University in Saint Louis as well as Medical Director of Addiction Services at the Barnes-Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis. Dr. Compton received his undergraduate education from Amherst College. He attended medical school and completed his residency training in psychiatry at Washington University. During his career, Dr. Compton has achieved multiple scientific accomplishments: he was selected to serve as a member of the DSM-5 Revision Task Force; he is the author of more than 130 articles and chapters including widely cited papers drawing attention to the emerging prescription drug abuse problems in the United States; and he is an invited speaker at high-impact venues, including multiple presentations to federal judges in presentations sponsored by the Federal Judicial Center. These judicial presentations have focused on how the science of addiction may improve policy and practices related to addicts within the criminal justice system. Dr. Compton is a member of numerous professional organizations, including the Alpha Omega Alpha medical education honor society. Dr. Compton is the recipient of multiple awards: in 2008, he received the Senior Scholar Health Services Research Award from the American Psychiatric Association; in 2010, he received the Paul Hoch Award from the American Psychopathological Association; and in both 2012 and 2013, he was selected to receive the Leveraging Collaboration Award from FDA. In 2013, Dr. Compton received the prestigious Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Meritorious Service.
Stephen M. Downs, M.D., M.S., is the Jean and Jerry Bepko Professor of Pediatrics and Vice Chair for General Pediatrics at Indiana University (IU) School of Medicine. He directs Children’s Health Services Research and is the former director of the IU/Regenstrief Biomedical Informatics Research Training Program and the Indiana Health Services Research postdoctoral training program. He is a fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics. He received his M.D. and master’s degree in medical informatics from Stanford University and completed an internship and residency in pediatrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). At UNC-CH he completed a health services research fellowship in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Program and was on the faculties of Pediatrics, Biomedical Engineering, and the School of Public Health.
Mark Friedlander, M.D., M.B.A., joined Aetna in 2002 and has been Chief Medical Officer, Behavioral Health, since 2010, with responsibility for oversight of patient management processes; accreditation and quality management; clinical policy; and design, development, and implementation of behavioral health products and programs. He is involved with legislative responses; lobbying efforts; outreach to advocacy, professional, academic, and public stakeholders; and development of claims and clinical policies and communications with customers. Other Aetna responsibilities include Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Patient Safety, Medical Operations and Clinical Policy Committees; and tactical and strategic development of short- and long-term operating plans and business models for the Behavioral Health area. Dr. Friedlander has experience as a solo practitioner, and he was Acting Medical Director for the Child Guidance Resource Centers with responsibilities for evaluation and treatment of children and adolescents for special education placements, and became Medical Director for the outpatient department and adolescent inpatient unit at Friends Hospital in Philadelphia. Dr. Friedlander completed his training at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and is board certified in both Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry. He is a recognized clinical leader in the field of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and Neuropsychiatry and has been recognized as a “Top Doc” in Philadelphia Magazine.
Greg Hagan, M.D., FAAP, is a general pediatrician in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Chief of Pediatrics at the Cambridge Health Alliance. He is Clinical Instructor in Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital and at Harvard Medical School. He is convinced that we must find new, more effective ways to meet the mental health needs of children and families in the context of general pediatrics practice and with particular emphasis on disparities and social determinants of general and behavioral health. He has served as Past-President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and as Faculty Co-Chair in CHIPRA (Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009), Massachusetts Pediatric Medical Home Learning Collaborative. Dr. Hagan is a member of the Massachusetts Children’s Mental Health Task Force, and is on the Executive Committee of Massachusetts Child Health Quality Coalition. He is also Primary Care/Mental Health Integration Lead in a Delivery System Transformation Initiative Grant at Cambridge Health Alliance and a Co-Investigator on “Making Care Affordable, Preserving Access and Improving Value,” A collaborative practice delivery system pilot, funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, that aims to develop an active consultation, team-based model to improve care to high-cost children with mental health needs, as well as build workforce capacity through collaborative training of pediatric and child psychiatry trainees.
Joseph F. Hagan, Jr., M.D., FAAP, is Clinical Professor in Pediatrics at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and Vermont Children’s Hospital. He is coeditor of The Bright Futures Guidelines, Third and Fourth Editions, the standard of preventive care for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Dr. Hagan served as American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Vermont Chapter Vice-President and President. He chaired the Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health and is a regular reviewer for Pediatrics. Following the 2001 attacks, he chaired the Academy’s Task Force on Terrorism. His commitment to the care of vulnerable children led Dr. Hagan to chair the Citizen’s Advisory Board for the Vermont Department for Children and Families. He consults for the commissioner on complex child protection cases. An experienced advocate on community, state, and federal levels, Dr. Hagan served on the legislative committee that created Vermont’s Family Court. He has testified on behalf of the AAP before U.S. Senate committees regarding the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children and the ACA and often testifies before the Vermont Legislature. He has extensive media experience, has published extensively, presented nationally and internationally, and has received numerous awards recognizing his work. Dr. Hagan practices primary care pediatrics in Burlington, Vermont.
Neal Halfon, M.D., M.P.H., is director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, and also directs the Child and Family Health Program in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and the National Center for Infant and Early Childhood Health Policy. Dr. Halfon is professor of pediatrics in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; health policy and management in the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health; and public policy in the UCLA School of Public Affairs. He is also a consultant in the Health Program at RAND. In 2001 Dr. Halfon was named to the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine (IOM). He has served on numerous expert panels and advisory committees, including the IOM committee (1998–2000) commissioned by the Surgeon General to propose the leading health indicators for measuring the country’s progress with the national Healthy People 2010 agenda. Dr. Halfon recently served on the congressionally mandated Committee on Children’s Health for the IOM to evaluate how children’s health should be measured in the United States, for which he also contributed to the volume Children’s Health, the Nation’s Wealth (2004). In 1999 he co-chaired the Association for Health Services Research’s agenda-setting conference Improving the Quality of Health Care for Children, which generated the research agenda that was included in the legislation reauthorizing the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in 2000. From 2002 to 2004,
Dr. Halfon served as co-chair of the Health Services Working Group for the planned National Children’s Study of the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development and Environmental Protection Agency. He also has served on the Pediatric Measurement Advisory Panel for the National Committee on Quality Assurance; Foundation for Accountability (1999–2002); Committee on Child Health Financing for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (1993–1998); and on expert panels for the National Commission on Children (1991); Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s (MCHB’s) Bright Futures project; Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Panel on Child Health Services Research; Bureau of Health Professions’ Panel on Primary Care; and Carnegie Commission on Early Childhood. In 2006, Dr. Halfon was honored by the Ambulatory Pediatric Association (APA) with the APA Research Award. This award is given each year to one pediatrician who has helped to advance pediatric knowledge through excellence in research. Dr. Halfon’s primary research interests include the provision of developmental services to young children, access to care for low-income children, and delivery of health services to children with special health care needs, with a particular interest in abused and neglected children in the foster care system. Beginning in 1998, Dr. Halfon constituted and led a collaborative team that included representatives from the AAP, National Center for Health Statistics, MCHB, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Immunization Program—to develop, design, launch, and analyze the 2000 National Survey of Children’s Health. Dr. Halfon has also published the results of research on immunizations for inner-city children, the health care needs of children in foster care, trends in chronic illnesses for children, delivery of health care services for children with asthma, and investigations of new models of health service delivery for high-risk children. He coauthored and coedited Child Rearing in America: Challenges Facing Parents with Young Children with Kathryn Taaffe McLearn and Mark A. Shuster. Dr. Halfon’s conceptual work attempts to define a developmentally focused model of health production across the life course and to understand the implications of life course health development for the delivery and financing of health care. His Life Course Health Development model has been used to inform new approaches to health promotion, disease prevention, and developmental optimization. Dr. Halfon has also served as a domestic policy and health care advisor to former Vice President Al Gore, providing guidance in 1998 and 1999 on the development of several new initiatives focused on family-centered community building.
Kelly Kelleher, M.D., is a pediatrician whose research interests focus on accessibility, effectiveness, and quality of health care services for children and their families, especially those affected by mental disorders, substance
abuse, or violence. He has a long-standing interest in formal outcomes research for mental health and substance abuse services. Dr. Kelleher is director of the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice and vice president of Health Services Research at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Dr. Kelleher is also Professor in the Department of Pediatrics of the Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health.
Parinda Khatri, Ph.D., is Chief Clinical Officer at Cherokee Health Systems (CHS), a comprehensive community health care organization that provides integrated primary care, behavioral health, and substance abuse services to more than 60,000 patients in 14 counties at 23 clinics in east Tennessee. CHS has been nationally recognized for its innovative model of integrated primary and behavioral health care by leading health care agencies and organizations, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration and the Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality (AHRQ). In 2007, CHS was awarded the Best Practices in 21st Century Primary Care Award from the Morehouse School of Medicine National Center for Primary Care for the “effective integration of mental health and primary care.” Dr. Khatri leads Cherokee’s integrated care implementation; provides leadership, oversight, and guidance on clinical services; and is extensively involved in consultation and training in integrated care. She directs a number of the organization’s formal training programs and is also Cherokee’s Principal Investigator on several research projects. She is involved in a number of national initiatives to support integration, healthcare workforce development, and health care for safety net populations. She is past-President of the Collaborative Family Health Association, and a member of AHRQ’s National Integration Advisory Council.
John Landsverk, Ph.D., is a Research Scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center (OSLC), Science Director of the OSLC Developments, Inc., and Founding Director of the Child and Adolescent Services Research Center. He also serves as Director of the Research Methods Core for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)-funded Center for Translational Drug Abuse Prevention in Child Welfare at OSLC (PI Chamberlain), Associate Director for the NIMH-funded R25 Implementation Research Institute at Washington University (PI Proctor), and is a member of the executive committee for the NIDA-funded Center for Prevention Implementation Methods for Drug Abuse and Sex Risk Behavior at Northwestern University (PI Brown). His research studies focus on the intersection of child welfare and children’s mental health with an emphasis on the implementation of evidence-based interventions in these service systems. Dr. Landsverk has received numerous research grants and contracts from the National Institute of Mental Health and other federal agencies, including three center
grants, the most recent being the advanced center Implementation Methods Research Group focused on developing methods and strategies for implementing evidence-based interventions in child welfare and child mental health settings.
Jeffrey Levi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Trust for America’s Health (TFAH), where he leads the organization’s advocacy efforts on behalf of a modernized public health system. He oversees TFAH’s work on a range of public health policy issues, including implementation of the public health provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and annual reports assessing the nation’s public health preparedness, investment in public health infrastructure, and response to chronic diseases such as obesity. TFAH led the public health community’s efforts to enact, and now defend, the prevention provisions of the ACA, including the Prevention and Public Health Fund and the new Community Transformation Grants. In January 2011, President Obama appointed Dr. Levi to serve as a member of the Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health, which he chairs. Dr. Levi is also Professor of Health Policy George Washington University’s School of Public Health, where his research has focused on HIV/AIDS, Medicaid, and integrating public health with the health care delivery system. In the past, he has also served as an associate editor of the American Journal of Public Health and as Deputy Director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy. Beginning in the early 1980s, he held various leadership positions in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender and HIV communities, helping to frame the early response to the HIV epidemic. Dr. Levi received a B.A. from Oberlin College, an M.A. from Cornell University, and a Ph.D. from George Washington University.
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, Ph.D., RN, CPNP/PMHNP, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, is Associate Vice President for Health Promotion, University Chief Wellness Officer, Professor and Dean of the College of Nursing at Ohio State University (OSU), and professor of pediatrics and psychiatry at OSU’s College of Medicine. She is a pediatric and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, and is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in evidence-based practice, intervention research, child and adolescent mental health, and health and wellness, and is a frequent keynote speaker at national/international conferences on these topics. Her record includes more than $19 million of sponsored funding from federal agencies as principal investigator. Dr. Melnyk is co-editor of 4 books and more than 250 publications, including Evidence-based Practice in Nursing & Healthcare: A Guide to Best Practice (3rd edition); A Practical Guide to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Screening, Early Intervention, and Health Promotion (2nd
edition); and Intervention Research: Designing, Conducting, Analyzing and Funding, an American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award winner. Dr. Melnyk is an elected fellow of the National Academy of Medicine, the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice, and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. She served a 4-year term on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and is currently a member of National Quality Forum’s Behavioral Health Steering Committee and National Institutes of Health’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research.
Kris Perry, LCSW, Executive Director of the First Five Years Fund, understands that America’s future lies in the health and well-being of the country’s youngest children. She has dedicated her career to bringing resources and support to parents, caregivers, and early learning workforce professionals to ensure children grow up healthy and ready to succeed in school and in life. Ms. Perry is a national thought leader on early childhood education, and has appeared in the New York Times, POLITICO, New Republic, Salon, Congressional Quarterly and many other news outlets across the country. Previously, Ms. Perry served as Executive Director of First 5 California, fostering their emergence as one of the most well-known and respected advocates for early childhood development on the state and national levels. Prior to that, Ms. Perry served as Executive Director of First 5 San Mateo County, where she implemented cutting-edge programs and led community design groups to develop countywide initiatives, including preschool for all and universal health care. Her dedication to children and their families began at the Alameda County Social Services Agency where she worked for more than 12 years in various capacities, including child abuse investigator, family preservation case manager, and program manager. Such leadership has led to state appointments, including co-chair of the California State Early Learning Advisory Council, which was established to position the state for millions of dollars in federal funding for early childhood education. In this and other roles, her work resulted in learning system changes to improve the quality of preschool and school readiness programs. In addition to her role as a national leader on early childhood education, she was the lead plaintiff in the Perry vs. Hollingsworth legal challenge to California’s Proposition 8, the landmark marriage equality case argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court by the bipartisan legal team of Ted Olson and David Boies. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master’s in Social Work from San Francisco State University. She also completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders. Ms. Perry is a licensed clinical social worker and a board-certified diplomat who holds a postgraduate certificate as a service integration specialist.
Olga Acosta Price, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools and Associate Professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at the George Washington University. Her faculty appointment is in the Department of Prevention and Community Health. She comes to the Center with experience in managing school-based mental health programs in Washington, DC, where she was Director of the School Mental Health Program at the DC Department of Mental Health, an award-winning community-based program. Dr. Acosta Price managed the development, implementation, and evaluation of this program in 30 public schools for more than 5 years. Before coming to Washington, Dr. Acosta Price was associate director at the Center for School Mental Health Assistance and assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. She has presented at local and national meetings on school-based mental health, program evaluation, and violence prevention and has written several articles and book chapters on these topics. Dr. Acosta Price graduated from Vassar College and received her master’s degree and doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Barry Sarvet, M.D., is the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Baystate Medical Center, Clinical Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine, and Medical Director for the Masschusetts Child Psychiatry Access Project (MCPAP). MCPAP is a public mental health program designed to enhance the capacity of pediatric primary care providers to address mental health needs of children in the primary care setting. The program, highly valued by pediatric practices, has been replicated in 28 states across the United States since its inception in 2004. He has helped to organize the National Network of Child Psychiatry Access Programs to support the dissemination of these services. He has published numerous papers and presented widely across the United States and abroad on the topic of integrated and collaborative child psychiatry practice. Dr. Sarvet was awarded the 2014 Simon Wile Leadership Award in Consultation Psychiatry by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry for his work to promote collaboration with primary care providers within the profession.
John Schlitt, M.S.W., is President of the School-Based Health Alliance. From 1997 to 2008, Mr. Schlitt served as the Alliance’s first executive director, leading the organization’s advocacy, education, and technical assistance efforts to strengthen and sustain school-based health centers and to build long-term financial support for the organization. In 2011 he rejoined the Alliance after exploring other public health interests. In 2014 he succeeded Linda Juszczak as president of the organization. Mr. Schlitt’s 25-year career spans maternal, infant, and child health policy, practice, and advocacy arenas. He is a national authority on school-based health care financing, or-
ganization, and delivery. Mr. Schlitt has worked as a clinical social worker with adolescents in psychiatric and community mental health settings and has authored several articles on school-based health care and teen pregnancy prevention. A native Floridian, Mr. Schlitt received his bachelor of science degree in psychology from the University of Florida and his master of social work degree from Florida State University.
David Shern, Ph.D., stepped down as President and CEO of Mental Health America (MHA), formerly the National Mental Health Association, the country’s oldest and largest advocacy group addressing all aspects of mental health and mental illness, in 2014. Prior to joining MHA, he was dean of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute at the University of South Florida, one of the nation’s largest research and training institutes in behavioral health. Shern also founded and directed the National Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health—a National Institute of Mental Health-funded services research center—located in the New York State Office of Mental Health. In addition to advocacy and public education, his research has spanned a variety of mental health services research topics including epidemiological, service system organization, and financing issues largely focused on persons with severe mental illnesses. More recently he has worked on several projects related to prevention and promotion in behavioral health.
Olivia Shockey is the Expansion Division Director in the Office of Policy and Program Development for the Bureau of Primary Health Care within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Within this role, Ms. Shockey is responsible for the development and issuance of grant and cooperative agreement funding opportunities for the Health Center Program, as well as application packages for Health Center Program lookalikes. The Health Center Program, which targets the nation’s neediest populations and geographic areas, currently funds nearly 1,300 health centers that operate approximately 9,000 service delivery sites in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin. In 2013, more than 21 million patients, including medically underserved and uninsured patients, received comprehensive, culturally competent, quality primary health care services through the Health Center Program grantees. In 2014, Ms. Shockey oversaw the awarding of more than $105 million in Behavioral Health Integration expansion funding to more than 430 Health Center Program grantees to enable the hiring of new behavioral health providers and expansion of integrated care. Prior to joining HRSA’s Bureau of Primary Health Care, Ms. Shockey worked as a project officer in the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. She joined
the federal government with a master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and several years of experience in nonprofit program administration and counseling, with a focus on youth substance use.
Terry Stancin, Ph.D., ABPP, is Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve University. Dr. Stancin serves as Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychology and Vice-Chair for Research in Psychiatry at MetroHealth Medical Center, and chairs the medical center’s Committee on Appointments, Promotion and Tenure. She is a board-certified Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychologist and a national expert in pediatric mental health issues in primary care. She is actively involved in research pertaining to outcomes of pediatric traumatic brain injuries, having collaborated on federally funded multi-site investigations for more than 20 years. Dr. Stancin has authored more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific publications and book chapters. She serves on editorial boards of several scientific journals, is a leader in national pediatric and psychology organizations, and is the current President of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. Dr. Stancin grew up in Akron, Ohio. She received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Kent State University and completed a clinical internship at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and postdoctoral training at MetroHealth where she has been since 1986.
Lori Stark, Ph.D., ABPP, is the Director of the Division of Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Psychology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and Professor of Pediatrics at the University Of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She is currently an Associate Editor for the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and served as the President in 2008 and Past President in 2009 of the Society of Pediatric Psychology, Division 54, of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Stark’s primary research interests are improving nutritional outcomes in children and have focused in the area of cystic fibrosis (CF) and preschool obesity. She has been continuously funded by the CF Foundation and National Institutes of Health (NIH) for her work on nutrition in CF and is currently funded by NIH to conduct pilot randomized clinical trials of clinic and home based behavioral interventions to reduce obesity in preschool children. As Division Director she has worked to have behavioral health services recognized and reimbursed by third-party payers in the Cincinnati region including recognition of health and behavior codes for behavioral services for children with chronic health care conditions such as CF, epilepsy, and pain conditions. She has also worked forming community and academic partnerships to increase capacity for behavioral health service for the common behavioral health condition of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
Karen VanLandeghem, M.P.H., is a senior program director at the National Academy of State Health Policy (NASHP) where she leads the organization’s portfolio of work on child and family health, including children’s mental health. She brings more than 25 years of experience in health policy, program development, and government relations. She has spent the majority of her career working at the national and state levels for health policy and education organizations and state government, bringing to her NASHP position expertise in child and family service delivery systems, behavioral health, public insurance coverage, and early childhood development. Prior to joining NASHP, Ms. VanLandeghem was a Senior Advisor at the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs where she led efforts to build the organization’s health reform portfolio. She has held previous positions with the Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership, the Ounce of Prevention Fund, and consulted on several national initiatives including the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative. She is adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago, School of Public Health. She has held leadership roles in the American Public Health Association’s (APHA’s) Maternal and Child Health Section and currently serves on the APHA Governing Council. Ms. VanLandeghem holds a B.S. in biology from Wayne State University and an M.P.H. from the University of Michigan.
Sara Watson, Ph.D., is the Director of ReadyNation, a business membership organization whose 1,100 members advocate for investments in children and youth in order to improve the economy and workforce. She recently launched an initiative to work with other countries to help them create their own business champions for children. Previously, she was Executive Vice President for National Partnerships at America’s Promise Alliance. She also directed The Pew Charitable Trusts’ 10-year national campaign to advance high-quality early education for all 3- and 4-year-olds. During that campaign, state spending on pre-kindergarten more than doubled. She also designed and launched two other Pew campaigns, to promote home visiting for at-risk families and to help states use cost-benefit data to inform policy. She has also worked for The Finance Project in Washington, DC, and the Family Policy Council in Olympia, Washington. She has a B.A. (magna cum laude) from Carleton College and Master of Public Policy and Ph.D. degrees from the Harvard Kennedy School.
Ellen-Marie Whelan, Ph.D., is the Chief Population Health Officer for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Center for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Services (CMCS) providing clinical input and guidance for the health coverage for nearly 70 million people who are served by Medicaid and CHIP. She is also a Senior Advi-
sor at the CMS Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI), coordinating the pediatric portfolio across the Center. In both positions Dr. Whelan assists in the design, implementation, and testing of delivery system transformation and payment reform initiatives. Before CMS, Dr. Whelan was the Associate Director of Health Policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP). Her research, publications, and speaking engagements focused on the development and passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, system delivery and payment reform, safety net providers, primary care, and health workforce policy. Prior to joining CAP, she was a health policy advisor in the U.S. Senate for 5 years—working for both Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and as Staff Director for the Subcommittee on Aging to the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions with Senator Barbara Mikulski. Before coming to Capitol Hill, Dr. Whelan was a health services researcher and faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University and practiced as nurse practitioner for more than a decade. She has worked in a variety of primary care settings and started an adolescent primary care clinic in West Philadelphia. Dr. Whelan holds a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania and The Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in primary care policy with Barbara Starfield, M.D., at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
