Speakers at Putting Care at the Center 2023

Brent McGinty

The value of community behavioral health centers in an ecosystem of care

Thursday, November 2, 2023  | 9:30 – 10:15 am

Bio: Brent McGinty is a leader in the behavioral health field from Jefferson City, Missouri. He studied history and political science at Missouri Southern State University before earning a Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Missouri. Brent originally started a career in local government, taking various positions in Columbia, Mexico, Joplin, and Maysville. Searching for more family geographic stability with a new baby led him to stints in the Missouri Senate and Department of Mental Health. While working for the State, Brent was inspired by the mission-driven, collaborative approach at the Missouri Behavioral Health Council. Brent joined the Council team in 2012 as the President/CEO. Brent is driven by the theory that by treating the mind and body as one and making quality behavioral healthcare available to all who need it, Missourians will genuinely thrive.

Debbian Fletcher-Blake

The value of community behavioral health centers in an ecosystem of care

Thursday, November 2, 2023  | 9:30 – 10:15 am

Bio: Debbian Fletcher-Blake, APRN, FNP, is the President & CEO of Vocational Instruction Project (VIP) Community Services, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization in the Bronx that offers comprehensive medical, behavioral health, housing, vocational and supportive services to the community. She served as a clinician and administrator in multiple NYC healthcare facilities, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs). Debbian serves on several boards, including the National Council for Mental Wellbeing as the regional director for Region 2 (New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands), the HRSA National Advisory Council of the National Health Services (NACNHSC), Montefiore Nyack Hospital, Community Health Care Association of New York State (CHCANYS), Coalition of Medication Assisted Treatment Providers and Advocates (COMPA) of New York State, and InUnity. Debbian also serves as the Co-Chair of CHCANYS Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Advisory Council. In 2022 Ms. Fletcher-Blake was awarded Crain’s New York Notable Black Leaders as well as 2022 Schnepps Media Healthcare Heroes presented by Catholic Health for her contribution and dedication to the healthcare community. In 2021, for her role in rebuilding New York City during the pandemic, she was recognized as an Empire Whole Health Hero and showcased on the Bronx Power List as the one for her continued commitment to improving the Bronx under-resourced communities. In 2019, Debbian was selected as a CRAIN’s Notable Women in Health Care. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Dr. Philip W. Brickner Award Honoree from CHCANYS for advocating for the medical needs of those experiencing homelessness. Ms. Fletcher-Blake is a Board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner licensed in New York State. She holds a Master of Science in Nursing from Pace University School of Nursing and an Executive Leadership certificate from UCLA School of Business, and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Chemistry.

Derek Winbush

Caring for those experiencing homelessness: A conversation with Jim O’Connell

Thursday, November 2, 2023  |  4:45-5:45 pm

Bio: Derek Winbush was recruited to be on BHCHP’s Consumer Advisory Board in 2003, despite receiving his medical care from another organization at the time. He was tapped for his insights into how providers can better care for homeless and marginally housed individuals, having received subpar treatment at several institutions. After learning more about the program, he opted to switch his care to BHCHP. He is also a member of the CAB’s HIV Subcommittee.

In 2010, Derek joined the Board of Directors. He is highly valued for his understanding of how people of color and those with criminal records interact with the healthcare system. He is also chair of BHCHP’s Board of Director’s Racial Justice Committee.

Derek serves on the Statewide Consumer Advisory Group, advising the state on HIV prevention and care, treatment services, and policies as well as the state’s Black Advisory Group, whose members offer input about how to improve health outcomes, reduce new HIV infections, and address health disparities among Black residents.

Finally, Derek is a board member of the Boston Accountable Care Organization and served for eight years on the National Health Care for the Homeless Council’s Consumer Advisory Board.

Emily Bailey

The behavioral health priorities of complex care

Thursday, November 2, 2023  |  9:00-9:30 am

Bio: Emily is a dynamic and accomplished behavioral health leader, with 25 years of experience in clinical service delivery and managed care. Her experience spans programs for Medicaid, Medicare, dually eligible, and commercial members in Massachusetts and nationally.

As Chief of Behavioral Health at MassHealth, Emily serves on the MassHealth Executive Team and oversees behavioral health policy and programs across MassHealth. She also plays a key role in the implementation of the interagency Roadmap for Behavioral Health Reform, which sets forth an ambitious agenda for the Commonwealth to strengthen behavioral health access and integration.

Emily earned a B.A. in Sociology and an M.S.W. from the University of Connecticut and is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker.

Jenna Parafinczuk

The therapeutic landscape: Embedding health and healing throughout the ecosystem

Friday, November 3, 2023  |  12:30-1:45 pm

Bio: Jenna Parafinczuk, MSW, LICSW is the Director of Social Work for the Boston Public Schools. Jenna received a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and Spanish along with a Master’s in Social Work from the University of New Hampshire.

Jenna began her professional career in social work with the Boston Public Health Commission working in the School Based Health Center at Charlestown High School. During her tenure at Charlestown High she was trained in Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), the Attachment Regulation and Competency (ARC) framework, Post Traumatic Stress Management (PTSM) and Psychological First Aid.

Jenna has completed extensive professional development in the areas of trauma response and recovery, children, youth and families, major mental illness throughout her career. She has served as a per diem clinician in the emergency department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a level 1 trauma center, supporting patients with crisis response, evaluation and intervention.

Jenna has worked for the Boston Public Schools since 2015 in various capacities as a social worker. Most recently Jenna served as the Acting Program Director of Social Work and has since transitioned to the Director of Social Work. In this role, Jenna leads a department of approximately 220 social workers and coordinates district wide crisis response for school and community based incidents. Jenna has a particular interest in supporting schools as they look to create sustainable and equitable student support systems. Jenna is a collaborator who seeks to connect city and community based partners with schools in order to provide students and families with culturally relevant wraparound services.

Jenna is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), holds a DESE license as a Professional School Social Worker/Adjustment Counselor (all levels) as well as a Director’s license.

Jenna Savage

The therapeutic landscape: Embedding health and healing throughout the ecosystem

Friday, November 3, 2023  |  12:30-1:45 pm

Bio: Jenna Savage, PhD, is the Deputy Director of the Boston Police Department (BPD) Office of Research and Development (ORD). Jenna oversees BPD research partnerships with local colleges and universities, as well as internal research projects initiated by ORD. Since 2010, she has been the project coordinator for the BPD’s numerous mental health-related projects — including developing and overseeing the BPD’s partnership with the Boston Emergency Services Team (BEST), where Master’s-level BEST clinicians are paired with BPD officers in an attempt to improve response to individuals experiencing mental health crises; assisting with the creation and implementation of the BPD’s 40-hour Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training; and co-chairing a Steering Committee and Subcommittee of Boston’s Community Justice Project (a Sequential Intercept Mapping initiative spearheaded by the MA Trial Court). Other responsibilities include grant writing, grant management, and responding to both internal and external information requests. Jenna received her PhD in Criminology and Justice Policy from Northeastern University in 2011, and has been working full-time in ORD since 2009.

James J. O’Connell, MD

Caring for those experiencing homelessness: A conversation with Jim O’Connell

Thursday, November 2, 2023  |  4:45-5:45 pm

Bio: Dr. O’Connell graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1970 and received his master’s degree in theology from Cambridge University in 1972. After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1982, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital(MGH). In 1985, Dr. O’Connell began fulltime clinical work with homeless individuals as the founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which now serves over 13,000 homeless persons each year in two hospital-based clinics (Boston Medical Center and MGH) and in more than 60shelters and outreach sites in Boston. With his colleagues, Dr. O’Connell established the nation’s first medical respite program for homeless persons in September 1985, with 25 beds in the Lemuel Shattuck Shelter. This innovative program now provides acute and sub-acute, pre- and post-operative, and palliative and end-of-life care in the freestanding 104-bed Barbara McInnis House. Working with the MGH Laboratory of Computer Science, Dr. O’Connell designed and implemented the nation’s first computerized medical record for a homeless program in 1995.

From 1989 until 1996, Dr. O’Connell served as the National Program Director of the Homeless Families Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. O’Connell is the editor of The Health Care of Homeless Persons: A Manual of Communicable Diseases and Common Problems in Shelters and on the Streets. His articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Clinical Ethics, and several other medical journals.

Dr. O’Connell has been featured on ABC’s Nightline and in the feature-length documentary “Give Me a Shot of Anything.” He has received numerous awards, including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award in 2012 and The Trustees’ Medal at the bicentennial celebration of MGH in 2011. Dr. O’Connell has collaborated with homeless programs in many cities in the USA and across the globe, including Los Angeles, London, and Sydney. Dr. O’Connell’s book “Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor” was published in 2015 in celebration of BHCHP’s 30th anniversary. Dr. O’Connell is president of BHCHP and an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Kevin Simmons

The therapeutic landscape: Embedding health and healing throughout the ecosystem

Friday, November 3, 2023  |  12:30-1:45 pm

Bio: Dr. Simon (Kevin M. Simon, MD) is Boston’s inaugural Chief Behavioral Health Officer, appointed by Mayor Michelle Wu. He is leading a City-wide public health strategy through an equity lens to meet Boston’s growing behavioral health needs through the Boston Public Health Commission. Simon is a polymath: a physician-scientist, a healthcare policy expert, an inspirational teacher, and a noted writer. He is an attending child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and addiction medicine specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital; an instructor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School; a Commonwealth Fund fellow in health policy at Harvard University; and the medical director of Wayside Youth & Family Support Network, a community behavioral health agency. Clinically, he cares for youth and families through the Adolescent Substance Use & Addiction Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. Academically, he has won multiple federal NIH awards for research on structural violence, health equity, and mental health. He oversaw the planning and implementation of a Community Behavioral Health Center funded by the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health as medical director. Additionally, Dr. Simon consults on mental health system design and provides expert advice to federal agencies reviewing healthcare practices. Simon’s writings on health equity are in notable journals like the American Journal of Public Health and the New England Journal of Medicine. National audiences regularly seek his perspectives on mental health through trusted outlets.

Luis Ortega

A complex care story share

Wednesday, November 1, 2023  |  5:00-5:45 pm

Bio: Luis (he/they) is a multidisciplinary storyteller, facilitator, narrative strategist, and the founder and director at Storytellers for Change.

Over the last 14 years, Luis has worked with youth, educators, and cross-sector leaders to help them harness the power of narrative. His work focuses on asset-based storytelling, racial equity, narrative change, culturally responsive education, leadership, and organizational development.

His work, writing, and projects have been featured at the Harvard DACA Seminar, HBO’s “Where Do You Exist?” podcast, the Kauffman Foundation’s Disruptor Speaker Series, the Seattle Design Festival, and the Gates Foundation Discovery Center. Luis is a W K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community Leadership Network Fellow, the Co-Director of La Cima Bilingual Leadership Camp, and the co-founder of the Expresión Storytelling Fellowship at the Latinx Education Collaborative.

Luis has a BA in Political Science from the University of Washington and a Masters in Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Luis was born and raised in Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) and now lives in the unceded and ancestral lands of the Duwamish and Coast Salish people (Seattle).

Marcella Middleton

Leading with lived experience

Wednesday, November 1, 2023  |  1:30-3:15 pm

Bio: Marcella Middleton (she/her) based in Durham, North Carolina is a connector, motivator, and survivor. Determined to challenge the stereotype that “people mostly do what they see and not what they hear”, Marcella dedicated her life to traditional ideas of success such as school and a career. It is through personal and professional experiences that Marcella has gained the confidence and knowledge to challenge society’s ideals of success. Her evolution through consistent adversities has shifted her values which empowers greater self awareness and awareness of the world around her.

Marcella is a Black mom, daughter, sister, aunt, and friend fighting everyday for freedom, equity, and protection for herself and those just like her. Marcella is book smart, street smart, and everything in between. She has a degree in Social Work and has selflessly advocated for 16 years for vulnerable youth in foster care and other nontraditional living arrangements. In 2005 at 15, Marcella was in foster care and started her journey advocating, mentoring and working on behalf of youth that are or have been in substitute care at an organization called Sayso. After being introduced to the work in 2005 she went on to continue work as a social worker, social work trainer, lived expert, and several other roles that positioned her to transform youth serving systems. Her current role as A Way Home America’s first CEO with lived expertise has empowered Marcella to center her and other youths’ lived experiences to help guide the transformation of the youth homelessness system.

Paolo del Vecchio

Leading with lived experience

Wednesday, November 1, 2023  |  1:30-3:15 pm

Bio: Mr. del Vecchio is the Director of the Office of Recovery and the Director of the Office of Management, Technology, and Operations at SAMSHA. In this role, he works in partnership with SAMHSA and the Department of Health and Human Services to manage, provide leadership, and ensure SAMHSA’s needs are met.

Previously, Mr. del Vecchio served as the Director of SAMHSA’s Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), providing executive leadership for Federal efforts to improve the nation’s mental health service systems. This included management of the federal/state mental health block grant program and directing a range of programs and activities that address topics such as suicide prevention, children’s mental health, homelessness, disaster mental health, HIV/AIDS, and others. Mr. del Vecchio also previously served as the CMHS Associate Director for Consumer Affairs where he directed SAMHSA’s precedent-setting programs and activities that advanced consumer participation and education, a recovery orientation for the mental health system, peer support and the adoption of certified peer specialists, wellness and primary care integration, understanding of trauma histories and the social determinants of health and mental health, and led programs to reduce discrimination and prejudice associated with mental illnesses.

Prior to joining SAMHSA, Paolo worked for the Philadelphia Office of Mental Health in the areas of policy formulation and the planning of a comprehensive system of community-based mental health services addressing homelessness, HIV/AIDS, and many other issues.

A self-identified mental health consumer, trauma survivor, and person in recovery from addictions, Paolo has been involved for over 40 years in behavioral health as a consumer, family member, provider, advocate, and policy maker. He graduated summa cum laude with a Master’s Degree in Social Work from Temple University, has published widely, and is a highly sought after national leader and speaker. Paolo has been a leader in many federal efforts including the Federal Advisory Planning Board for the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, the HHS Multiple Chronic Conditions Initiative, the HHS Living Community Initiative, and numerous others.

Reyna Taylor

The behavioral health priorities of complex care

Thursday, November 2, 2023  |  9:00-9:30 am

Bio: Taylor brings extensive experience with federal public policy initiatives to protect access and affordability to her role as Senior Vice President of Public Policy and Advocacy at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, where she leads public policy and government affairs activities, supervises legislative matters, and guides overall public policy strategy. With nearly two decades of specialty pharmaceutical and medical device experience, Ms. Taylor has a wide range of knowledge on public policy issues, including Medicare, Medicaid, and commercial management of managed care organizations, hospitals, pharmacies, and mental health centers. She holds a Bachelor of Science in neuroscience from Bates College and earned a Master of Science in biotechnology and Master of Business Administration from Johns Hopkins University. Currently, she serves on the board of the Mental Health Liaison Group.

Founded in 1969, the National Council for Mental Wellbeing is a membership organization that drives policy and social change on behalf of over 3,100 mental health and substance use treatment organizations and the more than 10 million children, adults and families they serve. We advocate for policies to ensure equitable access to high-quality services. We build the capacity of mental health and substance use treatment organizations. And we promote greater understanding of mental wellbeing as a core component of comprehensive health and health care. Through our Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program, we have trained more than 2.6 million people in the U.S. to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges.

Before joining the National Council, Ms. Taylor spent seven years with Lundbeck US doing patient assistance and advocacy in government affairs where she led efforts to modernize Lundbeck’s Patient Support Program, foster advocacy relationships, and oversee the Lundbeck Patient Assistance Program in the United States. Before joining Lundbeck, Ms. Taylor spent almost eight years at Wyeth (later Pfizer) Pharmaceuticals, where she held a variety of psychiatry specialty management and training roles.