Speakers & Faculty

Janelle Wesloh, LADC, MBA

Vice President of Clinical Excellence, Innovation and Recovery Management, Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation

Janelle Wesloh, LADC, MBA, Vice President of Clinical Excellence, Innovation & Recovery Management at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation has been in the addiction treatment field for 27 years. Wesloh has held many roles, including youth counselor, intake counselor, continuing care counselor, electronic medical record designer, and privacy officer.

She currently provides integration and standardization support to clinical operations across the organization to ensure the optimal functioning of a national system of care. She strives to further establish HBFF's clinical innovation function and helps Hazelden Betty Ford continue to lead the field through research and design. She oversees the Recovery Management division that provides ongoing recovery support through online, phone, and in-person programs and services.

Wesloh is a licensed alcohol and drug counselor; she has an undergraduate degree in psychology with an emphasis in chemical dependency counseling, and an MBA from Hamline University. ×

Shameil Dawood

Senior Solutions Consultant, Sparkrock

Katy Beveridge

Vice President of Operations, LifeWorks NW

Katy Beveridge joined LifeWorks NW in 1994 as an administrative assistant and has moved through positions as Office Manager and Manager of Administrative Systems before becoming Director of Administrative Support Systems. Prior to joining LifeWorks NW, she served as Licensing Clerk in the Oregon State D.E.Q. Katy grew up in Portland and attended Grant High School. She received her B.A. in Liberal Arts with a specialization in Sociology and Special Education from Oregon State University. ×

Brandon Ward, Psy.D.

Director of Enterprise Applications, Mental Health Center of Denver

Bio coming soon

AJ Peterson

Vice President, Interoperability, Netsmart

AJ Peterson is Vice President of Interoperability for Netsmart.  He maintains an efficient client-focused model around connectivity and consumer-engagement technologies, and develops value-based connections among clients, suppliers and partners in the healthcare market.

Before joining Netsmart, AJ was an area operations director at Concentra Medical Centers, where he managed medical outpatient facility operations, sales development, customer relationships and personnel development.  He has participated in the Office of the National Coordinator’s Data Segmentation for Privacy project, and currently serves on the Advisory Council for Carequality, which provides a national-level, consensus-built, common interoperability framework to enable exchange between and among health data sharing networks.

He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration from DePaul University. ×

Angie Childers

Assistant Vice President, Value-Based Payment Products, Beacon Health Options

Bio coming soon

Emily Nichols, MPH

Director of Operations, Resources for Human Development (RHD)/Family Practice Counseling Network

Emily Nichols’ career has focused on Philadelphia-based federally qualified health centers in a variety of roles centering on patient care, health outcomes, quality improvement and patient-centered medical home recognition. She holds a BA in Public Health – Social and Behavioral Sciences from Johns Hopkins University and a MPH from Emory University with a concentration in Behavioral Sciences. In 2010, Emily became the Center Director of The Health Annex, FPCN’s health center in Southwest Philadelphia. In February 2013, Emily transitioned to the Director of Operations for FPCN. Emily also is a consultant with the Health Federation of Philadelphia with the Health Center Controlled Network (HCCN) project. She works with HCCN health centers on PCMH recognition and use of the population management software, i2iTracks. ×

Dana Thomas

Vice President, Strategic Accounts, Relias

Dana Thomas is the VP of Strategic Accounts at Relias. Formerly, he was the VP of Content development working with hundreds of Subject Matter Experts to develop the Relias eLearning libraries. He joined Relias in 2009 and brought with him over a decade of instructor led and asynchronous training experience.  He is passionate about efficient training and will literally talk your ear off about it, if you let him. ×

Deb Adler

Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Michael M. Hailye

Chief Information Officer, Embassy Management

Kendra Ellis

Executive Director, Embassy Management

Kendra Ellis is a professional leader with over ten years of experience serving as a member of executive leadership teams. Ms. Ellis is currently employed by Embassy Management, a multi-state provider of ID/DD Residential, Employment and Autism services. Ms. Ellis is known for being accomplishment driven with a proven history of working with teams to align systems and achieve integration. Ms. Ellis operates with a focus on organic growth and has partnered with stakeholders to develop policies and design innovative services.

In her current role as Executive Director for Idaho, Washington and Oregon Ms. Ellis oversees operations for a variety of service lines including Residential Services for adults, Licensed Residential homes for children, In Home Intensive Services for children and adults as well and Supported Employment programs.

Ms. Ellis entered the human service field with a passion for advocating for adults and children with developmental and intellectual disabilities. She fulfills this mission through her leadership and legislative advocacy on a local, state and national platform. Throughout her career, she has remained focused on the service needs of each person as a unique individual. Ms. Ellis was nominated for the American Health Care Association ID/DD Residential Services Committee in 2016 and is currently serving her second term. Kendra is a native to the Pacific Northwest, currently calling Seattle, Washington home. ×

Matthew Chamberlain

Chief Operating Officer, Welligent

Laurie Nelson

Group Product Manager for Analytics, Relias

Laurie Nelson has been in Information Technology for 22 years, starting as a programmer followed by systems analyst work. She has been in software Product Management for 10+ years, continuing to work with many types of applications, both home grown and created using embedded Business Intelligence Reporting tools. Laurie is passionate about working with software development organizations to build products that give software users the right information at the right time in the right format to enable them to do their jobs with greater success. At Relias, Laurie leads a team implementing a clinically designed suite of metrics used to stratify risk and identify care gaps in a population of patients. She has led a specific project for opioid risk reduction using machine learning. ×

Gina Armitage, MS, LPC

Director of Quality and Compliance, Comprehensive Mental Health Services, Inc.

Gina Armitage is a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Missouri with 10 years of experience in Community Mental Health. Ms. Armitage has a B.S. in Psychology from Missouri State University and a M.S. in Mental Health Counseling from Walden University. She is currently employed with Comprehensive Mental Health Services, Inc. (CMHS) in Independence, Missouri as the Director of Quality of Compliance. She joined the CMHS team in 2012 as a Qualified Mental Health Professional with the residential program before taking the role of a Treatment Team Leader in the Adult Community Support Program and most recently, in 2015, the Director of Quality and Compliance. In her current role, she oversees the agency’s quality assurance and improvement, medical records, agency and grant outcomes management, corporate compliance, risk management, credentialing, consumer advocacy, and staff training/education.  Ms. Armitage and has direct experience with the residential program, outpatient therapy, community support and crisis services. ×

Michelle A. Blackmore, Ph.D.

Project Director, Montefiore Medical Center

Bio coming soon

Bruce L. Bird, Ph.D.

President & Chief Executive Officer, Vinfen

Bruce L. Bird joined Vinfen in 2003 as COO, and has served as President and CEO since 2010.  Vinfen is a large non-profit community behavioral health and disability service company, which in FY 2019 will provide services to about 9000 individuals with a budget of about $188M and a staff of over 3600 throughout locations in Eastern Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Dr. Bird lists several areas of focus at Vinfen, including developing an Innovation Center which: has established and is continuing to operate a community behavioral health home with sustained year over year growth in funding though the Massachusetts Duals Demonstration program; participated with academic institutions (including Harvard and Dartmouth) and software companies in 4 publicly and 9 privately funded technology evaluation projects; partnered with 7 other community organizations and contracting with 14 healthcare ACO/MCO systems to provide health home care coordination services in the new Massachusetts Medicaid Healthcare reform program.

Dr. Bird serves on numerous statewide policymaking and provider organizations and is active in legislative and policy advocacy, including serving as the current vice-chair of the board of the Association of Behavioral Healthcare of Massachusetts.  He is a licensed psychologist, has served on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins Medical School and the associate faculty of the Harvard Department of Psychiatry, and is currently involved in several formal technology research evaluation projects. ×

Danita Johnson Hughes, Ph.D.

President & Chief Executive Officer, Edgewater Health

As Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Danita Johnson Hughes leads Edgewater Health in providing behavioral health care, primary care and child welfare services to residents of Gary and Northwest Indiana. Her ultimate goal is to help make a measurable difference in community health and well-being. She specializes in organization transformation and has had much success in managing organizations through challenging times. Edgewater Health has enjoyed much success for more than 20 years under her leadership. Some of the more recent examples include the following: In January 2014, Edgewater Systems opened the doors to a new $16M housing complex for homeless individuals. In July 2015, the organization opened the Rapid Access Center (RAC), the first of its kind in Indiana, for persons experiencing an acute psychiatric episode. In August of 2016, Edgewater began operating its newly acquired primary care practice with locations in both Gary and Griffith, Indiana.

Danita is the recipient of numerous awards including the state of Indiana Governor’s Distinguished Hoosier Award. She is a 2013 inductee into the Northwest Indiana Business & Industry Hall of Fame.

In addition to being a healthcare industry executive, Dr. Danita Johnson Hughes is a speaker, author and entrepreneur. Through her professional work, keynotes, writing and philanthropic activities, she inspires people to dream big and understand the role personal responsibility plays in achieving success.

Dr. Hughes is a graduate of Indiana University with both Bachelors and Master’s degrees in Public Administration. She also holds a Master’s degree in Social Service Administration and a Graduate Certificate in Health Administration and Policy from the University of Chicago. Additionally, she earned a Ph.D. from Walden University.

Dr. Hughes is very active in professional and civic activities. She is an avid runner and fitness enthusiast. She has completed 6 marathons. Dr. Hughes is also an award winning porcelain doll artist. As a doll artist and collector, her collection consists of over 300 dolls. She enjoys gardening as well.

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Bill Maroon

Organizational Development Specialist, Business Development Team, Resources for Human Development (RHD)

Bio coming soon

Diana Salvador, Psy.D.

Vice President, Quality Assurance and Risk Management, CPC Behavioral Healthcare

Bio coming soon

Andrew Mayo

Director of Sales, Onshift

Andrew Mayo is Director of Sales of OnShift, a leader in human capital management software for healthcare. His expertise in staffing and labor management strategies for community-based care organizations is foundational to his role with OnShift’s Sales team. Andrew works hand-in-hand with associations, providers, and with OnShift’s Customer Success and Product teams to create impactful best practices aimed at solving daily workforce challenges in community-based care. Andrew shares insights, research and recommendations to improve clinical, operational, and financial outcomes through labor management practices and technology. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Providence College. ×

Luke Crabtree, J.D., MBA

Chief Executive Officer, Project Transition

As CEO Luke Crabtree, J.D., MBA, maintains continuous oversight of Project Transition with the primary objective of ensuring competent and devoted staff are in place to serve the well-being of our members. Luke's leadership promotes and sustains an environment that encourages a positive and forward-thinking culture. His leadership reflects the company's commitment to its core values and mission as a recovery-driven residential treatment program.

Project Transition has demonstrated over 35 years’ experience utilizing evidence-based, outcomes driven approaches to enable society's most vulnerable and complicated Members, to live meaningful lives, in the community, on terms they define. ×

Christy Dye

Chief Executive Officer & President, Partners in Recovery

Christy’s background spans 30 years as a state administrator, provider and system leader in managed behavioral health, healthcare integration and recovery-focused provider networks in Arizona and other states. She was early innovator in implementing an integrated service system for adults with co-occurring mental health/substance use disorders, including strategies for network development, financing, licensure and consensus building. She also oversaw the expansion of Arizona’s contracted behavioral health managed care system to a more recovery focused model, including expansion of peer-delivered mental health, addiction and peer-delivered services. Today she directs strategy and operations of Partners In Recovery, a integrated behavioral/medical health home system serving 8,000 adults with serious mental illness in Arizona. Christy has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Visiting Scientist award from Harvard University and the prestigious Behavioral Health Leadership in Services Award from the ASU Center for Applied Behavioral Health Policy. She is a contributing author to multiple articles and books on peer support and recovery services. More recently, Christy’s interests have turned to health IT and using technology to improve behavioral healthcare practice and outcomes. She is a member of the governing board of Health Current, Arizona’s health information exchange, and serves as a co-principal investigator for a National Institute of Mental Health research project focused on health information sharing preferences among persons with serious mental illness.  She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois and her master’s from the University of Arizona. ×

Michael Golinkoff Ph.D., MBA

Senior Vice President, Innovation Advisor, AmeriHealth Caritas

Michael Golinkoff, Ph.D., M.B.A., is President of PerformCare, a behavioral health care subsidiary of AmeriHealth Caritas. In addition, Dr. Golinkoff is a Senior Vice President for AmeriHealth Caritas, focusing on behavioral innovation to address medical issues in the populations served by AmeriHealth Caritas. He has nearly 30 years of clinical and medical management experience.

David Young, MBA

Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

David Young, MBA, brings more than 30 years of executive experience in technology, new product development, and strategic planning in the health and human service field to the OPEN MINDS team. In addition to holding executive-level positions at prominent healthcare organizations, Mr. Young has also co-developed several start up organizations. He has extensive experience in the telemedicine field, specifically working with autism, children and adolescents, corrections and long-term care markets.

Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Young served as the Chair of the Board and the Chief Marketing Officer of Raiven Healthcare in Tennessee. In this position, he provided leadership and strategic vision for the cutting edge artificial intelligence company. While leading the Board, he also served as the Chief Marketing Officer, providing direction in branding and imaging in the marketplace. Together, Mr. Young and the Chief Executive Officer oversaw the budgeting process and developed the direction of the board policy.

Previously, Mr. Young served as the Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer of MindCare Solutions Group, Inc., a national telemedicine organization providing tele-psychiatry and tele-primary care to institutional providers. In these roles, Mr. Young designed the corporate structure and directly managed sales, account management, and government relations. Prior to his departure at MindCare Solutions Group, Inc., Mr. Young obtained three of the largest customers in the behavioral health space as clients, when the organization was not yet three years old.

Mr. Young served as the Vice President of Tele-Psychiatry at Optum/UnitedHealth Group from 2011 – 2013, where he served as the national leader of the tele-psychiatry service line. He developed service lines, and created all aspects of the business development process. Working with senior level executives, he co-developed a design for fee-for-service and alternative payment systems. ×

Sunil Budhrani, M.D., MPH, MBA

Chief Medical Officer & Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Innovation Health

Dr. Sunil Budhrani is the Chief Medical Officer for Innovation Health, a uniquely successful partnership between Aetna and one of the largest health systems in the Washington DC Metropolitan Area, INOVA Health System. Dr. Budhrani is a Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Neuroscience and English. He went on to complete his Medical Degree at the George Washington University, where he then pursued his Masters in Public Health due to an interest in Population Health Dynamics. Subsequently, he completed his Residency training in Emergency Medicine at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts, and went on to Chair and direct Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centers throughout the East Coast. Dr. Budhrani then served as the Chief Medical Officer of the Evergreen Health Cooperative Insurance for the State of Maryland and led the clinical course for medical technology, network development, member engagement, and Population Health for the Plan. He co-founded CareClix Telemedicine, a leading pioneer in Telemedicine and Remote Patient Monitoring technologies with users throughout the United States and abroad. He as well served as the Chair of the American Telemedicine Association's Guidelines Committee for Practice of Primary Care and Urgent Care Telemedicine, has authored many papers on the subject of Telemedicine, and is a National Speaker on Virtual Medical Care on such topics as Reducing Hospital Readmissions and Employing Telemedicine in Medical Practices. He currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife and two daughters. ×

Monica E. Oss

Chief Executive Officer, OPEN MINDS

Monica E. Oss, M.S., Chief Executive Officer and Senior Associate, is the founder of OPEN MINDS. For the past two decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice. Ms. Oss is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field. She has unique expertise in payer financing models, provider rate setting, and service pricing. She has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, managed care programs, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design. ×

Sharon Hicks

Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Ken Carr

Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM

Senior Associate, OPEN MINDS

Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, EdM, Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.

Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics.  Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.

Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, over half his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.

He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.

Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University. ×