QIC PCW Study Team and Staff
If you are interested in joining the QIC PCW list serve, please contact Jennifer Hall
Crystal Collins-Camargo, Director
University of Kentucky
College of Social Work
Training Resource Center
1 Quality St, Suite 700
Lexington, KY 40507
Phone: 859-257-5476
Fax: 859-257-3918
cecoll0@uky.edu
Jennifer Hall, Project Manager
Phone: 859-257-2186
jghall2@uky.edu
Judy Evans-Pack, Admin. Support Assoc.
Phone: 859-257-2895
judy.evans-pack@uky.edu
Jan Rothstein, Federal Project Officer
Children’s Bureau
1250 Maryland Ave, SW
Washington, DC 20024
(202)401-5073
(202)205-8221 (fax)
Jan.rothstein@acf.hhs.gov
Karl Ensign, Senior Associate
Planning and Learning Technologies, Inc.
1000 Wilson Boulevard
Suite 1000
Arlington, VA 22209
Phone: 703-908-8866
Fax: 703-243-0496
kensign@pal-tech.com
Elizabeth Lee, Senior Project Analyst
Phone: 703-243-0495
elee@pal-tech.com
Teri A. Garstka, Ph.D.
Senior Research Associate
Evaluation for Children, Youth, and Families
Planning and Learning Technologies, Inc.
Suite 1000
1000 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22209
(703) 908-8864
tgarstka@pal-tech.com
Brian Yoder
Research Analyst
Evaluation for Children, Youth, and Families
Planning and Learning Technologies, Inc.
Suite 1000
1000 Wilson Boulevard
Arlington, VA 22209
byoder@pal-tech.com
QIC PCW Advisory Board Members
Floyd Alwon, Vice President
Consultation, Research, and Professional Development
Child Welfare League of America
2 Adams Place, Suite 305
Quincy, MA 02169-7456
Phone: 617-769-4008
Fax: 617-770-4464
falwon@cwla.org
Mary Armstrong, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Research Programs/Services
MHC2414
Department of Child and Family Studies
Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute
University of South Florida
13301 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33612-3807
Phone: 813-974-4601
Fax: 813 974-7376
armstron@fmhi.usf.edu
Eddie Brown, Director
American Indian Studies
Arizona State University
PO Box 874603
Tempe, AZ 85287-4603
Phone: 480-965-3634
Fax: 480-965-2216
efbrown@asu.edu
Jackie Burgeson, Program Director
Richmond Regional Center
United Methodist Family Services of Virginia
3900 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23230
Phone: 804-353-4461, ext. 1301
Fax: 804-355-4157
jburgeso@umfs.org
Bob Cooper, Chief Executive Director
Tennyson Center for Children
Colorado Christian Home
2950 Tennyson Street
Denver, CO 80212
Phone: 877-224-8223
bob.cooper@tennysoncenter.org
Myles Edwards, Director of Research
American Humane Association
Children’s Services
63 Inverness Drive East
Englewood, CO 80209
Phone: 303-925-9419
Fax: 303-792-5333
myles@americanhumane.org
Sarah Greenblatt, Director
The Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice
Casey Family Services
127 Church Street
New Haven, CT 06510
Phone: 203-401-6900
Direct: 203-401-6917
Fax: 203-401-6885
sgreenblatt@caseyfamilyservices.org
Joyce James, CPS Assistant Commissioner
Department of Family and Protective Services
701 West 51st Street
Austin, TX 78751
Phone: 512-438-3313
Fax: 512-339-5927
joyce.james@dfps.state.tx.us
Michael Kelly, Ph.D., MSSW, LCSW
Professor
728 Clark Hall
University of Missouri at Columbia
Columbia MO 65211-4470
Phone: 573-882-0922
Fax: 573-882-8926
kellym@missouri.edu
Gregory Kurth, Executive Director
Family Services of Metro Orlando
2600 Technology Drive
Suite 250
Orlando, FL 32804
Phone: 407-398-7975
Fax: 407-578-0074
gkurth@fsmetroorlando.org
Anita Light, Director
National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators
810 First Street, NE
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202-682-0100 ext 272
Fax: 202-289-6555
alight@aphsa.org
Wanda Mial, Senior Associate for Child Welfare
Service and System Reform
The Annie E. Casey Foundation
701 St. Paul Street
Baltimore, MD 21202
Phone: 410-547-3677
Fax: 410-986-3877
wmial@aecf.org
Michael Smith, Co-Founder
Stewards of Change
155 East Main Street
Smithtown, NY 11787
Phone: 631-361-4400 ext. 400
Fax: 631-361-8600
michael@stewardsofchange.org
Lisa Snell, Director of Education and Child Welfare
Reason Public Policy Institute
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Phone: 310-391-2245
lsnell@reason.org
Ramona Foley, MSW
Oregon Department of Human Services
Assistant Director for Children, Adults and Families
500 Summer Street, NE E-62
Salem, OR 97301-1067
Phone: 503-945-7001
Fax: 503-581-6198
Ramona.L.Foley@state.or.us
Jaymee Metzenthin, Assistant Director
Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitative Services
Children and Family Services
915 SW Harrison St.
Topeka, KS 66612
office: 785.368.8156
fax: 785.368.8159
jlm@srskansas.org
Nancy Miller, Director
Permanency Planning for Children Department
National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
P.O. Box 8970 University of Nevada
Reno, NV 89507
(775) 784-6675
NMiller@ncjfcj.org
National Advisory Board Biographies
Floyd J. Alwon, Ed.D.
Floyd Alwon began his professional career in 1968 serving as a child care worker in a children’s home in New York State. He then worked as a direct care worker and supervisor in a residential diagnostic treatment center in Massachusetts.
Following completion of his master’s degree, he and his wife served as live-in house parents in a community based group home. For 12 years, Alwon worked as director of child care and associate executive director under his mentor, Dr. Albert E. Trieschman, founder of the Walker Home and School in Needham, Massachusetts.
Alwon earned his doctoral degree from Boston University’s School of Education in 1985. In 1986, Dr. Alwon was appointed to serve as the first director of the Albert E. Trieschman Center. In 1998, the Trieschman Center became a division of CWLA. Now known as the Consultation, Research and Professional Development Department of CWLA, the department helps organizations enhance the competence of their workforce, and supports communities and systems in their efforts to improve practice.
Dr. Alwon has substantial experience as a trainer, consultant, administrator, writer, and teacher. He has served on the board of directors of several regional and national organizations, and also serves on the editorial board of professional journals.
Happily married for more than 33 years, Dr. Alwon has two daughters and too many outside interests. He is an avid fly fisher, enjoys kayaking, and plays the tenor sax.
Mary I. Armstrong, Ph.D.
Mary Armstrong has over twenty-five years experience in children’s behavioral health, public sector managed care, children’s health insurance, child welfare and social services, specializing in state and local government administration, program development and evaluation, policy analysis, training and consultation. She currently is Assistant Professor and the Director of the Division of State and Local Support, Department of Child and Family Studies at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. She is responsible for the administration of the Division of State and Local Support including the direction of evaluation and research activities, and specialized consultation, training, and technical assistance to public sector entities nationally and in Florida.
Current activities include a national study of cross-system financing structures and strategies to support effective systems of care, child welfare privatization, the impact of welfare reform on the adolescent daughters of enrollees, and consultation with Brown County, Wisconsin in the development of their interagency system of care. Dr. Armstrong is principal investigator for a multi-year evaluation of Florida’s child welfare privatization initiative, Community-Based Care. Dr. Armstrong also directs the Health Care Reform Tracking Project, a national study of managed care that examines and tracks the impact of Medicaid behavioral health managed care on children with serious emotional problems and their families. For the past three years, she has been a member of the Advisory Committee and a faculty member for the National Policy Academy on Developing Systems of Care for Children with Mental Health Needs and Their Families, sponsored by the National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health at Georgetown University. In 2002 she was appointed as a member of the national Outcomes Roundtable for Children and Families.
Formerly, Dr. Armstrong was Director of the Bureau of Children and Families at the New York State Office of Mental Health. In this role she played a leadership role in the development of a system of care for New York’s children with for children with serious emotional problems and their families. She is an active member of the National Association of Social Workers and has many publications in both professional journals and textbooks.
Eddie F. Brown, DSW
Dr. Eddie F. Brown has a unique administrative background in that he has worked at the highest administrative levels with tribal, state, and federal governments. He is the former Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, United States Department of Interior, Washington, DC (1988-1993). Dr. Brown served as Associate Dean and the Director of the Center for American Indian Studies at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (1996- 2004); Executive Director of the Department of Human Services, Tohono O’odham Nation (1993-1996); Director of Arizona Department of Economic Security (1987-1989); and Chief of the Division of Social Services, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Washington, D.C. (1984-1986).
Currently, Dr. Brown is Professor/Director of American Indian Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona and serves as a member of the U.S. President’s Board of Advisors on Tribal Colleges and Universities. He is an enrolled member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and affiliated with the Tohono O’odham Nation.
Jackie Burgeson, MA, ACSW
Jackie Burgeson has worked in child welfare for over 30 years. She has served as a clinician, trainer, case manager and program developer in areas of foster care, permanency planning, and adoption. Her early years involved being part of a pilot project known as Headstart in New York City and child protective services. Ms. Burgeson has a strong background in adoption practice and has developed curriculum and federally funded projects in the areas of permanency, post legal services and evidence- based research. Ms. Burgeson has presented at both national and international conferences on various aspects of adoption, from delivery to developing issues. In the last decade, she has worked for United Methodist Family Services as a Program Director of the Richmond Regional Center.
Bob Cooper
Bob Cooper, President and CEO, Tennyson Center for Children at Colorado Christian Home. Tennyson Center, located in Denver, was founded in 1904 as an orphanage and has been affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) throughout its’ history as an outreach to the community. The Center changed its’ mission to begin serving severely abused, neglected and otherwise traumatized children in the early 1970s. Today the Center serves approximately 220 children and their families a day (60 in residential care and 160 in a variety of community based programs in the Denver metro area and eastern plains region of Colorado).
Mr. Cooper has a MSW from the University of Denver. He began as a direct care worker and worked as a therapist and program director before becoming CEO at Tennyson in 1993. Mr. Cooper worked for 7 years at the University of Nebraska Medical Center doing family therapy work, teaching family work to medical professionals and serving on the practicum committee at the University of Nebraska Omaha. He also had a small private practice with children and families while in Omaha.
Mr. Cooper has been married to his wife Judy for 33 years and have 5 children and one (and soon to be 2) perfect grandchildren!
Myles T. Edwards, Ph.D.
Dr. Edwards joined the staff at American Humane in 1993. His current position is Director of Research for Children and Animals. Safety Assessment, Workload Analysis, Child Protection/Child Welfare Outcomes, and community response to child and animal protection issues are his areas of study at American Humane. He is the Director for American Humane’s Philadelphia Outcomes Project and for the D.C. Family Team Meeting external evaluation. He has worked extensively in health services research and in mental health research and evaluation. For over a decade he was the Director of Research at Aurora (CO) Community Mental Health Center and was the Chairperson of the Research Division of the National Association of Community Mental Health Centers.
Ramona Foley
Appointed Assistant Director, Oregon Department of Human Services, in 2001, Ramona Foley directs the area known as Children, Adults and Families (CAF). CAF includes child welfare, self-sufficiency, food stamps, and vocational rehabilitation. It has 4,729 employees and a biennial budget of $2.1 billion.
Prior to this appointment, Ramona was the Administrator for Oregon’s former State Office for Services to Children and Families. And prior to that appointment, she served as the Director of Child Welfare and Family Preservation in South Carolina’s State Department of Social Services.
With a Masters in Social Work (1971) and more than 30 years of experience in social services, Ramona has been active in child welfare at the national level for the past two decades. She is past president of three national organizations: Foster Care Managers; Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children; and the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators. During her career in South Carolina, she was also Adjunct Faculty at USC’s Graduate School of Social Work, teaching in the graduate program for her last 10 years there.
Sarah B. Greenblatt, MS, MS.Ed, ACSW
For over thirty years, Sarah B. Greenblatt has worked with and on behalf of vulnerable children, families and their communities. She has been a teacher, caseworker, supervisor, trainer, policy analyst, consultant, and program administrator. She currently serves as the Director of the Casey Center for Effective Child Welfare Practice at Casey Family Services in New Haven, CT where she coordinates national consultation reflecting Casey’s successful child welfare program experiences. Prior to coming to Casey Family Services in 2001, she served as the Director of the National Resource Center for Foster Care and Permanency Planning at the Hunter College School of Social Work in New York City where she worked with public, non-profit and tribal agencies to promote quality foster care services and meaningful permanency planning for children.
Ms. Greenblatt holds masters degrees in Social Work from Columbia University and Educational Administration from Leslie College, and a bachelor’s degree in Child Development and Family Relations from the University of Connecticut. Throughout her career, Ms. Greenblatt has worked with community groups, public human service and housing organizations, child welfare agencies and private foundations across the country to collaboratively improve practice and promote sound public policies.
Joyce James,LMSW-AP
Joyce James is the Assistant Commissioner of Child Protective Services for the State of Texas. Joyce has worked in the field of child welfare for the past 26 years starting her career as a CPS caseworker. In her current role, Joyce is providing the leadership for CPS Reform in Texas, as directed by Senate Bill 6 which was enacted by the Texas Legislature. Senate Bill 6 includes a provision for outsourcing all services to families and children beyond removal, beginning in one region in 2007, with statewide implementation by 2011. Joyce is responsible for overseeing the provision of services to families and children in 254 counties in Texas with a staff of 6,500. Joyce has served on numerous community and advisory boards that focus on improving the quality of services to children and families. She has been recognized for her service to the community and for her efforts to address disproportionality in the Texas child welfare system.
Michael J. Kelly, Ph.D.
Dr. Kelly is professor of social work at the University of Missouri-Columbia. His research interests include public-private sector partnerships, employee involvement in service quality and governmental agency improvement. He has a special interest in child welfare services. Dr. Kelly has been interested in public-private partnerships for a number of years and conducted demonstration project in this area – two supported by the Children’s Bureau and one by the Kauffman Foundation. He is the co-developer (with Michael Lauderdale) of the Survey of Organizational Excellence (SOE) which is widely used in state agencies to measure change and engage employees in quality improvement. He is the author of numerous professional publications and presentations including over one hundred technical reports on using the SOE in organizational improvement. Dr. Kelly currently serves is the evaluator on several university contracts including the Missouri Performance Based Contract Initiative which implements public-private partnerships in child welfare case management.
Gregory Kurth
Gregory Kurth led the start up and transition of services to Family Services of Metro Orlando (FSMO) in 2003. The lead agency now oversees approximately $48 million in services in Florida’s Orange and Osceola counties. Prior to joining FSMO, Kurth was the senior vice president of Family Services of Central Florida, the Florida operation of Kids Hope United. Kurth oversaw the privatization of adoption and in-home protective services in five central Florida counties. Previously, Kurth worked as policy analyst for the Child Care Association of Illinois.
Mr. Kurth also worked as a policy analyst for the Child Care Association of Illinois, an association with more than 100 child welfare agencies. Here, he concentrated in kinship foster care policy, managed-care designs in children’s behavioral health, child welfare workforce training and development, and performance-based contracting. He also served for two years on the Child Welfare League of America National Advisory Committee on Juvenile Justice.
Mr. Kurth holds a Master of Arts from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He and his wife, Robyn, have two children, Alexander, 3, and Moselle Marie, 10 months.
Anita B. Light
Anita Light is the Director of the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators (NAPCWA), an affiliate of the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). In this role she manages the day to day operations of the association and assists in setting the direction for public child welfare issues and developing strategic relationships on behalf of the membership. Prior to this position, Ms. Light was the Director of Human Resources for the American Public Human Services Association as well as the Leadership Development Manager with APHSA for the Excellence in Child Welfare Leadership Project sponsored by the Casey Family Programs.
Ms. Light worked in public child welfare for seventeen years in the areas of foster care, adoptions, juvenile delinquency, and family therapy. She also has over 12 years experience in the Human Resources field as a manager, trainer, and consultant, working in the area of leadership training, strategic planning, executive coaching and organizational development. Ms. Light has a bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Social Work from Longwood College and her master’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is also certified as a Professional in Human Resources.
Jaymee Metzenthin
Bringing more than 20 years of experience to her current role of Assistant Director of Children and Family Services, Jaymee Metzenthin oversees the State of Kansas child welfare contracts, quality assurance, data and research programs. Kansas has an extensive history of partnerships with community based providers, being the first in the nation to establish comprehensive, statewide performance based contracts for every aspect of the state’s child welfare system since 1997. Through administration of performance based outcomes, Jaymee is responsible for ensuring that children and their families are served through the eleven regional contracts across the state. She has helped establish the state’s role as a pioneer in child welfare by successfully leading the agency through federal reviews, designing innovations in continuous quality improvement, and bringing a business approach to programs serving children and families.
Ms. Metzenthin has served in national leadership roles in social services finance associations. Her work in leading the state through federal audits has been recognized nationally, and the material she developed for this endeavor has been used as a model for other states. As a member of the agency’s performance improvement charter team she is piloting the integration of the state’s child welfare performance improvement program into a new innovative state-wide system.
Ms. Metzenthin’s educational background in women’s studies, policy analysis and business supported her service as an administrator for a local government commission on the status of women. She organized state participation in the International Year of the Woman. Since then, Jaymee has served as a technical and finance consultant in public service in the areas of human resource policy; federal funding including medicare, medicaid, and title IV-E; and contract compliance. Prior to joining Children and Family Services, she served as Director of Revenue Optimization for the state’s mental health and community support services. She administered Children and Family Services finances before moving into her current role.
Wanda Mial, M.G.A.
Wanda Mial has worked in the women’s health, youth development, and community services arenas in Philadelphia for the past sixteen years. Over this period, she has held positions at organizations including Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania, the Maternity Care Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, the American Red Cross, Germantown Settlement, and Congreso de Latinos Unidos.
In the last four years, Wanda has focused her efforts on the protection of children from abuse and neglect, and the development of community based supports and services to strengthen and preserve families. She recently served as Chief Deputy Commissioner for Program and Planning at the Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS) where she directed agency operations for three programmatic divisions -- Children and Youth Services, Community Based Prevention Services, and Juvenile Justice Services.
Wanda recently joined the Annie E. Casey Foundation as their Senior Associate for Child Welfare, where she will extend the knowledge and experience she gained at DHS and throughout her career to a national reform agenda for children and families. The primary mission of the Casey Foundation is to foster public policies, human service reforms and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families.
A native Philadelphian, Wanda is a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Girls, Amherst College, and the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a Masters of Government Administration from the Fels Center of Government.
Nancy Miller
Nancy Miller is the Director of the Permanency Planning for Children Department (PPCD) of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Nancy came to the Council in February, 2007. The PPCD assists courts across the country to improve their practice in child abuse and neglect cases. PPCD also conducts research, provides cutting edge training to judges and other system stakeholders, and publishes numerous technical assistance publications to assist courts in improving practice.
Nancy previously served as the Deputy State Court Administrator for Program Operations for the Oregon Judicial Department. She worked in several capacities for the Judicial Department for nineteen years before coming to the Council. She was responsible for court improvement activities in juvenile, civil, family, and criminal law. She also directed judicial and employee education and strategic planning for the Judicial Department. In this capacity, she also served as the Director of the Citizen Foster Care Review Board program, the Oregon Court Interpreter Services program, and the Juvenile Court Improvement Project. She served as one of the Judicial Department’s primary legislative liaisons.
Nancy has worked in the child welfare and juvenile justice field for almost 30 years. She received her Bachelor's Degree in psychology from the University of Florida in 1974 and did graduate work at Oregon State University. She has worked as a Juvenile Court Probation Officer, a child welfare agency protective services caseworker, and as a Residential Treatment Center Program Coordinator.Michael Smith
Michael Smith’s business experience comes from his role as the President and CEO of Linx Communications, a full service strategic consulting, marketing and communications company. Mr. Smith’s professional career has focused on branding and re-positioning products and services in the healthcare, financial services, retail, high-tech, manufacturing and training industries. Today, his focus is on building strategic business and marketing capabilities in non-profit and public enterprises. Over the past five years, Linx has been affiliated with True Insight Marketing and helped develop strategies and executions to support foster care recruitment and retention programs in New York and California. Most recently, Linx and True Insight developed the National Foster Care Month branding and public relations programs. Michael is also the co-founder of a technology company that has helped developed a telephony based electronic progress note for use by caseworkers.
Michael holds degrees from Bentley College in management and marketing. He has also completed three years of presidents’ seminars at Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.
Mr. Smith is the former president of JRS Advertising, a top 100 Advertising Agency, and a recipient of KMPMG/Peat Marwick’s prestigious “Entrepreneurial Spirit Award for Growth” as one of the fastest growing firms in the country. His community involvement and support is an integral part of his contribution to the business community. As an officer of the Young President’s Organization (YPO) his leadership has been employed as Communications Chairperson and most recently Chapter Chairperson. Mr. Smith was instrumental in developing the YPO’s relationship with Harvard Business School’s HBSi program.
Michael lives in Long Island, New York, is married and the father of three children. Together the family enjoys surfing at the beach, biking, skiing and anything the great outdoors has to offer.
Lisa Snell
Lisa Snell directs the Education and Child Welfare Program at Reason Foundation, where she oversees research on child welfare and education issues.
Ms. Snell, who has testified before the California State Legislature and numerous government agencies, has recently authored policy studies on school violence, charter schools, and child advocacy centers. Her most recent child welfare studies include Child Advocacy Centers: One Stop on the Road to Performance-Based Child Protection and Child-Welfare Reform and the Role of Privatization.
Ms. Snell is a frequent contributor to Reason magazine. She is a regular contributor to School Reform News and Privatization Watch. Her commentary has also appeared in Wall Street Journal, USA Today, San Francisco Chronicle, the Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, the Newark Star-Ledger, and numerous other publications.
Ms. Snell is also the President of the Board of the California Virtual Academy, which is a K12 virtual charter school.
Before joining Reason Foundation, Ms. Snell taught communication courses at California State University, Fullerton.
