Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium – Cornell
University - June 14-16, 2011
Name
Ashurst, Elizabeth (Libby)
43 Gannon Lodge, Donaghcloney,
Craigavon , Co. Armaugh,
Northern Ireland BT66 7PU
libbyashurst@btinternet.com
Ashurst, Terry
4 Cavendish Close
Green Park, Bawtry
Doncaster, UK DN10 6SD
Biography
Libby served as a uniformed police officer and then as a detective in
a United Kingdom police force. She later received a B.Sc. in
Psychology and a master in Applied Forensic Psychology. Currently
she is completing her PhD at Queens University Belfast where she is
conducting research to develop a simulated training model for
improving professional practice for front line practitioners in Social
Services. She works as a senior practitioner for Barnardo’s Young
Peoples Therapeutic Service, Belfast where she carries out
assessment and treatments with young people presenting with
sexually harmful behavior and forensic mental Health.
Additionally, she works with the Police Services - Northern Ireland
in an immersive training environment designed to develop skills in
the application of Emotional Intelligence in Critical Incidents.
Terry Ashurst, Ph. D is a qualified teacher with more than 40 years
experience of working with schools, colleges and universities in the
U.K. and internationally. Recently he has provided advice to
colleges on their organisational structures, training for leadership
and management and community education partnership
programmes. He has broad experience of project management in
academic and resource domains. He maintains a special interest in
the role of communications in organisations striving for success.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 2
Barbee, Anita, M.S.S.W., Ph.D.
Professor and Distinguished
University Scholar
Kent School of Social Work
University of Louisville
Oppenheimer Hall
Louisville, KY 40292
anita.barbee@louisville.edu
Anita P. Barbee is Professor and Distinguished University Scholar at
the Center for Family Resource Development at the Kent School of
Social Work, University of Louisville. Dr. Barbee has over 120
publications on relationship processes, the efficacy of relationship
education, and child welfare. She has brought in over $21 million in
extramural funding in the past 13 years from HUD, Kentucky's
Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and the U.S. DHHS, ACF
Children's Bureau, Child Care Bureau, Office of Family Assistance,
and the Office of Community Services. Currently she is PI on a 5
year (2010-2015), $4.8 million grant from the DHHS, Office of
Adolescent Health to conduct an RCT comparing the effectiveness
of Reducing the Risk vs. Love Notes curricula in reducing risky sexual
behavior, pregnancy, STIs and interpersonal violence while
enhancing self efficacy, communication skills and healthy
relationships in 1300 foster youth, immigrant and refugee youth and
urban youth in the most impoverished areas of Louisville, KY. She
hopes to write a spin off grant on the prevention of child
maltreatment targeting any project youth that do become parents.
She is Associate Editor of the International Association of
Relationship Researchers (IARR) journal Personal Relationships, a
Fellow in APA's Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
(SPSSI) and a recipient of the IARR Dissertation Award (1989), Early
Career Award (1997) and the APHSA, NSDTA Lifetime
Achievement Award (2007) for her work in child welfare training
and evaluation.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 3
Blitz, Caryn, Ph.D
Administration on Children,
Youth and Families
Department of Health and Human
Services
1250 Maryland Avenue, SW, 8th fl.
Washington, DC 20024
Phone: (202) 401-9225
Caryn.Blitz@acf.hhs.gov
Boyd, Suzanne, Ph.D
The University of North CarolinaCharlotte
Department of Social Work
College of Health and Human
Services
9201 University City Blvd.,
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
sboyd@uncc.edu
Caryn Blitz is a Policy Advisor in the Office of the Commissioner,
Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) at the
Department of Health and Human Services. She advises the
Commissioner on evidence-based interventions, implementation
science, and emerging innovations that have implications for the
programs and populations served by ACYF’s Children’s Bureau and
Family Youth Services Bureau.
Dr. Boyd’s research program focuses on child, adolescent and adult
mental health with an emphasis on program evaluation and mental
health policy. Her recent evaluation projects include serving as the
Co-Principal Investigator of the Duke Outcomes Study, a 5-year
project focused on the implementation of a program of outcomes
research in residential care settings for children and youth, and the
Principal Investigator of a 3-year evaluation project of a local
intensive in-home services demonstration project.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 4
Brooks, Susan, M.S.W.
Director of Child Welfare
Programs
The Center for Human Services
Northern California Training
Academy
UC Davis Extension
1632 Da Vinci Ct.
Davis, CA 95616
sbrooks@unexmail.ucdavis.edu
Cahalane, Helen, Ph.D
Child Welfare Education &
Research Programs, University of
Pittsburgh - School of Social Work
2332 Cathedral of Learning,
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
mar104@pitt.edu
Susan Brooks has nearly 20 years of experience in social services,
with expertise in substance abuse, collaboration, team-building, and
supervision. For seven years, Ms. Brooks supervised the
multidisciplinary team for children’s services in San Mateo County.
She was also the founder and executive director of the San Mateo
Perinatal Council, a nonprofit community collaborative.
Helen Cahalane is the Principal Investigator of the Child Welfare
Education and Research Programs and has primary oversight of the
Pennsylvania Child Welfare Training Program and two Title IV-E
education programs. She is currently involved in studies exploring
developmental and social-emotional screening of young children in
child welfare, the impact of mobile technology upon casework
practice, the evaluation of transfer of learning, and the impact of
organizational climate upon worker retention. Dr. Cahalane is also
currently involved in the implementation and evaluation of
organizational effectiveness strategies in child welfare.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 5
Chien, Victoria, M.B.A, PhD(c)
Director of Research and
Evaluation
Office of Continuous Professional
Development and Strategic Affairs
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
3555 Harden Street Ext., Suite 100
Columbia, SC 29203
victoria.chien@gmail.com
Victoria Chien, M.B.A, PhD(c) is the Director of Research and
Evaluation for the Office of Continuous Professional Development
and Strategic Affairs at the University of South Carolina (USC). She
oversees the planning, implementation and evaluation of continuing
medical education research and other educational activities. She
also provides guidance on internal and external quality monitoring
and quality improvement strategies. Victoria is a doctoral candidate
in the USC Clinical-Community Psychology Program. She has
devoted much of her professional life working with non-profit
organizations to build their capacity for achieving meaningful
community-based outcomes.
Coloma, James, MSW
Academy for Professional
Excellence, San Diego State
University School of Social Work
6505 Alvarado Road, Suite 107,
San Diego, CA 92120
jcoloma@projects.sdsu.edu
James Coloma is the Training & Evaluation Specialist for the
Academy for Professional Excellence at San Diego State University
School of Social Work. There he focuses on training evaluation for
the Public Child Welfare Training Academy, Tribal STAR (a training
program to increase outcomes for Tribal foster youth), Leaders In
Action (an executive development training program), Project
MASTER (a training program for Adult Protective Service workers),
and Behavioral Health Education & Training Academy.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 6
Dale Curry, Ph.D., LSW, CYC-P
Associate Professor, Human
Development and Family Studies
Director, International Institute for
Human Service Workforce Research
and Development
School of Lifespan Development
and Educational Sciences
Kent State University
P.O. Box 5190
Kent, Ohio 44242
dcurry@kent.edu
Dale Curry is an Associate Professor of Human Development and
Family Studies and Director of the International Institute for Human
Service Workforce Research and Development at Kent State
University. He is a Board member for the National Staff
development and Training Association (NSDTA) as well as Chair of
the association's Ethics and Trainer Certification Committees and
Co-chair of the Evaluation Committee. He is also a Board member of
the national Child and Youth Care Certification Board and served as
the Principal Investigator of the North American Certification
Project. He also serves as the Editor of the NSDTA journal, Training
and Development in Human Services and Co-editor of the Journal of
Child and Youth Care Work.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 7
Davidson, Jennifer
The New Centre for Excellence for
Looked After Children, University
of Strathclyde
Jordanhill Campus, Sire Henry
Wood Building, Floor 5, 76
Southrae Drive, Glasgow,
Scotland G13 1PP
jennifer.davidson@strath.ac.uk
Jennifer Davidson is the Director of the Director of the Centre for
Excellence for Looked After Children and is an enthusiastic
supporter of high quality education for professionals working with,
and on behalf of, children and young people who are in public care.
Her range of social work experience spans Canada, the United
States and Scotland. She studied Social Work at McGill University
and the University of British Columbia. Jennifer began her career
working in residential child care in Montreal and Vancouver, and
later worked with young people and their families with substance
misuse concerns. These experiences formed the foundation of her
subsequent workforce policy and development endeavours. She
was a teaching associate on the Child and Youth Care Programme at
Douglas College, Vancouver, before lecturing at the Graduate
School of Social Work at the University of Houston, Texas. Ms
Davidson was the Interim Director of Training at the Protective
Services Training Institute of Texas before her current position of
Director of SIRCC which she took up in 2003. A founding member
of the US National Campaign for the Ratification of the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, she has served on national
and international committees related to services for children and
young people.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 8
Nancy S. Dickinson, M.S.S.W.,
Ph.D.
School of Social Work
University of Maryland
525 W. Redwood Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
ndickinson@ssw.umaryland.edu
www.ncwwi.org
Deakins, Brian
Capacity Building Division
HHS/ACF/ACYF/Children's
Bureau
Nancy S. Dickinson is Clinical Professor at the School of Social
Work, University of Maryland and Project Director of the National
Child Welfare Workforce Institute (NCWWI), a 5-year project
funded by the U.S. Children’s Bureau. She is also Workforce
Associate with the Atlantic coast Child Welfare Implementation
Center. Among other projects, Dickinson was Principal Investigator
of a 5-year, Children’s Bureau-funded project on public child
welfare staff recruitment and retention from 2003 to 2008. Formerly
the Director of the Jordan Institute for Families at the University of
North Carolina, Dickinson has had extensive experience in child
welfare practice, administration, research, education and training in
the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, Washington and California.
She has written about and conducted numerous presentations on
the child welfare workforce. In her current position with the
NCWWI, Dickinson oversees a partnership among nine universities
and the National Indian Child Welfare Association in the
preparation and delivery of professional development and
educational activities that support the development of skilled child
welfare leaders.
Brian Deakins works in the Division of Capacity Building in the
Children’s Bureau which is responsible for oversight of most of the
grants that are funded through Title IV-B training dollars –
including the IV-B MSW and BSW traineeship programs, National
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 9
1250 Maryland Avenue SW, #8150
Washington, D.C. 20024
Brian.Deakins@acf.hhs.gov
Child Welfare Workforce Institute, and Comprehensive Workforce
Grants. Our division also oversees the collection of National
Resource Centers and Implementation Centers that provide States
and Tribes with training and technical assistance.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 10
Fletcher, Jane M., MSW, CSWM
Granite State College
Education and Training
Partnership 117 Pleasant St.
Concord, NH 03301
jane.fletcher@granite.edu
Flynn, Charlotte, M.S.S.W
115 Montana Street
Syracuse, NY 13210
charflynn5@gmail.com
Jane M. Fletcher, MSW is the Project Director for the Education and
Training Partnership at Granite State College; a 15 year, caregiver
training partnership with the New Hampshire Division for Children
Youth and Familes. The partnership develops and provides short –
term- caregiver, pre-service and on-going training and seeks to
move beyond program evaluation and continuous quality
improvement, by assessing learning and demonstrating the impact
of caregiver training on children and families.
Charlotte Flynn is an information and library science graduate
student at Syracuse University, and holds an M.S.S.W from the
University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is interested in the problem
of bridging scholarship and practice in human services. She recently
designed a library service to provide information resources to
support the implementation of evidence-based youth violence
prevention initiatives inside and outside an urban hospital.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 11
Franke, Todd M., M.S.W., Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Social Work
University California, Los Angeles
1100 Glendon Ave. Ste. 850
Los Angeles, CA 90024
tfranke@ucla.edu
Graef, Michelle I., Ph.D.
Associate Director
Midwest Child Welfare
Implementation Center
Research Associate Professor
Center on Children, Families &
Law (CCFL)
University of Nebraska—Lincoln
206 S. 13th St., Ste. 1000
Lincoln, NE 68588-0227
mgraef1@unl.edu
Todd Franke has numerous years of experience in research,
teaching, and evaluation in the field of education and child welfare.
He has considerable experience in designing and conducting crosssectional and longitudinal research and evaluation in the areas of
child abuse and adolescent violence. He is currently the principal
investigator for the evaluation of Partnership for Families, a
community-based child abuse and neglect prevention initiative in
Los Angeles County. In addition, he is working with the
Department of Children and Family Services on the redesign of the
Core Academy Assessment and on evaluating the implementation
and impact of training numerous modules including strength-based
family-centered case planning and concurrent planning.
Michelle led the team responsible for CCFL’s child welfare training
evaluation work for Nebraska from 1992 – 2008. During that time,
Dr. Graef’s work also included research and consultation with
human services agencies in Nebraska and other states on staff
recruitment, selection, and retention issues, and an NIH-funded
research grant on child neglect. Her latest adventure is as the coprincipal investigator for the Midwest Child Welfare
Implementation Center (MCWIC), a five-year cooperative
agreement funded by the Children’s Bureau. MCWIC’s primary
role is to support sustainable systems change to improve the quality
and effectiveness of state and tribal child welfare services in a 10-
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 12
state region. They are currently providing technical assistance to
multi-year implementation projects in the states of IN, IA, WI, and
OH.
Greeno, Elizabeth
Ruth H. Young Center for
Families and Children
School of Social Work
University of Maryland
525 West Redwood Street,
Baltimore, MD 21201
egreeno@ssw.umaryland.edu
Elizabeth Greeno is a research assistant professor with the Ruth H.
Young Center for Families and Children at the University of MD,
School of Social Work. She is currently involved in a range of
research projects that include evaluating the effectiveness and
efficiency of child welfare services in Maryland, the Title IV-E
Education program and evaluation activities within the Child
Welfare Academy. In addition, she is a private outpatient mental
health practitioner.
Greyber, Laura
4058 Coventry Green Circle
Williamsville, NY, 14221
lgreyber@buffalo.edu
Laura Greyber is a doctoral candidate in the School of Social Work
at the University at Buffalo, and participates in partnership between
the school and Hillside Family of Agencies. She also serves as the
IRB administrator for Hillside Family of Agencies, and her research
focuses on wellness in child and adolescent populations, including
the family.
Groark, Christina
Office of Child Development
University of Pittsburgh
400 N. Lexington Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
Christina J. Groark is Associate Professor of Education and CoDirector of the University of Pittsburgh Office of Child
Development. She has led numerous large-scale collaborative
projects providing innovative services to children, youth and
families, especially those in urban and low-income communities and
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 13
cgroark@pitt.edu
institutional settings. Her interests include early care and education,
early intervention, nonprofit management, program development
and implementation, and interventions to improve institutions in
the Russian Federation, Latin America, and China
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 14
Guo, Shenyang, Ph.D.
Professor,
Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building CB#
3550, 325 Pittsboro Street
School of Social Work
University of North Carolina –
Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
sguo@email.unc.edu
Hatton, Holly, Ph.D.
1632 Da Vinci Court
Davis, CA 95616
Center for Human Services,
University of California, Davis
hhatton@ucde.ucdavis.edu
Shenyang Guo is a Professor at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill. He is the author of numerous research reports in child
welfare, child mental health services, welfare, and health care. He
has expertise in applying advanced statistical models to solving
social welfare problems. He has given many invited workshops on
statistical methods to NIH Summer Institute, Children’s Bureau,
and the Society of Social Work and Research conferences.
Holly Hatton is a Senior Researcher for the Center for Human
Services at the University of California, Davis. She specializes in
designing and conducting evaluations of community based
programs that serve vulnerable children and families. Hatton's
expertise is in family processes during early childhood with a
particular emphasis on the role that caregivers play in supporting
children's social and emotional well-being within vulnerable
contexts. She maintains a career in academic research related to
child and family development utilizing her experience in basic
research and advanced statistics to inform her design and analysis
of applied evaluation studies, and vice versa. She is active in
translating and disseminating current research findings in the areas
of parenting, early social development and child welfare services.
Additionally, Hatton provides content expertise and guidance
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 15
for the training and teaching of practionners working in child
welfare services. She has published articles in the Journal of Family
Psychology, Protecting Children, Journal of Extension, and the Journal of
Family Relations.
Hayes, Andrew, Ph.D
389 Semmes Drive,
Wilmington, NC 28412
hayesa@uncw.edu
Highsmith, Robert
Director of Assessment and
Evaluation, James Satterwhite
Academy for Child Welfare
Training, NYC Administration for
Children’s Services.
Robert.Highsmith@dfa.state.ny.us
Dr. Hayes conducted small-and-large-scale evaluations at all levels
especially in the fields of family literacy, school reform, and teacher
training. National and state evaluations of Even Start-funded family
literacy interventions and statewide evaluation of school-reform
initiatives revealed significant gaps in implementation of model
designs leading to weak or no effects. Training and reform models
were not sufficient to result in adoption.
Robert Highsmith has been for ten years the Director of the
Assessment and Evaluation Department at the training Academy of
New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services. His
department is responsible for (1) creating instruments for assessing
all courses trained at the Academy, (2) creating systems for
distributing and collecting completed forms, (3) scoring them and
analyzing the results and (4) preparing and posting user-friendly
reports for each delivery to inform practice. His department is also
responsible for (1) evaluating the effectiveness of pilots of new
programs and reporting the results for stakeholders, (2) preparing
cumulative reports annually of the results of assessments of each
course and (4) making recommendations to stakeholders for
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 16
Hoffman, Claudia K.
Institute for Human Services
1706 East Broad Street
Columbus, Ohio 43214
khoffman@ihs-trainet.com
Holden, Jack, Ph.D
PO Box 4856,
Ithaca, NY 14852
jch31@cornell.edu
Holden, Martha, MS
Residential Child Care Project
Family Life Development Center
improvements in training at the Academy.
Claudia Hoffman has over 20 years experience working in Ohio’s
child welfare arena on policy, legislative, budget, and training
issues. As current manager of the Ohio Child Welfare Training
Program evaluation work, she leads the development and
implementation of the evaluation components of the new statewide
training learning management system. Claudia also directs the
collaborative project where the Ohio Department of Job and Family
Services and the Ohio Child Welfare Training Program work
together to share data from these two systems to better support
county children services agencies in meeting safety, permanency,
and well being outcomes.
Jack C. Holden is a project consultant with Cornell University’s
Family Life Development Center and has provided training,
technical assistance, research, and curriculum development for the
center working with residential child care agencies, foster care, and
schools for more than 25 years. Dr. Holden has a Ph.D. in Education
and is currently collaborating with a colleague on a fidelity study
and evaluation of training effectiveness for Cornell University’s
Therapeutic Crisis Intervention (TCI) System.
Martha J. Holden is a Senior Extension Associate with the Family
Life Development Center and the Director of the Residential Child
Care Project at Cornell University. She provides technical assistance
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 17
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
607 254 5337
mjh19@cornell.edu
and training to residential child caring agencies, schools, juvenile
justice programs and child welfare organizations. Ms. Holden has
been studying how to prevent institutional abuse and improve the
quality of care for children in out of home placements throughout
her career.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 18
Howard, Alexis
138 North Fulton Avenue
Mt. Vernon, New York 10550
Alexis.Howard2@dfa.state.ny.us
Alexis Howard, LCSW-R is the NYC Coordinator for the NY Social
Work Education Consortium working on improving staff retention,
and professionalism of public child welfare staff in NYC. She
oversees the implementation of several program models which
focus on transfer of learning. These include; the child welfare field
education model, NYC Child welfare curriculum competency
framework and transition back journey for new MSW’s returning to
child welfare practice
Ilian, Henry D.S.W.
Training Evaluator
James Satterwhite Academy for
Child Welfare Training
ACS Children’s Center
492 First Ave., 5th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Phone: 646-935-1410
Fax: 646-935-7282
henry.ilian@dfa.state.ny.us
Henry Ilian has been involved in research and evaluation at the
New York City Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), James
Satterwhite Academy for Child Welfare Training since 1987. He has
research child protective worker turnover, conducted evaluations of
training effectiveness, and training needs assessments and has
developed tests for a variety of courses offered by the Satterwhite
Academy. Currently he is working on developing an evaluation
package for a new initiative to train caseworkers who will staff an
expanded preventive services component within the agency.
Izzo, Charles Ph.D
Research Associate
Family Life Development Center
Cornell University
My research aims to advance scientific knowledge about the
processes by which programmatic interventions influence human
functioning and health. I am most interested in (1) studying the
factors that influence the quality of interactions between those in the
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 19
Ithaca, New York 14853
cvi2@cornell.edu
helping professions (home visiting nurses, residential care workers)
and the clients they serve, and (2) translating that knowledge in a
way that practitioners and administrators can apply in their daily
work.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 20
Johnson, Barrett , M.S.W., LCSW
Director, Child Welfare In-Service
Training Project - CalSWEC
School of Social Welfare
University of California, Berkeley
Marchant Bldg., Ste. 420
6701 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94720-7420
barrettj@berkeley.edu
Johnson, Charisse S. MSW
Administration for Children,
Youth and Families, Children’s
Bureau, Office of Child Abuse and
Neglect
1250 Maryland Avenue, SW 8111,
Washington, DC 20024
Charisse.Johnson@acf.hhs.gov
Barrett Johnson has directed the Regional Training Academy
Coordination Project since 2001. In this capacity he has provided
leadership on all aspects of planning and implementation of
California’s public child welfare training system. As co-leader of
the Research and Training Network, he has facilitated the
development and ongoing refinement of a statewide child welfare
research agenda.
Other practice and training interests include: addressing
disproportional representation and disparities for children and
families of color in the child welfare system; developing and
implementing innovative models for training evaluation; and
building, translating and disseminating evidence-based practices.
Mr. Johnson is a licensed clinical social worker, and maintains a
private practice serving children and families involved in the child
welfare system in San Francisco.
Charisse Johnson is a Program Specialist in the Children’s Bureau,
Office of Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN) at the Administration
for Children, Youth and Families (ACYF). She is a member of the
newly formed Home Visiting Team in OCAN who is charged to
provide technical assistance and support to States regarding the
implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Maternal, Infant
Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. She also has
the lead on technical assistance and support to Tribes regarding the
ACA Tribal Maternal, Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 21
Program. Charisse has more than 25 years of work experience in
Child Welfare, Head Start, Early Head Start and other child serving
programs. She has worked in both the public and private sectors
during her career.
Keshavarzian, Ghazal, MALD,
Better Care Network
UNICEF - Child Protection Section
3 UN Plaza - Room 735-2
New York, NY 10017, USA
gkeshavarzian@unicef.org
Ghazal Keshavarzian is the Senior Coordinator of the Better Care
Network. Ghazal has extensive experience working in the field of
child protection, women's health, conflict resolution, and human
rights as both a researcher and development practitioner in the US,
Middle East, and CEE/CIS region. She holds a B.A. in
Sociology/Anthropology from Carleton College (Minnesota) and a
Masters in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law
and Diplomacy, Tufts University (Massachusetts).
Knight, Trish
USM/Muskie School of Public
Service,
45 Commerce Drive, Suite 11,
Augusta, Me 04330
teknight@usm.maine.edu
Trish Knight is a research analyst at the University of Southern
Maine, Muskie School of Public Service. Trish’s current projects
include the Maine Child Welfare Caseworker Examination Project
and the Child Welfare Training Institute Evaluation Project.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 22
Kuhn, Frank, Ph.D.
6600 Marcella Drive
Charlotte, NC 28277
frankkuhn@aol.com
Frank Kuhn is a clinical psychologist serving as project consultant
with the Family Life Development Center at Cornell University.
Current projects and interests include implementation and
evaluation of CARE (a model for residential services to youth),
assessments and interventions for organizational systems, and
parallel processes for clinical and organizational congruence in
adherence to practice principles.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 23
Leake, Robin, Ph.D
Butler Institute
University of Denver
Graduate School of Social Work
2148 S. High Street
Denver, CO 80208-7101
Robin.Leake@du.edu
Robin Leake is an experienced researcher, specializing in program
and training evaluation and evaluation capacity building for nonprofit organizations, state agencies and foundations at both the
local and national level. She has extensive program evaluation
experience, with expertise in research design; selection and
development of instruments; data collection; analysis and
interpretation; proposal and final report development; and project
management. She is skilled in qualitative and quantitative research
methods as well as all levels of program evaluation. Formerly the
director of research and evaluation for JVA Consulting, LLC, Dr
Leake managed a multi-year evaluation of the Colorado Trust
Bullying Prevention Initiative to help grantees across the state build
evaluation capacity using a web-based data system. She also
conducted a five-year longitudinal study of the impact of out-ofschool time programming on student achievement in Denver.
In addition to program evaluation, Dr. Leake has many years of
experience developing and evaluating skills-based training
programs for professional human service staff. She has directed the
evaluation and development of statewide training programs for
child welfare staff for several statewide systems, including
Colorado and Pennsylvania. These evaluations led to
comprehensive statewide changes to enhanced skill acquisition,
transfer of learning to the job, and improved service delivery to
children and families. Dr. Leake holds a Ph.D. in Social/Health
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 24
Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 25
Leidy, Brian, Ph.D.
First Floor Beebe Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
Bl15@cornell.edu
607-254-5114
Mabry, Rhett, MHA
The Duke Endowment,
100 North Tryon Street, Suite
3500,
Charlotte, NC 28202-4012
704 376-0291
RMabry@tde.org
Brian D. Leidy is a Senior Extension Associate for the Family Life
Development Center at Cornell University. He is the Principal
Investigator and Director of the Military Projects where he has
been doing research and program evaluation for the last 16 years.
Previously, he worked for four years at the DSS Project at Cornell
developing curricula and providing training to adult protective
services supervisors and adult care facility administrators. Prior to
coming to Cornell, he worked for 13 years in public child welfare
and mental health programs.
Rhett Mabry joined The Duke Endowment (TDE) in 1992 as
associate director of Health Care. In 1998, he was named director of
Child Care. In 2009, Mr. Mabry was promoted to vice president, a
role that will allow him to work with the Endowment’s four
program areas to encourage collaboration while he continues to
direct Child Care.
During his tenure as Director of the Child Care program area, the
Endowment expanded its beneficiary list beyond residential group
care to include prevention and early intervention providers
such as Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring programs, child
advocacy centers, prevent child abuse agencies and, under certain
circumstances, the public child welfare system. Historically, the
Endowment limited its support primarily to “orphaned” children
whose parent(s) were no longer living. Today, however, children in
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 26
out-of-home care typically have two living parents and are more
often subject to child abuse and neglect. Also under Mr. Mabry’s
direction, the Endowment has restricted its support to accredited
providers. Today, the Endowment’s definition of quality has
expanded to include employing evidence-based practices,
whenever possible, continuously collecting and monitoring data,
reporting outcomes, and practicing sound financial management
and governance principles. The Child Care program area is
encouraging the public child welfare system to refer children
toward fewer and only high quality providers. And, to ensure that
children are appropriately reintegrated into communities, TDE is
promoting services that extend beyond foster care to reunified
families, whether biological, kinship, or adoptive.
Mr. Mabry has a BA from the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill and a Master of Health Administration from Duke University.
He serves on the board of the Child Welfare League of America.
Mason, Susan, Ph.D.
Wurzweiler School of Social
Work/Yeshiva University
2495 Amsterdam Ave
New York, NY 10033
masonse@yu.edu
Susan Mason is a Professor of Social Work and Sociology at
Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work and
Education Specialist for the New York State Social Work Education
Consortium in Child Welfare. I am currently directing the
evaluation of child welfare competencies implementation into the
curricula of the city area schools of social work and in field
supervision at the public child welfare agency, the Administration
for Children’s services. This is a cooperative project that involves
working with faculty, agency field supervisors and administrators
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 27
from both the schools and the agency.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 28
McCabe, Lisa, Ph.D
Research Associate
Family Life Development Center
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
lam4@cornell.edu
Dr. Lisa McCabe is a Research Associate at the Family Life
Development Center at Cornell University. Her research focuses on
program evaluations in a variety of settings including residential
child care programs, family child care homes, and child care centers.
McCall, Robert, Ph.D
Office of Child Development
University of Pittsburgh
400 N. Lexington Avenue,
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
mccall2@pitt.edu
Robert B. McCall is Co-Director of the University of Pittsburgh
Office of Child Development and Professor of Psychology. He has
specialized in early cognitive development, program evaluation,
and communicating research information to the general public,
practitioners, and policy makers. His current interests focus on
interventions and their evaluations in institutions in Russia, Latin
America, and China, and the longer-term development of children
who transition from institutions to families.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 29
McCarthy, Mary, Ph.D.
Social Work Education
Consortium and
National Child Welfare Workforce
Institute
School of Social Welfare
University at Albany
303 Richardson Hall
135 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
MMcCarthy@uamail.albany.edu
Neville-Carey, Tricia, MEd
Education and Training
Partnership 117 Pleasant St.
Concord, NH 03301
tricia.neville-carey@granite.edu
Director of the Social Work Education Consortium, and CoPrincipal Investigator for the National Child Welfare Workforce
Institute, A Service of the Children’s Bureau and a member of the
TTA Network. The Consortium is NY States Child Welfare
University-Community partnership program. NCWWI is designed
to build the capacity of the nation’s child welfare workforce and
improve outcomes for children and families through activities that
support the development of skilled child welfare leaders. A faculty
member at the University at Albany, School of Social Welfare since
1988 she worked in the child welfare field for 11 years both before
and after receiving her MSW from the University at Albany in 1982.
She completed her Ph.D. in 2003 at Memorial University in
Newfoundland Canada. Her dissertation topic focused on
supervision in public child welfare systems. Mary currently serves
on the NASW Board of Directors as the Region III representative.
Tricia Neville-Carey is Adjunct Faculty and the Curriculum
Planning Specialist for the Education and Training Partnership at
Granite State College, a program that develops and provides shortterm training for resource parents and residential staff. Ms. NevilleCarey has developed over 40 caregiver ongoing trainings, including
10 online, and revised numerous courses in response to practice
shifts and new research in child welfare. Current projects include
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 30
the development of learning assessments and the use of technology
to inform the efficacy of curricula.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 31
Nunno, Michael, D.S.W.
Senior Extension Associate
Family Life Development Center
College of Human Ecology
Cornell University
Beebe Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-4401
Phone: 607-254-5127
Fax: 607-255-4837
man2@cornell.edu
Parry, Cindy, Ph.D.
C.F. Parry Associates, Inc.
520 Monroe Ave., Helena, MT
59601
cfparry@msn.com
Michael Nunno is the co-principal investigator of the Residential
Child Care Project, coordinating and supervising the evaluation of
the project’s international training efforts in the prevention and deescalation of aggression and violence in children’s residential care
programs. He is currently a team member evaluating the Children
and Residential Experience: Creating Conditions for Change
program model for residential child care personnel on participants’
learning, and organizational congruence and climate.
Cynthia Parry has over 20 years experience in evaluation of training
in human services. For the last 10 years, as a private consultant, she
has worked in the states of California, Colorado, Washington,
Wisconsin, Nevada, Utah, and Pennsylvania, on training and
strategic planning projects. Dr. Parry is the co-author of a publication
from the American Public Human Services Association, “Training
Evaluation in the Human Services” and developed training
evaluation competencies for “A New Key to Success: Guidelines for
Effective Staff Development and Training Programs in Human
Services Agencies” . She is currently a Board member for National
Staff Development and Training Association.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 32
Perry, Robin, Ph.D.
Department of Social Work
Florida A&M University
1339 Wahnish Way
300 Banneker Building B
Tallahassee, Florida 32307
Robin_Perry_Phd@comcast.net
Portwood, Sharon, J.D., Ph.D.,
Professor of Public Health
Sciences & Executive Director,
Institute for Social Capital, CHHS
335
The University of North Carolina
at Charlotte
9201 University City Blvd.
Charlotte, NC 28223-0001
sgportwoo@uncc.edu
Dr. Perry is currently associate professor of social work at Florida
Agricultural and Mechanical (A&M) University and Director of the
Institute for Child and Family Services Research in Tallahassee,
Florida. Dr. Perry has 8 years of practice experience in child welfare
and domestic violence settings and has worked as a researcher in the
child welfare field for 18 years. He is currently the Principal
Investigator of a federally-funded project utilizing an experimental
design to examine, in part, the impact of different models of family
team conferences (that embody a training component) upon child
welfare outcomes.
Sharon G. Portwood currently serves as Executive Director of the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Institute for Social Capital,
Inc., Professor of Public Health Sciences, and Adjunct Professor of
Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her
research reflects an integration of her training and practice in law,
community psychology, and developmental psychology applied to a
broad spectrum of issues involving social service and policy,
particularly as it impacts children, youth, and families at the systems
level. Dr. Portwood has provided consulting and training on
program implementation and evaluation, as well as community
collaboration and data-sharing, to a wide variety of agencies and
organizations at the federal, state, and local level.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 33
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 34
Powers, Jane, Ph.D
Project Director
Act for Youth
Beebe Hall – Cornell University
Ithaca, New York 14853
jlp5@cornell.edu
Rauktis, Mary Elizabeth, Ph.D.
Child Welfare Education &
Research Programs, University of
Pittsburgh - School of Social Work
2332 Cathedral of Learning,
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
mar104@pitt.edu
Jane Powers has been a Senior Extension Associate at Cornell
University's Family Life Development Center since 1985. She
currently serves as Project Director for the Assets Coming Together
(ACT) for Youth Center of Excellence which connects youth
development research to practice, provides training and technical
support, evaluation assistance, and resources to communities and
youth serving programs across New York State. She is interested in
the application of knowledge to practice, and in translating research
to improve environments for children, youth and families. She
received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Cornell
University in 1985.
Mary Beth Rauktis is Research Assistant Professor with the Child
Welfare Education and Research Programs. Her work focuses on
measuring fidelity to child welfare practice models, evaluating the
effectiveness of IV-E education initiatives, and strengthening youth
engagement strategies. She is also involved in an ongoing
evaluation of restrictiveness of living environments among youth,
early intervention around children’s emotional and developmental
needs following contact with child welfare, and factors that influence
the adoption and diffusion of innovative practices.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 35
Rooney, Marilyn
Social Work Education
Consortium, The University at
Albany, Richardson Hall, 135
Western Ave., Albany, NY 12222
Rozeff, Leslie
University of Maryland,
School of Social Work
525 West Redwood Street,
Baltimore, MD 21201
lrozeff@ssw.umaryland.edu
Rubin, Mark
USM/Muskie School of
Public Service,
45 Commerce Drive,
Suite 11, Augusta, Me 04330
mrubin@usm.maine.edu
Ms Rooney is an Education Specialist with the New York State Social
Work Education Consortium. She oversees the NYS Child Welfare
Scholarship Program, which has an evaluation component built into
the pilot. She also works with New York’s local child welfare
districts on their regional training needs.
Leslie Rozeff is currently the Director of the Child Welfare Academy
at the University of MD, School of Social Work. Her areas of special
interest include reducing reliance on residential care for children in
the foster care system, improving organizational effectiveness in
systems serving children and families, and developing effective
strategies for translating child welfare policy into practice.
Mr. Rubin has been a Research Associate at the USM Muskie School
of Public Service since 2003. He is one of two lead evaluators of the
Child Welfare Training Institute in Maine. He has also been lead
author of several state criminal justice reports, including the 2010
Sexual Assault Trends and Sex Offender Recidivism in Maine
Report, 2008 Maine Crime & Justice Data Book, the 2007 and the
forthcoming 2011 Maine Crime Victimization Report (April-May
2011). He has extensive experience in the application of statistical
methods and techniques.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 36
Ruehlow, Brent
Wisconsin Child Welfare
Professional Development System
University of Wisconsin-Madison
455 Science Drive Suite 110
Madison, WI 53711
bruehlow@wisc.edu
Sieck, Christopher
Wisconsin Child Welfare
Professional Development System
University of Wisconsin-Madison
455 Science Drive Suite 110
Madison, WI 53711
crsieck@wisc.edu
Slaughter, John, MS
Center for Development of
Human Services - Research
Foundation of SUNY, Buffalo
State College
1695 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo,
NY 14207-2407
JohnS@bsc-cdhs.org
Brent Ruehlow, Curriculum Coordinator of the Wisconsin Child
Welfare Professional Development System at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison works directly with the evaluation efforts of the
professional development system which partners with the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Children, Families and the Law.
Chris Sieck, Director of the Wisconsin Child Welfare Professional
Development System at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is
responsible for the evaluation efforts of the professional
development system which partners with the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Children, Families and the Law.
John Slaughter is currently responsible for the evaluation of training
activities conducted by the Center for Development of Human
Services (CDHS) under contracts with New York States Office of
Children and Family Services, Office of Temporary and Disability
Assistance, and the Department of Health, Office of Health
Insurance Programs. Also in this capacity at CDHS, he oversees the
state-wide data collection and reporting system of Level I and Level
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 37
II data from 15 institutions under contract with the New York State
Office of Children and Family Services and Office of Temporary and
Disability Assistance. He has spent the last 16 years conducting
evaluations of child welfare training programs for CDHS. John also
has a great deal of experience in data collection, database
management, survey design, data analysis, and reporting.
Smith, Ellen
University of Wisconsin
1350 University Avenue Madison,
Wisconsin 53706-1510
ecsmith4@wisc.edu
Smith, Elliott, Ph.D
Associate Director
National Data Archives Project
Family Life Development Center
Beebe Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
egs1@cornell.edu
Ellen Smith is the current Assistant Child Welfare Training
Coordinator of the IV-E training program at UW-Madison. I also
am a member of the Evaluation Committee with the Wisconsin
Child Welfare Professional Development System. I was formally
the Curriculum Coordinator for the Child Welfare Training System
in Wisconsin
Dr. Smith is cuurently the Associate Director of the National Data
Archives Project at the Family Life Development Center at Cornell
University. In addition to this position he consults on various
evaluation and research methodologies and statistics with
evaluation projects throughout the Center such as the Military
Project with the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and the Residential
Child Care Project’s CARE project sponsored by The Duke
Endowment in the Carolinas.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 38
Tiffany, Jennifer, Ph. D.
Director, HIV Education Project
Family Life Development Center
Beebe Hall Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853
jst5@cornell.edu
Wandersman, Abe, Ph.D
Department of Psychology
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina 29208
WANDERAH@mailbox.sc.edu
Waters, Elaine, MSW
University of Oklahoma
Anne & Henry Zarrow School of
Jennifer Tiffany's work centers on youth participation and
community-based HIV/AIDS education, with a particular focus on
intergenerational communication. Her HIV/AIDS related research
includes a study funded by the National Institutes of Health to
examine the relationships among social connectedness, highly
engaged program participation, and HIV risk reduction among 1317 year olds in New York City. Her research and outreach efforts
both build upon participatory action research and community-based
participatory research methods as well as participatory approaches
to planning, program and resource materials design, and
evaluation.
Abraham Wandersman is a Professor of Psychology at the
University of South Carolina-Columbia. He is a co-author of
Prevention Plus III and a co-editor of Empowerment Evaluation:
Knowledge and Tools for Self Assessment and Accountability and
of Empowerment Evaluation: Principles in Practice and many other
books and articles. In 2008, GTO won the American Evaluation
Association Outstanding Publication Award.
Elaine Waters has been the evaluator for the Child Welfare
Professional Enhancement Program (CWPEP) at the University of
Oklahoma since the inception of this Title IV-E grant in 1994. Elaine
has collaborated with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 39
Social Work
1005 Jenkins, Rhyne Hall
Norman, OK 73019
ewaters@ou.edu
Wester, Heather, LCSW-R
Director of Service and Clinical
Practices
Hillside Family of Agencies
1 Mustard Street
Rochester, NY 14609
hwester@hillside.com
hwester@hillside.com
Leslie W. Zeitler, M.S.W., LCSW
Training & Evaluation Specialist
CalSWEC
School of Social Welfare
University of California, Berkeley
Marchant Bldg., Ste. 420
6701 San Pablo Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94720-7420
lzeitler@berkeley.edu
Children and Family Services Division’s training section in
evaluation of the Core Curriculum for newly hired child welfare
specialists for the past eight years.
Heather ,LCSW-R has been in the field of Human Services for over
25 years . In her current role at Hillside Family of Agencies she is
responsible for the selection and implementation of evidence based
practices within Hillside’s system of care. She consults and coaches
service specific teams regarding model deployment activities and
acts as a conduit for learning by facilitating dialog between clinical
leaders, peer organizations, and model developers. Prior to this she
was the Western Region Service Leader overseeing day-to-day
operations in a 10 county region. In addition to her work at
Hillside, Heather also runs a private psychotherapy practice.
Leslie Zeitler coordinates and implements CalSWEC’s statewide
training and evaluation efforts, and provides technical assistance to
the California Regional Training Academies and to all California
counties. Prior to joining CalSWEC, Ms. Zeitler for six years
provided direct social work services to low-income children and
families in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a graduate of the Coro
Center for Civic Leadership’s Fellowship Program in Public Affairs,
and has also taught family assessment and risk management skills
to Head Start direct services staff at annual Head Start conferences.
Participant List – 14th annual National Human Services Training Evaluation Symposium - (as of May 15, 2011) - 40