Équipe Participants
Dr. Joy Agner
Assistant Professor, USC Chan School of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy (California)
Email Joy at agner@usc.edu
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Dr. Joy Agner is a community psychologist, occupational therapist, and Assistant Professor of Occupational Science at the University of Southern California. Dr. Agner’s research focuses on improving community-based services for people experiencing multiple marginalization and serious mental illness, which is rooted in her experiences as a family member, caregiver, advocate, healthcare provider, and health system researcher. In these roles, she has witnessed the ways in which the US mental health system actively exacerbates poverty, social exclusion, service disengagement, and personal and familial trauma.
The lack of national attention to developing an effective, empowering community-based mental health system has fueled Dr. Agner’s overarching focus on advancing purpose-centered, peer-led mental health recovery models. Currently, Dr. Agner is researching socially oriented models of care, such as the Clubhouse model and Trieste model, through multiple lenses and using participatory methods. In collaboration with her research team, she is developing a novel socio-spatial engagement measure that maps social interaction and activity engagement in space and time. This work can advance theory on the development of social connection and purposeful engagement in community mental health settings, by defining low or high engagement and social connection spaces, identifying related social design features, and examining proximal behavioral outcomes after co-designed environmental interventions. Dr. Agner’s passion for community-engaged research has fostered a strong record of peer-reviewed scholarship, as well as numerous national awards. Dr. Agner is a recent recipient of a K01 Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health, which will fund research and training related to designing spaces of belonging. She is a past Rehabilitation Research Career Development K12 Scholar through the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a Fulbright Research Scholar, and Ford Family Foundation Scholar.
Dr. Agner’s goals as part of the Équipe are: 1) to learn from and with an immensely talented group of colleagues, 2) to be inspired by the purpose and rights-oriented mental health system in Trieste, and 3) to leverage these experiences to collectively imagine a more humane, effective US mental health system.
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Travis Atkinson
Director of Clinical & Crisis Services, TBD Solutions (Michigan)
Email Travis at travisa@tbdsolutions.com
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For the past 20 years, Travis Atkinson has dedicated his career to delivering compassionate and creative care to persons living with mental illness. As a behavioral health consultant, his specialties in crisis response, management and leadership practices, hospitality, and musical self-expression have informed his ability to provide tangible solutions to complex problems.
Travis is a seasoned musician and songwriter, recording six albums over the past 15 years and utilizing music composition as a therapeutic tool for healing.
Travis is the Director of Clinical & Crisis Services at TBD Solutions, Inc. Travis is a licensed professional counselor, earning his master’s degree in counseling at National-Louis University and his bachelor’s degree in psychology at the University of Michigan.
Travis lives with his wife and three daughters in Grand Rapids, MI. He is somewhat ambidextrous but has not yet perfected the two-fingered whistle.
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Anna Bailey
Senior Policy Analyst, Center on Budget/Policy Priorities (Maryland)
Email Anna at abailey@cbpp.org
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Anna Bailey leverages Medicaid, federal rental assistance, and homelessness policy expertise to advance more equitable access to affordable housing and health care for people who face some of the highest barriers. Her work uplifts strategies to sustainably fund best practices to support people experiencing homelessness, people with disabilities, people with substance use or mental health conditions, and people impacted by the criminal legal system. Anna has direct service experience, including in community mental health. She holds a master's degree in social work from the University of Kansas and a J.D. from Georgetown.
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States Can Use Medicaid to Help Address Health-Related Social Needs
More Housing Vouchers Needed to Help People With Disabilities Afford Stable Homes in the Community
Medicaid Is Key to Building a System of Comprehensive Substance Use Care for Low-Income People
More Affordable Housing, Fairer Practices Needed to Meet Olmstead’s Promise
Melissa Beck
Executive Director, The Sosozei Foundation (New Jersey)
Email Melissa at melissa.beck@otsuka-us.com
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Melissa M. Beck is the inaugural Executive Director of the Sozosei Foundation. She has more than two decades of experience in the nonprofit sector, having managed and grown large-scale nonprofit and philanthropic organizations working toward access to justice, ensuring equity, and healthcare for all through advocacy, policy, litigation and the arts. Melissa’s expertise spans rural and urban communities and she brings a global perspective to her work. Prior to serving in the nonprofit sector, Melissa was a litigator, working as an appellate and sex crimes prosecutor in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office and as a private criminal defense attorney and appellate public defender. Melissa has authored numerous articles on nonprofit management and social justice issues, and is a frequent public speaker on these topics. She was the host of the podcast Call Declined and holds volunteer leadership positions for several nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Hampshire College, Melissa earned her law degree from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and holds a certificate in nonprofit management from the Columbia Business School.
Dr. Carissa Cabán Alemán
Community Psychiatrist/Clinical Associate Professor, Florida International University (Puerto Rico)
Email Carissa at ccabanal@fiu.edu
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Carissa Cabán-Alemán is a community psychiatrist, born and raised in Puerto Rico. She completed a fellowship in public psychiatry at Columbia University. She is a Clinical Associate Professor at the College of Medicine of Florida International University (Community-Based Faculty). She strives to provide holistic and recovery-oriented care in her clinical work. Her academic and community work revolves around cultural humility, social justice, structural competence, mindfulness, systems-based practices, agroecology, and the impacts of climate change on mental health. She is one of the founding members of two non-profit organizations: Climate Psychiatry Alliance and CrearConSalud, Inc. She represented the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health & was a board member of the American Association of Community Psychiatry (AACP). She has contributed to several research projects and think tanks such as the Resilient305 Collaborative and the International Transformational Resilience Coalition (ITRC).
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Climate Change-Driven Mental Health Inequities (American Psychiatric Association - Looking Beyond: Unplugged)
Earth Month – Let’s Talk About Climate Justice and Mental Health
Teaching Cultural Humility: Understanding Others by Reflecting on Ourselves (Teaching Empathy in Healthcare, Springer)
Addressing the Poverty Barrier in Collaborative Care for Adults Experiencing Homelessness: A Case-Based Report (Community Mental Health Journal, Springer)
Cherene Caraco
CEO, Promise Resource Network (North Carolina)
Email Cherene at ccaraco@promiseresourcenetwork.org
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Radical Hospitality with Cherene Caraco (The Crisis Podcast)
John Chambliss
Policy Advisor, US Senate Mental Health Caucus; Office of Sen Alex Padilla (Washington, DC)
Email John at johnchambliss34@gmail.com
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John currently serves as a Policy Advisor in the Office of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla and Democratic staff lead for the Bipartisan Senate Mental Health Caucus. Before his current role, John was a Senior Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives for Congressman Seth Moulton. Prior to his work on Capitol Hill, he served as a Government Strategy Consultant at Deloitte, where he contributed to Medicaid reforms and opioid policy strategy. His career is marked by a focus on public health, mental health, and healthcare policy reform.
Karina Forrest-Perkins
President & CEO, Vail Communities (Minnesota)
Email Karina at kforrestperkins@vailplace.org
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Ms. Forrest Perkins is a values-driven and accomplished executive leader with over twenty-five years of experience in: person-centered population health strategies, mental health and substance misuse treatment best practices, health equity innovations, public policy, and trauma responsive environments for clients and staff. Ms. Forrest Perkins was awarded a Bush Fellowship in 2017 to research global practices that improve access to quality care in the behavioral health system. She currently serves as President and Executive Officer for Vail Communities in the Twin Cities of Minnesota. Ms. Forrest Perkins served in three Oklahoma Governors’ administrations and one Minnesota Governor administration all with the goal to further person-centered innovations in health and human services.
Karina holds a Harvard Business School Graduate Certificate in Organizational Behavior and received her University of Oklahoma master’s degree in human relations with a focus on mental health and addiction treatment. Karina has governance experience as a non-profit Board Member serving the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits, the Native American Community Clinic; the Minnesota Trauma Project; the National Addiction Technology Transfer Center; Alia, and the Minnesota Governor’s Advisory Council for Medical Cannabis Research.
Karina is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and has co-authored Congressional briefs advocating against health disparities for indigenous communities. She lives in Saint Louis Park with her husband. Her four children live in Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington DC.
Dr. Nev Jones
Professor, School of Social Work, University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania)
Email Nev at nevjones@pitt.edu
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Nev Jones is an associate professor & mental health services researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work is grounded in personal experience of schizophrenia and long-standing engagement and collaboration with the service user/psychiatric survivor movement. Nev studies the implementation and impact of mental health services and social welfare on individuals with long-term psychiatric disabilities (i.e. 'serious mental illness'), as well as interventions designed to reduce poverty and promote ecological, meaning-centered approaches to healing, community participation and full integration in society. For more information see https://www.socialwork.pitt.edu/people/nev-jones.
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Honorable Patrick Kennedy
Founder, The Kennedy Forum (Massachusetts)
Email Patrick at pjk4brainhealth@gmail.com
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Patrick J. Kennedy co-authored MHPAEA (Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act) the Federal Parity law requiring insurers cover treatment for mental health and SUD the same as physical illnesses. He founded The Kennedy Forum, to unite advocates, business leaders, philanthropists, and government to advance evidence-based practices, policies, and programming in MH/SUD. Kennedy co-authored NY Times Bestseller, A Common Struggle, which details a bold plan for mental health in America. In 2023, Kennedy called for 90/90/90 by 2033: 90% of individuals will be screened for mental health and SUDs; 90% screened will receive evidence-based treatment; 90% receiving treatment will manage symptoms in recovery. Kennedy’s second book, Profiles in Mental Health Courage, details compelling stories of diverse Americans who have struggled with mental health. Kennedy also co-founded: One Mind, an organization dedicated to investment in brain research and Psych Hub, a comprehensive online learning platform for MH/SUD, and suicide prevention.
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A Common Struggle (Blue Rider Press)
Judge Steve Leifman
Judge, 11th Circuit, Miami Dade County (Florida)
Email Steve at sleifman@jud11.flcourts.org
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Judge Steve Leifman is the Associate Administrative Judge of the Miami-Dade County Court – Criminal Division. He previously served as Special Advisor on Criminal Justice and Mental Health for the Supreme Court of Florida. For the past twenty-four years, Judge Leifman has been at the forefront of mental health and criminal justice reform movement in the United States.
He is the co-chair of the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Mental Health Committee and co-chair of the Judges and Psychiatrists Leadership Initiative, a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical School and a Voluntary Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami School of Medicine.
In 2015, Judge Leifman received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence. One of the nation’s highest judicial honors presented by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. Judge Leifman is also the first recipient to receive the Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Award for Judicial Excellence (2015). In 2018 he was awarded the Pardes Humanitarian Prize in Mental Health.
In 2023, Judge Leifman was bestowed the Papal Medal Benemerenti from Pope Francis by Archbishop Thomas Wenski for his work in the judicial system on behalf of people with mental illnesses.
In 2024, he received the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Nova Southeastern University for his commitment to improving the mental health and criminal justice systems.
Judge Leifman is the subject of the Documentary, The Definition of Insanity which aired on PBS.
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The Definition of Insanity (PBS): The Miami-Dade Criminal Mental Health Project (CMHP) comes to life in this documentary, following a team of dedicated public servants working through the courts to steer people with mental illness — as their court cases hang in the balance — on a path from incarceration to recovery.
Dr. Mark Ragins
Former Medical Director, Mental Health America Long Beach (California)
Email Mark at markragins@gmail.com
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Mark Ragins, MD has been a psychiatrist for 40 years, including 27 years at the Mental Health America Village in Long Beach, California, an award-winning model of recovery based mental health services, and on street medicine teams working with homeless people throughout LA county. His book, Journeys Beyond the Frontier: A Rebellious Guide to Psychosis and Other Extraordinary Experiences, is based on true stories working with some of the most underserved and difficult to engage people in our community. Countless numbers of people came to experience the Village firsthand and Mark has given hundreds of presentations to wide-ranging audiences nationally and internationally. He is one of the pioneers and leaders of person-centered, recovery-based psychiatry. Many of his writings are posted online at markragins.com, including his short book A Road to Recovery. Mark has won a number of awards including from the American Psychiatric Association, the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association, NAMI, and Mental Health Advocacy Services.
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Lessons Learned from the Mid-90's Village-Integrated Services Pilot and Why They're Even More Relevant Today (Heart Forward: Conversations from the Heart)
Journeys Beyond the Frontier: A Rebellious Guide to Psychosis and Other Extraordinary Experiences
Tasman’s Psychiatry, 5th Edition: The Recovery Model and Other Rehabilitative Approaches (Springer Cham)
Dr. Purva Rawal
Chief Strategy Officer, CMS Innovation Center (Washington, DC)
Email Purva at purva.rawal@cms.hhs.gov
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Purva Rawal, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and received her B.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University. Dr. Rawal has almost two decades of health policy experience in academia, government, and the private sector. She began her health policy career as a Christine Mirzayan Science and Technology Fellow at the National Academy of Sciences and as a Congressional Fellow for the Society for Research on Child Development and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Following her Fellowship, she served as professional staff in the U.S. Congress both at the Senate Budget Committee during the passage of the Affordable Care Act and as the health and social policy advisor to Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT). She spent a decade in policy and business strategy consulting and policy research focused leading projects on value-based payment and health system transformation. She was also an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University. In 2016, she published a book, The Affordable Care Act: Examining the Facts and has published book chapters, blogs, and papers on value-based care in a wide range of outlets including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA Health Forum, Health Affairs, and Psychiatric Services among others. Currently, Dr. Rawal is the Chief Strategy Officer at the CMS Innovation Center at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).*
*Please note that Dr. Rawal is participating in her personal capacity. CMS does not endorse these activities.
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Note: Dr. Rawal is not attending based on her official capacity at CMS. CMS does not endorse her activities.
Recent publications (not in CV)
Improving Participation In Value-Based Care—The CMS Innovation Center’s Data-Sharing Strategy Initiative
Advancing Health Equity Through Value-Based Care: CMS Innovation Center Update
Accelerating Care Delivery Transformation – The CMS Innovation Center’s Role in the Next Decade
Update On The Medicare Value-Based Care Strategy: Alignment, Growth, Equity
Building On CMS's Accountable Care Vision To Improve Care For Medicare Beneficiaries
Select Podcasts & Interviews / Presentations
Ruth Richardson
President & CEO, Planned Parenthood - Midwest Region (Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa)
Email Ruth at rrichardson1134@gmail.com
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Ruth Richardson is the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood North Central States covering Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. She is a lawyer, health equity and human rights champion, and a former member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Prior to joining PPNCS she served as CEO of Wayside Recovery Center where under her leadership she established a Certified Community Behavioral Health Center and hundreds of children were reunited with their families. She has been featured on Good Morning America, Vice News, Court TV, Forbes, National Public Radio, MSNBC, NBC News, and the documentary “When Black Women Go Missing.”
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Wake up America: Black Women on the Future of Democracy: I wrote the chapter entitled "Violence Against Women".
In 2021, created the nation’s first task force on Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls and in 2023 made history creating the nation’s first Office on Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls – the crisis is intersectional and mental health and substance use disorder, along with human trafficking, domestic violence and intimate partner violence, and disparities in the foster care system are relevant.
Related appearances: Good Morning America and Forbes TV
When Black Women Go Missing: I participated in this Tubi documentary.
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MN House Resolution 1: Declaring Racism a Public Health Crisis
$2M secured for the African American Child Wellness Institute
Paid Family & Medical Leave
"States Leading on Leave: A Playbook on Winning Paid Family and Medical Leave" (State Innovation Exchange)
"The Best Present for Minnesota Mothers: Paid Family Leave" (Ms. Magazine, 5/25/23)
"Minnesota's paid family and medical leave program becomes law" (Star Tribune, 5/25/23)
Josh Seidman
Chief Research & Knowledge Officer, Fountain House (Maryland)
Email Josh at jseidman@fountainhouse.org
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Joshua Seidman, PhD joined Fountain House as Chief Research & Knowledge Officer in 2021 after more than 30 years working in health care at the intersection of research, policy, quality improvement, patient-centered care, health information technology (IT), payment reform, and care delivery innovation. Dr. Seidman blends health services research and human-centered design methods along with his strong passion to transform the care and health for people with serious mental illness, including the policy needed to enable that transformation.
Dr. Seidman came from Avalere Health, where he launched and led Avalere’s Center for Payment & Delivery Innovation. He has also had leadership roles at Evolent Health, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, NCQA, and the Advisory Board Company, and he was the founding President of the Center for Information Therapy. Dr. Seidman earned a PhD in health services research and an MHS in health policy & management from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and a BA in political science from Brown University.
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Dr. Morgan Shields
Assistant Professor, Brown School at Washington University (Missouri)
Email Morgan at mshields@wustl.edu
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Dr. Morgan Shields is an Assistant Professor at Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School, where she directs the Inclusive, Dignified, Equitable, Accountable, and Loving (IDEAL) Lab. Her research has focused on describing variation in care quality across inpatient psychiatric facilities, including the lived experiences of former patients, and in identifying viable policies that might improve accountability and patient-centered care. Dr. Shields’ current work is focused more broadly on crisis services (e.g., 988 crisis lines) and in identifying appropriate methods for measuring trust in crisis intervention services. She has published her work in leading peer-reviewed outlets, including Health Affairs, Medical Care, JAMA Health Forum, and Psychiatric Services, and her work has had impact at regional and national levels.
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Breaking Academia’s Silence on Inpatient Psychiatry: An Interview with Researcher Morgan Shields (Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health)
Patient Safety In Inpatient Psychiatry: A Remaining Frontier For Health Policy
Increases in Inpatient Psychiatry Beds Operated by Systems, For-Profits, and Chains, 2010–2016
The Need to Prioritize Patient-Centered Care in Inpatient Psychiatry as a Matter of Social Justice
Complaints, Restraint, and Seclusion in Massachusetts Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities, 2008–2018
Changes in institution for mental diseases (IMD) ownership status and insurance acceptance over time
A Massive Step Forward in Measuring and Reporting Patient Experience of Inpatient Psychiatry
Dr. Yolanda Stevens
Program & Policy Analyst, Older Adults & Healthcare, National Alliance to End Homelessness (Washington, DC)
Email Yolanda at ystevens@naeh.org
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Yolanda Stevens is a Program and Policy Analyst with the National Alliance to End Homelessness where she focuses on older adult homelessness. Yolanda is a fearless advocate who approaches systemic change from an intersectional framework. She has spent the majority of her career at the local level on issues related to vulnerable populations-older adults, survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and individuals experiencing homelessness. Prior to joining the Alliance, Dr. Stevens served as the Asst. Director of Community Services and Outreach in a Virginia local department of family services where her portfolio included information and referral, the Continuum of Care, Veterans services, coordinated entry, homeless services, and public assistance. Yolanda earned a master’s degree in Gerontology with a concentration in Healthcare from the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University and a doctorate in Public Policy with emphasis on Long-term Care from George Mason University.
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Dr. Sarah Vinson
Professor and Chair, Morehouse School of Medicine (Georgia)
Email Sarah at svinson@msm.edu
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Dr. Sarah Y. Vinson is a triple board-certified child & adolescent, adult and forensic psychiatrist and Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM). A proud alum of Florida A & M University for undergraduate, she graduated from the University of Florida College of Medicine as an inductee in the Chapman Humanism Honors Society and with research honors. She then completed her general psychiatry training at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. This was followed by fellowships in both child and adolescent and forensic psychiatry at Emory School of Medicine, where she remains on the adjunct faculty. At MSM, she was the lead architect and the inaugural Program Director for the Child Psychiatry Fellowship, the first at an HBCU medical school. Dr. Vinson is the co-editor of two texts, she has written book chapters and/or peer reviewed articles, and she has received multiple awards in recognition of her leadership and service.
Dr. Kate Warburton
Statewide Medical Director, California Department of State Hospitals (California)
Email Kate at katherine.warburton@dsh.ca.gov
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Dr. Katherine Warburton is the Statewide Medical Director for the California Department of State Hospitals, which has over 7,000 beds and is the largest forensic inpatient system in the country. She is an Associate Professor on the clinical faculty within the UC Davis Division of Psychiatry and the Law. Dr. Warburton is board certified in both adult psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. She has published multiple peer reviewed articles on a variety of forensic topics including the competency crisis, public forensic mental health systems and inpatient aggression.. She has been invited to speak nationally and internationally on these and other forensic subjects. Dr. Warburton has published two textbooks: Violence in Psychiatry and Decriminalizing Mental Illness. Dr. Warburton works at the national level on the board of directors for NRI and as a non-federal member of the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee.
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Decriminalizing Mental Illness (Cambridge University Press)
Stephanie Welch
Deputy Secretary of Behavioral Health, California Health and Human Services Agency (California)
Email Stephanie at stephanie.welch@chhs.ca.gov
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Stephanie Welch has been the Deputy Secretary of Behavioral Health for the California Health and Human Services Agency since 2020. She serves as the senior advisor to the Secretary and 12 state departments on behavioral health policy and builds bridges across diverse government sectors and stakeholders. Previously, Stephanie was the Executive Officer of the Council on Criminal Justice and Behavioral Health at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Stephanie has twenty-five years of experience in behavioral health policy, program administration, and advocacy at both the state and county level, working at organizations such as the California Mental Health Services Authority, the County Behavioral Health Directors Association, and the California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies. Stephanie approaches systems improvement by examining the impact to individuals and communities, always striving for better-quality experiences and outcomes. Stephanie holds an MSW from the University of Southern California and a BA in Sociology, from the University of California, Davis.
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Behavioral Health Transformation/ Proposition 1 (SB 326 and AB 531): https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/BHT/Pages/home.aspx (informational webpage) and presentation I gave on the reform package - https://mhsoac.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/MHSOAC_NewMindset_04252024.pdf
Crisis Care Continuum and Implementation of 988: This was a project of the taskforce I co-led with the Secretary and I did most of the writing. https://www.chhs.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/CalHHS_Behavioral-Health-Crisis-Care-Continuum-Plan.pdf. We did this as a strategic plan to guide our 988 implementation plan. That plan is due in December of 2024 but all of the work can be reviewed at: https://www.chhs.ca.gov/home/committees/988-crisis-policy-advisory-group/
Community Assistance, Recovery, and Empowerment (CARE) Act (SB 1338): https://www.chhs.ca.gov/care-act/ there are so many presentations and various resources here.
Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative: https://cybhi.chhs.ca.gov/ our $4B initiative to “whole child” approach to address the factors that contribute to the mental health and well-being of our children and youth.