As the Director of Pennsylvania’s mental retardation/developmental disabilities program from 1987 to 1993, Steven Eidelman was responsible for leadership and management of all community and institutional services for 65,000 residents. During his tenure, he managed the largest Medicaid waiver for long-term care project in the United States. Eidelman also developed new programs and services in the areas of support services to families, early intervention and employment of persons with disabilities. He left state government to become Executive Director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation and also served as the Interim Executive Director of the American Association of University Affiliated Programs, a national trade association for 70 major research universities engaged in training, exemplary and demonstration service projects, and research in the fields of developmental disabilities and related disorders. Eidelman was recently named Executive Director of the national Arc, formerly the Association for Retarded Citizens of the U.S.

Eileen Elias was the Commissioner of Mental Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1996, where she transformed the State’s state hospital-based mental health system into a national model of an integrated, comprehensive community-based service system. In addition, she revamped and restructured public and private behavioral health acute and continuing care services to become organized systems of community-based care in the District of Columbia (1997, Acting Commissioner for the Commission on Mental Health Services); Massachusetts Department of Mental Health (1988 to 1991, Area Director and 1991 to 1996, Commissioner); New Jersey (1981 to 1983, Greater Trenton Mental Health Center Director of Case Management & 1984 to 1988, New Jersey Division of Mental Health, Central Region Director and State Director of Core Services); Rhode Island (1983 to 1984, Kent County Community Mental Health Center, Chief of Community Support Services); and Pennsylvania (1971 to 1981, Horizon House Psychosocial Program, an array of positions inclusive of case manager, Director of Case Management).

Elias has published a breadth of publications on the subject of organizational change and is a recognized speaker and consultant on a variety of subjects relating to organizational change, facility consolidation, managed care, and consumer empowerment. She presents at regional, national and international workshops and conferences and is an invited speaker at academic institutions including Harvard University Kennedy School of Government and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School. Elias is currently a Systems Consultant for the federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and CPC-Chestnut Lodge, a non-profit, nationally known psychiatric service center.

Sue Elliott was Director of the Washington State Division of Development Disabilities from 1987 to 1993 and the Planning and Evaluation Manager for Arizona’s developmental disabilities agency from 1976 to 1980. During her tenure in state government, Elliot developed and implemented plans for the movement of over 700 persons out of state institutions and nursing homes into community alternatives. Other accomplishments include: developing and implementing plans to reduce state expenditures by $8.2 million, as directed by Governor; negotiating successful agreements with state labor unions; gaining legislative approval for and directed implementation of the closure of one of three state-operated institutions in Arizona and Interlake School in Washington for the developmentally disabled; and expanding community-based system of services offering alternatives to institutionalization for persons who were developmentally disabled.

As the first commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Social Service (DSS) from 1979 to 1983, Mary Jane England helped establish and administer a new state agency for children and their families. Before her appointment at DSS, she served as the Associate Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation.

In 1995, England served as president of the American Psychiatric Association, and she is a past president of the American Medical Women’s Association. She serves as the Vice President of the National Academy of Public Administration, the American College of Psychiatry, the American College of Mental Health Administration, and the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry.

England also served on the Board of Overseers for the U.S. Department of Commerce, Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and currently serves on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Advisory Council and the National Institute of Mental Health Advisory Council. She currently serves on the President’s Quality Forum Planning Committee.

England was also associate dean and director of the Lucius N. Littauer Master in Public Administration (MPA) Program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Dr. England is the chair of the Board of Visitors of Boston University School of Public Health and a member of the Board of Visitors of Boston University School of Medicine. England is president of the Washington Business Group on Health, a nonprofit national health policy and research organization whose membership includes the nation’s major employers.

From 1990 to 1993, David Evans was the Director for Georgia’s Division of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse. Prior to his service in Georgia, Evans was the State Director for the Office of Mental Retardation for Nebraska and Acting Director of the Community Services Division for Developmental Disabilities in Michigan. A past president of the National Association for State Mental Retardation Program Directors, Evans is the Executive Director of the Austin-Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center in Austin, Texas.

As Director of Mental Retardation Services in Texas for 13 years, Jaylon Fincannon was instrumental in the development of a comprehensive community service system, improvements in state-operated facilities, closure of two state-operated institutions and dismissal of a 21-year-old class action lawsuit. He currently serves as a member of a three-person Quality Review Panel established in Tennessee to oversee the state’s planned improvements in the community service system and three of the state’s developmental centers. The Panel was established as part of the state’s compliance with the Settlement Agreement of a class action lawsuit. Fincannon not only provides monitoring of the improvements, but also provides technical assistance to all aspects of the improvement process. He is also currently providing consultation to the Division of Services for People with Disabilities, Utah Department of Human Resources.

William Goldman is a former Commissioner of Mental Health and Mental Retardation for Massachusetts. He also served as the Director of Mental Health, Drug and Alcoholism Services for the city and county of San Francisco. Throughout his career in mental health, Goldman strived to provide services for people with mental illness in the least restrictive environment by attaching resources to the individual rather than the institution.

Goldman is currently the Senior Vice President for Behavioral Health Sciences at United Behavioral Health and a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He serves on the University of California Los Angeles/Rand Research Center on Managed Care for Psychiatric Disorders Advisory Board and is a member of the National Institute for Mental Health Program Research Advisory Group and the Parity Workgroup. Goldman is also a member and immediate past Chair of the American Psychiatric Association Council on Economic Affairs.

From 1987 to 1997, Dennis Harkins was director for services to people with developmental disabilities in Wisconsin. He has been involved in the deinstitutionalization of people with developmental disabilities and in helping create community living for all people with disabilities since 1972. During his career in Wisconsin state government, Harkins developed and implemented creative and effective statewide programs for people with developmental disabilities that continue to serve as models for other states and countries. He currently remains active in working on this issue as a private consultant to local, state and national organizations.

Ken Heinlein has more than 20 years experience in the field of developmental disabilities, including direct services to adults with developmental disabilities in community-based vocational and residential settings and eight years in the administration of Wyoming’s developmental disabilities system serving infants, toddlers, and preschool aged children and adults with disabilities. In Wyoming, he served as Director of the Department of Health and Social Services and Director of Department of Health, both of which oversaw the department of developmental disabilities. Heinlein is the Director of the Outcome Research Center for the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities/University Affiliated Program at the University of Wyoming where he conducts research in post-institutional placements, including the cost and quality of community-based supports and services for persons with developmental disabilities.

From 1982 to 1985, Donald Hevey served as the Director of the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Program Office for the State of Florida. In this position, he was responsible for directing, regulating and contracting for the statewide administration of all community alcohol, drug abuse and mental health programs and institutional mental health, substance abuse and forensic programs. He also served as the Assistant Director of this office in 1981 to 1982. Prior to his service in state government, Hevey served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Manatee County Community Mental Health Center in Bradenton, Florida, where he was responsible to a community board of directors for the management and administration of a comprehensive mental health and substance abuse center. Hevey presently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mental Health Corporations of America.

Elin Howe has 24 years of experience in the field of Developmental Disabilities, including almost four years as Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. As Commissioner, she was responsible for policy development, planning, financing, regulating, managing, and providing services to the approximately 75,000 New York State citizens with mental retardation and developmental disabilities. Howe has provided consultation services on developmental disabilities issues in five states including: New Mexico, Indiana, California, Iowa and Georgia.. In addition, Howe has extensive experience in working with parents, consumer and advocacy group services, providers and boards of directors, community and legislative relations in human resources management, including labor relations, labor organizations, cultural diversity issues, in budgetary process and in development and implementation of total quality management initiatives.

Jennifer Howse has held a number of key executive positions in health-related organizations, including those of State Commissioner for Mental Retardation in Pennsylvania and Associate Commissioner in the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. After leaving state government in 1986, Howse joined the March of Dimes, serving as the Executive Director of the organization’s Greater New York Chapter and becoming president of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation in 1990. She serves on the board of The Salk Institute for Biological Studies and chairs the Advisory Board of The Center for Family Life. She is a member of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and Uninsured, and the Advisory Committee to the Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Howse is the recipient of the Human Dignity Award from the Henry H. Kessler Institute and the Leadership in Health Care Award from the Pace University School of Nursing.

Pamela Hyde was appointed by Governor Richard F. Celeste as the Director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health, and later the Ohio Department of Human Services, the state’s Medicaid and child welfare agency. She served as the Director of the Seattle Department of Housing and Human Services, and then was recruited as President and Chief Executive Officer of ComCare, a Phoenix-based behavioral health managed care company. Hyde is trained as an attorney and also spent several years as an advocate and executive director of a statewide protection and advocacy agency. Hyde is presently a Senior Consultant with the Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc., a Boston-based non-profit organization founded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to assist state and local governments and non-profit agencies meet the changing demands of the behavioral health, housing, child welfare, and human services fields.

Dennis Jones was Commissioner of Mental Health in Indiana from 1981 until 1988. He was then Commissioner for the Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation for six years. Both of these positions included institutional and community responsibility for mental retardation as well as mental health.

Martha Knisley’s 29 years of experience in mental health and mental retardation programs include serving as Commissioner of Mental Health for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and as Director and Deputy Director of the Ohio Department of Mental Health, where she developed strategies for downsizing facilities. Presently, she is a senior consultant with the Technical Assistance Collaborative (TAC). At TAC, her primary focus is in assisting state and local organizations in the development of community support programs for adults with serious mental illness, special needs housing, development of business and organizational plans for managed care, workforce development and training, board training, and community development.

Brian Lahren worked in the Nevada Division of Mental Health and Mental Retardation for 12 years, serving as commissioner from 1988 to 1992. He resigned from his position in protest over budget cuts which reduced community services and became Executive Director of the Washoe Arc. Since leaving state employment, Lahren has worked successfully to reestablish Nevada’s community-based services, using statewide advocacy to ensure that the legislature restore the lost funding. Nevada now has the lowest rate of institutionalization in the United States for persons with mental retardation and developmental disabilities and is near the bottom in per capita institutionalization for individuals with mental illness.

Brian Lensink has managed developmental disabilities service systems in two states, Colorado and Connecticut. He has also provided consultation and support to the governments of Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Utah. As a consultant, Lensink has assisted states and counties with the development of community services and supports. He has published numerous articles and made many presentations on serving persons with developmental disabilities in integrated settings. Lensink continues to provide consultation services throughout the United States and in the Netherlands in a variety of areas, including institutional downsizing and closure strategies.

From 1986 to 1994, John Lewin was Hawaii's Director of Health, overseeing 6,500 staff and a nearly $1 billion annual budget. His responsibilities included Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Director of the state Mental Health System, including comprehensive inpatient, outpatient, community, and preventive mental health; adolescent inpatient, outpatient, and community mental health; children's mental health services; and comprehensive substance abuse treatment and rehabilitation services. As Director of Behavioral Health Services, Lewin helped to deinstitutionalize the majority of patients at the old and unaccredited Hawaii State Mental Hospital, building a much smaller rehabilitation-oriented hospital with community-linked services, accreditation, and training programs for nurses, psychologists, and psychiatrists in partnership with the University of Hawaii. Lewin is Executive Vice President and CEO of the 35,000-member California Medical Association.

David Loberg was appointed Director of the California Department of Developmental Services in 1978. During his five-year tenure, he oversaw a $600 million budget and 18,000 employees in the provision of needed services for individuals with developmental disabilities. Since 1986, he has worked as a principal consultant with Dataserve, providing management consultation, psychological services, and data analysis services to a variety of health facilities, residential facilities, and human service programs in the North Bay and East Bay areas. Loberg is also a lecturer in psychology at Napa Valley College.

Danna Mauch served as Director of Mental Health for the State of Rhode Island, Assistant Commissioner of Mental Health for Massachusetts and Executive Director of an ambulatory and long-term care provider. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, she directed the Divisions of Forensic Medicine, Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Until recently, she served as the Special Master for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, evaluating the implementation of reforms to the publicly-financed mental health system in the nation’s capital. In her government roles, Mauch effected major systems changes in the provision of psychiatric care. As a result, Rhode Island’s Mental Health System was rated number one in the nation by the Public Citizen Health Research Group.

Mauch served as member of the National Advisory Board of the U.S. Center for Mental Health Services and co-chaired a health care reform task force on behavioral health for the Labor and Human Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate. She was also Principal Investigator on a number of federal and foundation-funded research and demonstration projects in the mental health and long-term care fields. She has published several key articles and book chapters on the management of care and public/private partnerships in service delivery and systems management for the behavioral health care industry. Mauch is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Magellan Public Solutions, Inc., a health care organization with the capacity to deliver specialty care management solutions to the public sector.

Neil Meisler directed the Rhode Island Division of Mental Health from 1980 to 1984. He left the position to become the Director of Public Mental Health Services at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. At the university, Meisler implemented a public sector psychiatric residency rotation through affiliation of the Department of Psychiatry with a state hospital and a community mental health center. He also developed and directed a model program of assertive community treatment for persons with severe psychiatric disabilities. In 1986, Meisler became responsible for the day-to-day operations of the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, and from 1988 to 1993 he served as state commissioner for mental health in Delaware. Meisler is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Administrative Director of the Divison of Public Psychiatry at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Ronald Melzer has 20 years of senior level management experience in the provision of mental health and developmental disabilities services. Melzer served 13 years in Vermont state government, including two years as the Director of Mental Retardation Programs. In Vermont he developed a comprehensive plan for replacing the state’s institutions with an integrated network of community-based services and obtained a federal Medicaid waiver that enabled funding to follow clients. From 1987 to 1989, Melzer was the Deputy Director of Community Services for the New Jersey Division of Developmental Disabilities, and from 1989 to 1995, he oversaw quality assurance for mental health programs in the city of New York. From 1995 to 1998, as Vice President for Public Sector Program Development at Merit Behavioral Care Corporation, Melzer designed and implemented cost-effective, community-based alternatives to institutional programs.

Marvin Meyers became Commissioner for Mental Retardation for Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1978. He came to Pennsylvania from Colorado where he served as State Director of Mental Retardation for the Colorado Department of Institutions for more than five years. In Colorado, he also held other positions such as State Director of Community Services for Institutions and State Supervisor of Programs for the Mentally Retarded for the State Department of Education.

During Meyers’ tenure with the Department of Institutions, he reduced the institutional population by 25% in a five-year period while the state experienced growth of 11%, promoted institutional reforms and deinstitutionalization, and helped to establish 110 agencies in the community to provide residential and day services for people with mental retardation of all ages. He also served as a consultant to public and private non-profit agencies throughout the west and mid-west in matters relating to program development, administration and management. He initiated Colorado’s first comprehensive community-centered program for the individuals with mental retardation.

Karen Middendorf served for two and one half years, from 1995 to 1997, as Director of the Division of Mental Retardation in the Kentucky Department for Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services. Her 28 years in the field of mental retardation-developmental disabilities services has included 13 years as the Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities Director for Comprehend Inc., the Regional Mental Health-Mental Retardation Board in Maysville, KY and 13 years in a variety of positions at the Human Development Institute-University Affiliated Program at the University of Kentucky, including Director of Outreach Services and Associate Executive Director. In these various positions Middendorf developed community services and supports for individuals with disabilities and their families; provided training and technical assistance to agency personnel at local, state and national levels, developed and taught interdisciplinary courses at the graduate and undergraduate level; promoted interagency coordination and collaboration; and both advocated for and developed public policy that supports choice and inclusion for all citizens.

Middendorf is a Fellow of the American Association on Mental Retardation and served as President of the National Association in 1995, as well as holding numerous other leadership positions in the state, regional, and national levels of the organization. She has served on numerous boards and task forces at state, regional, and national levels and been honored by a number of associations for her contributions to the positive change in services and supports for individuals with disabilities over the last 20 years.

Dennis Mohatt is the former Deputy Director of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services and the state’s designated mental health commissioner. He was also the Executive Director of the Menominee County Community Mental Health Clinic in Michigan. During his tenure in the rural upper-peninsula of Michigan, Mohatt developed high intensity and high quality community-based programming for persons with developmental disabilities and mental illnesses. These programs, ranging from ICF/MR services to Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams, were developed through the utilization of the same funds formerly expended exclusively for institutional care. In the 18 months prior to participating in the ACT program, a sample group of 32 persons with severe and persistent mental illness used over 3,000 days of inpatient services at an average cost of $400 per day. In the 18 months following their enrollment in the ACT program, this same group used fewer than 300 days of inpatient care. The daily cost of ACT was $100 per person, a system savings of approximately $300 per person per day. The saved funds were then available to expand services for other area residents.

John Morris served an interim appointment as Director of Mental Health for South Carolina from 1995 to 1997; he also served as Deputy State Director. Before 1990, he held numerous clinical and administrative positions in the Department of Mental Health, having begun his career as a ward attendant at the South Carolina State Hospital in 1969 and become a program director for the Missouri Department of Mental Health in the mid-1970's.

Morris currently holds a dual appointment as Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of South Carolina (USC) School of Medicine, and Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in the South Carolina Department of Mental Health’s Division of Education, Training and Research. He is a member of the Affiliate Faculty of the Institute for Families in Society at USC and Adjunct Professor in the USC School of Social Work, where he lectures on health and mental health policy. Principal Investigator on a federally funded grant to build consensus for the statewide replication of a rural assertive community treatment model, he also serves as Project Co-Director and Moderator of TeleConsultations, an interactive teleconference series on mental health issues that is broadcast statewide. A frequent guest lecturer in both university settings and at state and national meetings, he is the author or co-author of a number of journal articles and book chapters on mental health policy issues.

For 11 years, Charles Moseley was the Director of the Vermont Division of Developmental Services, where he led the efforts to close the state's institution, transition all services to individuals with developmental disabilities to individualized community based alternatives, and more recently, to restructure the service delivery system to institute principles of managed care and self-directed services. He holds a doctorate in special education, mental retardation policy, from Syracuse University and has consulted with several states and organizations on the development of community services for people diagnosed as having mental retardation or developmental disabilities. Moseley is the Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Self Determination Project and the Associate Director of the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire.

Frank Ochberg was Director of the Michigan Department of Mental Health from 1979 to 1981. Prior to serving in that position, he spent seven years at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the last two as Associate Director. He has published over 100 titles, many on community mental health services, in scientific and lay publications and has served as a consultant to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Secret Service, and the London Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard). At Michigan State University, he is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, an Adjunct Professor of Criminal Justice, and an Adjunct Professor of Journalism. Ochberg is a psychiatrist in private practice in Michigan.

Robert Okin is the former Commissioner of Mental Health for both the state of Vermont and the state of Massachusetts. He is a consultant with Mental Disabilities Rights International and is a nationally and internationally known expert on human rights for people with mental disabilities.

As Chief of Service of the San Francisco General Hospital (SFGH) Department of Psychiatry, Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, and Vice Chair of the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry, Okin’s major role is to provide leadership to and administration of the SFGH site of the UCSF Department of Psychiatry. Since he joined the Department in1990, his major effort has been focused in the development and expansion of both mental health/substance abuse services and the academic mission at this site. He has overseen the development of crucial services for San Francisco’s most critically mentally ill, including the SFGH Department of Psychiatry’s Case Management Program for High Users of the Emergency Department which received this year’s National Association of Public Hospital’s Safety Net Award, the Crisis Resolution Team for psychiatric patients in crisis, a Partial Hospitalization Program for patients transitioning from acute inpatient care, a variety of outpatient and inpatient Substance Abuse Programs, the establishment of the Division of Psychosocial Medicine, and the Department of Public Health’s capitate contract for comprehensive mental health services for 200 of San Francisco’s most expensive users of the mental health system.

As the North Carolina State Director of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse, Mike Pedneau brought federal class action lawsuits to closure by complying with the settlement agreement in Willie M. v. Hunt and by achieving compliance in the Court Order in Thomas S. v. Hunt. The latter case involved a class of 2,000 people with mental retardation who spent more than 30 days in state psychiatric hospitals. By treating and habilitating people with mental retardation in community settings, North Carolina was able to continue downsizing its state hospitals and shift nearly 60% of the cost of this care to federal Medicaid funds. Since compliance, North Carolina has continued to divert people with mental retardation from care in state hospitals unless extreme circumstances are involved. During Pedneau’s six years as the State Director, the federal mental retardation/developmental disabilities waiver was expanded and slots under the waiver were expanded dramatically in exchange for decreasing the state’s institutional beds by 4% per year.

Peter Polloni was Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Arc from 1971 to 1977, a time of great change for persons with developmental disabilities as the trend shifted from institutional care to community integration. After the Arc, he served for two years as the director of the Pennsylvania Office of Mental Retardation before becoming the Deputy Director for the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities. In northeast Ohio, he oversaw the downsizing of two institutions and the enlargement of community alternatives. Polloni left state government to spend 14 years with Mentor, a company that has been a leader in the development of community-based services for persons with severe disabilities.

Emmett Poundstone served as Commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation on two separate occasions, from 1985 to 1986 and from 1995 to 1996. In addition to serving as Commissioner, he has held several other positions within the Alabama Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation during his nearly 23 years of employment. Positions held include Chief Council from 1979 to 1981, Director of the Division of Legal and Administrative Services from 1981 to 1984 and Associate Commissioner for Mental Illness from 1988 to 1995. He retired in 1997 as the Deputy Commissioner.

Toni Richardson served as Commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation from January 1990 to January 1995, a period marked by the development of community-based alternatives to replace institutional facilities and an emphasis on the development of high quality community services. During part of that time, Richardson served on the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Developmental Disability Directors.

Thomas Romeo was Director of Rhode Island’s statewide agency for mental health for 12 years. With the support of four Governors, the Rhode Island State Legislature, and many citizens, he established a system of services based upon individual needs and ultimate return to one’s home community. In Rhode Island, institutional settings continue to be considered a "last resort."

Kingsley Ross served as Florida’s Assistant Secretary for Developmental Services from 1987 to 1992. During his tenure, he directed a statewide agency with over 5,000 employees and a budget in excess of $500 million; approved policy, plans, budgets, and procedures; proposed and lobbied for legislation; advised and consulted local, state, and federal officials as well as constituency groups. Ross’ accomplishments included the following: creating and implementing an integrated organization-wide fiscal and customer information system, linking budgets and expenditures to consumer demand for services for person with developmental disabilities; increasing revenues by $16.5 million in 6-month period; creating and implementing fee-based cost reimbursement systems; developing systems for evaluating the service quality at the national, regional, and individual consumer level; providing national and international consultation to a variety of private and public organizations serving persons with developmental disabilities on topics ranging from contract negotiations to management and budget control systems. From 1983 to 1987, Ross was Executive Director of the Florida chapter of the Arc. He currently works as the President of Minuteman Systems, Inc.

Lyn Rucker has over 25 years experience in the planning, development, administration, quality enhancement, and financing of institutional and community support systems for people with a variety of needs in the United States and, for the past 12 years, in the United Kingdom as well. She has extensive experience in the evaluation and review of developmental disabilities and mental health supports and services, in-patient psychiatric hospitals, natural supports and community services, and services offered in forensic units. From 1987 to 1991, Rucker oversaw the Division of Developmental Disabilities for the state of Arizona. In that position, she was responsible for designing and directing the first managed care system for people with developmental disabilities in the United States. Ninety-six percent of the children and adults receiving health, medical, and individualized supports and services did so in the community. During her four years as state director in Arizona, the state closed an institution in Phoenix and downsized by half their facility in Tucson. One private ICF/MR was also closed.

Jerry Schrader was the Director of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities for the State of Alaska from 1973 to1978. The following two years he spent as the Chief of Planning and Technical Assistance in the Bay Area Regional Office of the Department of Mental Health of the State of California. As the Chief, Schrader was the second highest ranking official in the regional office, representing the Department in providing state approval and oversight to the five counties surrounding San Francisco Bay. Schrader is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

From 1992 to 1996, Walter Shervington served as the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Mental Health, the mental health authority for the state of Louisiana. Among his duties were the operations of six state-run psychiatric hospitals, including a forensic hospital, and 46 state-run community mental health centers or clinics; innovating, developing, and monitoring new services as the needs demand; and overseeing the expenditure of more than $20 million in federal grant funds. Prior to his appointment as Assistant Secretary, Shervington was an Associate Professor of Psychiatry with tenure at the Louisiana State University School of Medicine. Early in his career, he spent four years as Chief of the Psychiatry Training Branch of the National Institutes of Mental Health. Shervington is a member of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, National HIV/AIDS Advisory Committee and is a psychiatrist in private practice.

From 1985 to 1990, Edward Skarnulis served as the Director of Minnesota’s Division for Persons with Developmental Disabilities. Prior to his tenure in Minnesota, he managed statewide programs in Texas and Kentucky. In 1990, Skarnulis was appointed as one of three members of a review panel created under the terms of a consent decree in Homeward Bound v. Hissom Memorial Center, in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. The panel worked with staff to oversee the court-ordered closing of an 850-bed state institution for person with mental retardation. Skarnulis is a member of the National Advisory Board of the Research and Training Center on Community Integration at Syracuse University and a consulting editor for Mental Retardation, the journal of the American Association on Mental Retardation.

Thomas Sullivan has worked in state government for 32 years in three different states: Connecticut, Florida and, most recently, Tennessee where he served as State Director for the past two and a half years until resigning at the end of January. Sullivan entered the field in 1967 as a direct care worker in a state facility in Connecticut, launching a career that would involve a number of "hands on" and administrative positions in facilities and community programs. For the past 21 years, all of his experience has been in community-based services. Sullivan has been involved, along with a number of other people, in the closing of three residential facilities: the Mansfield Training School and Seaside Regional Center in Connecticut and Nat. T. Winston Developmental Center in Tennessee.

Richard Surles has more than two decades of experience in health planning and programming. Previously, he was a commissioner of mental health for the states of New York and Vermont, an administrator for the Office of Mental Health and Mental Retardation for the City and County of Philadelphia, an assistant director of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health and Mental Retardation, and a member of the Mental Health Study Commission for the North Carolina State Legislature. Surles also was vice president for national operations and Chief Executive Officer of Public Sector Services at Merit Behavioral Care.

In addition, Surles has taught and held positions as co-director of the Post-Doctoral Program in Mental Health Evaluation at the School of Public Health and associate director for the Developmental Disabilities Technical Assistance System at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served on numerous national advisory committees on mental health and health care policy, and has published more than 30 articles in industry journals. He is as an honorary fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has received several career recognition awards from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the National Mental Health Association and the National Association of State Mental Health Directors.

From 1989 to 1991, Henry Tomes was the Commissioner of Mental Health for the state of Massachusetts, after having served as deputy commissioner for several years. In both positions, he expanded community mental health programs, by increasing placements of persons with mental illness in community residences, providing for significant expansion of psychosocial rehabilitation programs, and beginning the process of closing and/or downsizing the Commonwealth’s mental health hospitals. Tomes is currently employed as Executive Director, Public Interest, American Psychological Association from 1991. His Public Interest Directorate supports policy and administrative activities associated with issues involving gender, age, sexual orientation, disabilities, ethnic minorities, AIDS and urban affairs.

Harold Visotsky’s career in mental health has spanned more than 40 years. After four years as Director of Mental Health for Chicago, Visotsky served six years as Director of the Illinois state mental health system. Visotsky has accumulated numerous awards for his work in the U.S. and abroad, including the Presidential Award for Contributions to Hospital Psychiatry by the American Association of General Hospital Psychiatrists and two Gold Medals for Contributions to the Field of Psychiatry from the American College of Psychiatrists. He has provided consultation on mental health care to the governments of Japan, Italy, and the former U.S.S.R. and was Chair of a U.S. State Department/National Institute of Mental Health Team on an official visit to investigate possible human rights violations in psychiatric hospitals of the former U.S.S.R.

Visotsky is the Owen L. Coon Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Medical School. He also serves as a Senior Consultant to the Center for Mental Health and Psychiatry Services of the American Hospital Association, an organization he directed from 1979 to 1985.

Gary Weeks is the current Director of the Oregon Department of Human Resources, the state’s health and human services agency. In addition to overseeing the Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services Division, Weeks directs the work of the Adult and Family Services Division, Health Division, Senior and Disabled Services Division, State Office for Services to Children and Families, Vocational Rehabilitation Division, Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs, and the Office of Medical Assistance Programs (Medicaid). The department has a staff of 9,650 and a 1997-99 biennial budget of $6 billion. Weeks is signing on in his official capacity.

Ric Zaharia served as Director of the Utah Division of Services to People with Disabilities from 1990-1995. During his tenure, deinstitutionalization processes were established to implement state statutes requiring services in the least restrictive environment. Utah’s Home and Community Based Services waiver and state budgeting processes were revised to expand community capacity and permit the routine movement of institutional monies behind individuals for whom treatment teams recommended community placement. During this period, approximately 150 of the 450 residents of the state’s one institution were successfully moved into community settings. In addition, diversion efforts were established to redirect unnecessary institutional admissions to community placements. These efforts continue today.

Zaharia has also been involved in efforts in Colorado and North Carolina to accomplish the same state policies relative to placement in the least restrictive, most integrated settings. In Colorado as the DD Division’s Director of Behavioral Services, he directed the implementation of supports to relocate approximately 100 individuals with dual diagnoses out of the Colorado State Hospital and Wheat Ridge Regional Center. In North Carolina as a facility director, he devised institutional funding transfers to support the movement of approximately 400 people out of the Caswell Center and into more appropriate community settings based on the recommendations of treatment teams.

While Assistant Commissioner for Mental Retardation for Massachusetts, George Zitnay managed the administration of a comprehensive statewide service delivery system for persons with mental retardation, autism, and traumatic brain injury. He left state government to become Executive Director of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation, where his accomplishments included directing special projects on ethics and training of mental retardation professionals and teaching at Georgetown University.

From 1990 to 1998, Zitnay served as President of the Brain Injury Association. He directed all activities of the Association, including training, research and prevention in brain injury. He has served on the National Institutes of Health Advisory Board for the National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, as Chair of the National Center on Medical Rehabilitation, and as Chair of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Zitnay presently is a Professor and Director of Research and Training at the Virginia Neurological Institute, University of Virginia; Clinical Director of the John Jane Brain Injury Center; and President of the International Brain Injury Association.