MHADC_2009_CONFERENCE

2009 Conference
Last Update: 11/01/2009 12:16 PM

21^st Annual Conference

The Future of School-Based Mental Health
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Howard University’s Blackburn Center
2397 Sixth Street, NW Washington, DC 20059

On-Line Registration

Conference Participants

Leila Bakry-Becker, Psy.D., is the Director of Mental Health Services for the Student Support Center, the administrative agency of the DC Safe Schools/Healthy Students Grant to provide a wide range of services for DC public charter schools. She is also the owner and founder of Becker Psychological Services, Inc. and currently serves as the agency's Director of Behavioral Health. She has over 20 years of experience providing grassroots mental health services in Maryland and the District of Columbia. As a mental health specialist for the District of Columbia's Department of Mental Health, Dr. Bakry-Becker under the auspices of the city's first Safe Schools, Healthy Students Initiative, established an expanded mental health services program for the SEED Public Charter School, the first public boarding school for college-bound, inner-city youth in the nation. She also oversaw the Building Mentally Health Communities grant and the Secondary Schools Counseling grant programs at the Center from 2002 to 2005. Dr. Bakry-Becker earned a MA in clinical psychology from Bowie State University and her Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the American School of Professional Psychology, Arlington, VA.

Kenny E. Barnes, Sr., MS, is the founder and president of the organization ROOT (Reaching Out to Others Together), Inc., a non-profit organization he founded after the brutal murder of his son in DC’s Ward One on September 24, 2001. ROOT, Inc. is committed to advocacy, education and intervention on behalf of individuals and families who have been victimized by homicide in the District of Columbia metropolitan region. Its mission is to focus community and organizational resources on stopping senseless homicides and to illuminate and address the causes of the systemic apathy that foster a culture of violence in too many communities around our nation today. Mr. Barnes serves on numerous civic and governmental boards and commissions, including the Mayor’s Commission on Early Childhood Development, and as chair of American University WAMU Radio Community Council. Mr. Barnes is often called upon to testify at various hearings and participate in conferences.

Mr. Barnes earned his BA magna cum laude in psychology in 1997 and his MS in clinical psychology from the University of the District of Columbia.

Stephen T. Baron became the Director of the DC Department of Mental Health in July 2006. Prior to taking this position, Mr. Baron was the president of Baltimore Mental Health Systems, Inc. (BMHS), the local mental health authority for Baltimore City for 17 years. During Mr. Baron’s tenure at BMHS, the agency expanded school-based and early childhood mental health and implemented a range of mental health/criminal justice activities such as the Behavioral Emergency Service Team with the Baltimore City Police Department and a recently developed mental health court. Mr. Baron has received numerous awards and honors, including the Public Official Award from the Governor’s Homeless Relief Advisory Board. Mr. Baron completed his Bachelor of Social Welfare at Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, and his Master of Social Work at Howard University in Washington, DC.

Ralph D. Belk, LICSW, LCSW-C is the Deputy Executive Director, Program Administration at the National Center for Children and Families. His responsibilities include providing operational oversight, regulatory and contractual compliance, and overall team leadership to NCCF direct service programs through program level integration, quality assurance, supervision and training, outcome measurement, and financial management. Before joining NCCF, Mr. Belk was the Community Residence Facilities Program Director at Green Door in Washington, D.C. where his duties included developing and monitoring four new 24-hour supervised housing facilities for persons with chronic mental illness. He earned his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Social Work in 1991 from Texas Christian University and his Masters of Science in Social Administration in 1996 from Case Western Reserve University.

Sheryl Brissett-Chapman, Ed.D, ACSW, has been the Executive Director of the National Center for Children and Families (NCCF®) since 1991. NCCF is a comprehensive private, nonprofit child and family welfare agency serving families in the national capital area. Formerly, she was the Associate Director of Clinical Services, Research and Administration, Division of Child Protection, Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where she led a multidisciplinary team of mental health professionals. She also served as assistant professor of pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine, and as Senior Consultant and Founding Director for the Child Welfare League of America’s Training Institute. Dr. Brissett-Chapman has received numerous awards for her leadership in child welfare. She has been an expert Panelist for the D.C. Superior Court, addressing service reforms for the juvenile justice system, and facilitates organizational change for numerous national and community based corporations in both the public and private sectors. She lectures at Howard University School of Social Work in the Masters and Ph.D. programs. Dr. Brissett-Chapman received her BA from Brown University in 1971 and completed her Masters of Social Work at the University of Connecticut, School of Social Work in 1974. In 1980, she earned a Masters of Education, Administration, Planning and Social Policy degree at Harvard University and completed her Doctorate in Education at Harvard University in 1986.

Eve Brooks, M.S.W., founded the Public Charter School Center for Student Support Services and served as its Executive Director from its incorporation in October 1999 until June 2008. Her vision from the onset was to enable charter schools to pilot important service reforms for the City. Since its founding The Center has served all but a few of the District’s 60 public charter schools. Under her leadership, the Support Center received a 2000 Federal Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant that enabled the DC Department of Mental Health to launch the City’s School Mental Health Program which has become a permanent program that emphasizes the introduction of a continuum of evidenced based social/emotional programs including broad based prevention curriculum, early intervention and treatment programs. Ms. Brooks earned her Master of Social Work degree at Columbia University School of Social Work with a concentration in Community Organizing.

The Honorable Arthur L. Burnett, Sr., is a Senior Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the National Executive Director of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition, Inc., a coalition of 24 prominent professional organizations devoted to promoting laws and policies that will reduce the harmful effects of drug laws on African American communities, families and individual. On June 26, 1969 he was appointed the first African American United States Magistrate Judge in the United States, in which capacity he served until December 1975. He then became the Legal Advisor for the United States Civil Service System and between 1977 and 1980 he served also as a principal legal advisor to the President of the United States on all civil service and personnel laws in the United States and as one of the President’s chief representatives in dealing with all bills pending before the U.S. Congress dealing with the federal personnel system. In January 1980 he was again appointed United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, where he served until appointed by the President of the United States to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in November 1987. Judge Burnett is a summa cum laude graduate of Howard University with a major in political science and a minor in economics. He earned his law degree from New York University School of Law.

Sandra Edmonds Crewe, Ph.D., is an associate professor for Howard University, Washington, DC. She is also the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and a member of the faculty of the School of Social Work Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Crewe is the Director of the Multidisciplinary Center for Social Gerontology at Howard University and primarily conducts research and publishes in the areas of aging, caregiving, and kinship care. Prior to joining the faculty at Howard University in 1997, she worked over 20 years in executive level positions in several public housing authorities in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. She continues to be a trainer for the National Association for Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) and specializes in resident leadership training. Dr. Crewe is also a contributor for the School of Social Work Black Perspective column featured in the Washington Informer Newspaper. She has received a number of awards for public and community service, including Social Worker of the Year. Dr. Crewe has a Ph.D. in social work (1997) from Howard University. She has a BSW and MSW from Catholic University (1974-1975).

Kevin P. Dwyer, MA, NCSP, a school psychologist, is an education and child mental health consultant, community volunteer and serves as an associate principal research scientist with the American Institutes for Research (AIR). As a senior research analyst for AIR, Kevin acted as principal investigator for the federally funded school violence prevention project that, in September 1998, under President Clinton’s direction, distributed Early Warning, Timely Response: A Guide to Safe Schools to the nation’s 115,000 schools. He also co-authored the follow-up document: Safeguarding Our Children: An Action Guide (2000) with David Osher of AIR for the U. S. Departments of Education and Justice. Mr. Dwyer was a Maryland public school psychologist for 31 years and served more than 10,000 children, youth and families. Mr. Dwyer also served as an adjunct faculty member at Bowie State University, Western Maryland College, The Johns Hopkins University, and the Universities of Virginia and Maryland. A Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) received his Bachelor Degree in Biology and Humanities from St. Michael’s College (VT) and his Masters Degree in Psychology from Catholic University in 1967.

Walter L. Faggett, II, MD, is a member of the faculty of Howard University School of Medicine and the Executive Medical Director, Pediatrician and founder of Doctors on Call, LLC. Dr. Faggett’s education and expertise spans more than 40 years with medical and specialty management in the District of Columbia and worldwide. In the capacity of immediate past Medical Director, Government of the District of Columbia Medical Assistance Administration he provided clinical direction and leadership for the Medical Assistance Administration with 140,000 covered lives; and Healthy Care Safety Net Administration covering 24,000 lives including 2,400 jail inmates. Dr. Faggett received his B.S. in Chemistry from Central State University (Ohio) in 1959 and graduated the University of Michigan Medical School in 1968. Dr. Faggett received extensive medical training and experience as a physician with the U.S. Armed Forces.

Douglas Gotel, LGSW, is a Senior Social Worker with the National Center for Children and Families (NCCF). He leads NCCF’s school-based mental health program at the JC Nalle Community School in Washington, D.C. that addresses barriers to learning through behavioral support and parent outreach for students with the most critical academic and behavioral needs. Mr. Gotel received NCCF’s Employee of the Year award in 2007 for exceptional social work leadership and the D.C. Metro Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers recognized him for “passionate social work” in March 2009. Mr. Gotel received his BA in Journalism from Georgia State University in 2000 and a Masters in Social Work from Howard University in 2006.

Ana Maria Hakim, M.A., is a Mental Health Specialist with the DC Department of Mental Health School-Based Mental Health Program. Prior to joining DMH, Ms. Hakim was a mental health counselor at the Capitol Hill Campus where she was responsible for helping Chávez students and their families connect with relevant social service agencies and providing onsite counseling to Chávez students. Prior to joining Chávez, Ms. Hakim served as a family, youth, and group counselor at the Latin American Youth Center and as a day care director and teen pregnancy prevention coordinator at Bell Multicultural High School. She has extensive experience providing psychological services for children and parents in Lima, Peru. Ms. Hakim has degrees in liberal arts and clinical psychology from the Catholic University of Peru and a MA in psychology from the New School for Social Research in New York.

Brian K. Jordan, M.S., has served with the Metropolitan Police Department for the past 26 years, with the last 11 years at the executive level. During this 11 year period, the District of Columbia experienced a 40% reduction in crime and reached record low numbers of homicides in the city. In his nine years as an Assistant Chief of Police, he was the longest serving Assistant Chief of Police for the Department since Home Rule was established for the District of Columbia. He was reassigned in 2008 as Commander, assigned to the School Security Division, where his duties include the executive responsibility for management of school security for 121 District of Columbia Public Schools. This responsibility includes oversight of the contract security services providing security officers for all schools and the management of School Resource Officers assigned to the D.C. public schools. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Howard University and a Master’s of Science degree from the University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa.

Jamila Larson, LICSW, is the Community School Director for the National Center for Children and Families. Ms. Larson has been a social worker, child advocate and a community activist in our nation’s capitol since 1996. In her current role, she manages the mental health and afterschool program providing innovative wrap around services to this community school in southeast Washington. Prior to her work at NCCF, Ms. Larson worked for the Children’s Defense Fund where she researched and wrote about best practices for strengthening low-income families before earning her Master’s degree in Social Work. She then served as a Clinical Social Worker at Bright Beginnings, a Head Start program for homeless families, and then as Regional Director for National Student Partnerships where she trained college student volunteers from across the country to help people find housing, jobs and other social services.

William B. Lawson, M.D., Ph.D., D. F.A.P.A., is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Howard University College of Medicine and Hospital. He is President–elect of the Washington Psychiatric Society, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the American College of Psychiatrists. He is past Chair of the Section of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of the National Medical Association, and past president of the Black Psychiatrists of America. He is a recipient of the Howard University Faculty Senate Creativity and Research Award, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Exemplary Psychiatrist Award and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, Outstanding Psychologist Award. Dr. Lawson was twice named one of “America’s Leading Black Doctors” by Black Enterprise Magazine, was the Andrea Delgado Honoree and Lecturer for the Black Psychiatrists of America, received the Jeanne Spurlock Award from the American Psychiatric Association, received the E.Y. Williams Clinical Scholar of Distinction Award from the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Section of the National Medical Association, a Multicultural Workplace Award from the Veterans Administration for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of diversity and multicultural understanding.

Julia Graham Lear, Ph.D., is Research Professor in the Department of Prevention and Community Health at the George Washington University and Director of the School of Public Health and Health Services' Center for Health and Health Care in Schools. As director of the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, Dr. Lear oversees a nonpartisan policy and program resource center that works with institutional leaders, state officials and clinical providers to maximize outcomes for children through more school-based health programming. Dr. Lear has spent two decades helping to implement health programs in schools. In those years, the number of integrated health centers in schools providing direct medical care to students has grown from fewer than 50 in the mid-1980s to more than 1400 in 2002. Dr. Lear arrived at George Washington University in 1993, as director of Making the Grade, a national grant program sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Prior to holding that position, she served as co-director of the RWJF's School-Based Adolescent Health Care Program at Children's National Medical Center. Dr. Lear earned her BA from Brown University and MA and Ph.D. in Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University.

Charles E. Lewis, Jr., Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Howard University School of Social Work where he teaches courses in social welfare policy and research. His current research focuses on adolescents and mental health services using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. A licensed Baptist minister, Dr. Lewis is passionate about the involvement of African American churches in meeting the social welfare needs of individual families and communities. He is currently the lead organizer of a project to create a multidisciplinary Institute at Howard University to address the disproportionate involvement of African Americans and Latinos in the criminal justice system. Dr. Lewis has worked extensively with African American men over the years, including being a fulltime director of men’s ministry at the Saint Paul Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY from 1988 until 1995. Dr. Lewis serves as the president of the board of directors of the Mental Health Association of the District of Columbia. He earned his M.S.W. in clinical counseling from Clark Atlanta University School of Social Work and his Ph.D. in social policy analysis from Columbia University.

Luis A. Morales, LICSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in the DC Department of Mental Health School-based Mental Health Program where he provides individual, group and family therapy to students presenting with mental health problems and classroom instruction to students about mental health issues. Prior to working in the School-based Mental Health Program, Mr. Morales provide clinical services for the DC Department of Mental Health and served as director of social services for La Clinica del Pueblo in Washington, DC. He began his social work career in Puerto Rico with the Font Martelo Hospice and Home Care Program, Inc. in Humacao, Puerto Rico and the Veteran Administration Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Mr. Morales received his BA in Social Work and Masters in Social Work from the University of Puerto Rico.

David Muhammad is the Chief of Committed Services for Washington DC’s juvenile justice system, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS). His responsibility includes 350 staff, a $35 million annual budget, a juvenile institution, and 650 youth committed to his department’s care. Mr. Muhammad joins an executive team of DYRS full of former advocates tasked with reforming DC’s juvenile justice system with the mission of making it a model system for the country. Mr. Muhammad took his latest position after being the Executive Director of The Mentoring Center in Oakland, Ca. Under his leadership, The Mentoring Center (TMC) became the premiere agency serving highly at-risk youth in the Bay Area. TMC’s work has become renowned in all three of its areas: direct service, technical assistance and training, and policy advocacy. As a graduate of Howard University’s School of Communications, David also has an extensive journalism career. Since 1997, Mr. Muhammad was a contributing editor and television show host for Pacific News Service in San Francisco. His columns continue to be published in publications around the country. Currently, he is the editor of the “Seeking Solutions to Black on Black Crime” series in the Globe Newspapers. Mr. Muhammad received his B.A. in journalism from Howard University and in December 2003, he completed a program in “Systems Dynamics for Senior Managers” at the MIT Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, MA.

Von E. Nebbitt, Sr., Ph.D. is an assistant professor at Howard University School of Social Work where he teaches courses in Human Behavior in the Social Environment and research. His is the principal investigator of a number of research projects, including Context Matters: Adolescent Development within the Context of Urban Public Housing, supported jointly by the Graduate School of Howard University and the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The substantive focus of this study is the mental, physical and behavioral health of African American adolescents living in urban public housing projects. He is also the principal investigator for the study, Drug Use in Surviving Siblings of Murder, a National Institute of Drug Abuse-funded study located in the DC-Baltimore Research Center on Child Health Disparities at Howard University Hospital. In this study, Dr. Nebbitt examines the relationship between the lost of a sibling to murder and patterns of health-risk behavior (substance use/abuse and high-risk sex) in urban African American’s during late adolescence and early adulthood. Dr. Nebbitt has published in several peer reviewed scholarly journals and presented empirical papers at numerous national and international conferences. Dr. Nebbitt received his BA in Sociology at St. Louis University and his M.S.W. and Ph.D. at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Beatriz “BB” Otero is the Founder, President and CEO of CentroNía, an award-winning educational organization serving children and families in the District of Columbia since its founding in 1986. Mrs. Otero serves on numerous boards including the Center for the Study of Social Policy; the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative; the Equal Rights Center; the Partnership for the Prevention of Homelessness; and the Mayor’s Committee on Early Childhood Care and Education; and is a founding member of the DC Public Charter School Board. She is a highly recognized community leader and activist, and is the recipient of numerous awards including Leadership Washington’s Betty Whaley Leadership Award, the Association of Hispanic Employees Leadership Award, the DC Action for Children’s Public Service Award and she was named Washingtonian of the Year in 2000. Mrs. Otero holds a degree in Education from the University of Maryland and an Honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from Southeastern University.

Barbara J. Parks, LICSW, is the Clinical Program Administrator for Prevention and Early Intervention Programs for the Department of Mental Health. She is responsible for the administration of the School Mental Health Program, currently serving 58 District of Columbia Schools, the early childhood mental health consultation project and oversees the STOP Suicide Grant Project Director. Barbara has been with the Department of Mental Health since 2004, working previously as a Supervisor and Program Manager for the School Based Mental Health Program. She has worked in both the substance abuse and mental health fields for over 23 years providing direct services to children, adolescents and their families, including private practice work. She has provided several additional trainings and workshops for educators, clinicians, probation and parole officers including, co-occurring disorders in addition to providing training for the nationally recognized program for law enforcement officers C.I.T. (Crisis Intervention Team). Ms. Parks has held previous senior leadership positions as a site director for Family Services in Ohio and as the Program Director of the mental health unit at a non-profit organization in Washington, D.C. Ms. Parks received her Bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University in Child and Family Community Services and her Master’s degree in Social Science Administration from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.

Olga Acosta Price, Ph.D., is associate research professor at the School of Public Health and Health Services at the George Washington University in the Department of Prevention and Community Health. She also serves as co-director of the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools where she is managing a national program aimed at addressing the mental health needs of children and youth from immigrant and refugee families. Prior to joining the faculty in 2006, Professor Acosta Price was director of the School Mental Health Program (SMHP) at the Department of Mental Health in Washington, DC, where she earned the Employee of the Year Award. She was associate director of the Center for School Mental Health Assistance, a national technical assistance center, and assistant professor at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine before moving to DC. Dr. Acosta Price serves on the Board of Directors of the DC Assembly on School Based Health Care as past-president, is a community advisory board member for the DC-Baltimore Center for the Improvement of Child Health Disparities, and a national advisory committee member for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Acosta Price received her BA in psychology from Vassar College, and her Master’s and Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Debra Rager, LICSW, currently works for the DC Government in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education where she coordinates DC START, an evidence-based school mental health program, and provides clinical supervision for the DC START clinicians. She is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker and specializes in working with high-risk children and families. Before joining the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, she worked as a child and family therapist at the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing. Ms. Rager received her M.S.W. in Clinical Social Work from Boston University. She brings a vast range of experiences to her current job having worked in school, clinic-based, and in-home settings providing clinical care for children, teens, and families and supervising staff.

Bruce H. Sklarew, M.D., is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and a co-founder and co-chair of the Forum for the Psychoanalytic Study of Film, an interdisciplinary group that applies psychoanalytic understanding to film. He organizes film workshops and discussion groups at meetings of the American Psychoanalytic Association. He is also the principal investigator of the School-Based Mourning Project in Washington, D.C. He is a consultant and principal investigator for the William Wendt Center for Loss and Hearing’s School-Based Mourning Project. He served as a psychiatrist for the Youth Center at the North Community Mental Health Center in DC (Northwest Family Center). Dr. Sklarew received his B.S, degree magna cum laude from Tufts University (1954) and graduated Yale University Medical School in 1958.

Mark D. Weist, Ph.D., a Professor at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, has been involved in school mental health (SMH) policy, practice, research and training since 1991. He directs the School Mental Health Program, a leading SMH program that has grown from providing services in four to 25 Baltimore schools. He also directs the Center for School Mental Health (CSMH), one of two federally funded national centers providing leadership to the advancement of SMH policies and programs in the United States. Dr. Weist is a charter member of the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) and was on its original executive board. As a member of the American School Health Association (ASHA), he assisted in establishing the Social and Mental Health Professionals Section. The editor of four books, Dr. Weist has published and presented widely in the SMH field and in the areas of trauma, violence and youth, evidence-based practice, and cognitive behavioral therapy. With colleagues from the Clifford Beers Foundation and from the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, he has started the new journal, Advances in School Mental Health Promotion. Dr. Weist received a Ph.D. in clinical child psychology from Virginia Tech in 1991.

Tyra Williams, Esq., is Policy Counsel at DC Action for Children, specializing in health and mental health-related issues affecting children. Before joining DC Action for Children, Ms. Williams worked for several years as a special education attorney in the DC legal services community and served as a co-chair of the Special Education Attorney Roundtable. Prior joining DC Action for Children, Ms. Williams completed a Covington and Burling Westwood Fellowship and an Equal Justice Works Fellowship sponsored by Sutherland Asbill and Brennan LLP. Ms. Williams earned an undergraduate degree from Syracuse University in Policy Studies and International Relations through the Maxwell School and the College of Arts and Sciences. She earned a Juris Doctorate from The University of Maryland School of Law.