OPENING PLENARY SESSION. Welcome to the 3rd Annual TEAM UP Symposium
Emily Feinberg, ScD, CPNP is the Director of TEAM UP for Children and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on developing effective interventions to support family well-being among young children with developmental risk and addressing disparities in behavioral health outcomes experienced by low income, ethnically diverse children. She has worked to develop models of family navigation to support engagement in services among young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other mental health conditions. She has a long standing commitment to community health centers where she conducts her research and works as pediatric nurse practitioner. She continues her clinical practice of 23 years at DotHouse Health where she has had the privilege of caring for multi-generation families.
Anita Morris, MSN, FNP-BC is Director of Practice Transformation for TEAM UP for Children. She is a certified family nurse practitioner whose locus of clinical practice has always been in the Safety Net, working in community health centers with underserved populations. In 2001, Ms. Morris joined East Boston Neighborhood Health Center (EBNHC), where she led the development of new approaches to clinical care including patient‐centered practice design, establishment of the Chronic Disease Education and Management department, the Senior Care Options program, and a patient flow redesign of the on-site Satellite Emergency Facility, eventually serving as the health center’s Chief Operating Officer (COO). Prior to joining TEAM UP, Ms. Morris provided independent consulting services on various topics, including clinical model design, healthcare payment reform, and workforce development.
Laurel Leslie, MD, MPH is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and researcher. She is currently Vice-President for Research at the American Board of Pediatrics and facilitates and oversees all research, evaluation, and other special initiatives funded by the American Board of Pediatrics Foundation. She also maintains her position as Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and has worked with a number of pediatric initiatives to improve the future of physician training and practice. She has extensive research and policy experience in the areas of identifying, treating, and delivering health services to children and adolescents with medical, developmental, and mental health needs. She has served as a consultant to multiple stakeholders with respect to improving children’s behavioral mental health needs including consultation with the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate and the federal Administration on Children, Youth, Families; work with the National Academies of Medicine on meeting the behavioral health needs of children through workforce development; and participation with TEAM UP for Children as a member of our Scientific Advisory Board.
James M. Perrin, MD, is a distinguished leader in child, adolescent, and family health, bringing research to efforts to improve child and family policy and the health and wellbeing of young families. A professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and former director of the Division of General Pediatrics at the MassGeneral Hospital for Children, he previously led a similar division at Vanderbilt. He holds the John C. Robinson Distinguished Chair in Pediatrics at the MGH. He was president (2014) of the American Academy of Pediatrics, chair of its Committee on Children with Disabilities, and past president of the Ambulatory (Academic) Pediatric Association. He co-chaired an AAP committee to develop practice guidelines for ADHD. He directed the Autism Intervention Research Network on Physical Health for seven years. Dr. Perrin was founding editor of Academic Pediatrics, a leading journal in child health and health policy. He spent two years in Washington working on rural primary care and migrant health. After fellowship at Rochester, he ran a rural community health center in upstate New York. His research has examined asthma, middle ear disease, children’s hospitalization, health insurance, and childhood chronic illness and disabilities, especially the changing epidemiology of childhood chronic illness and the organization and financing of services for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions. He received a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research and also served as a member of the National Advisory Council for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He has been on several national commissions and committees relating to children and youth with special health care needs and their families, including current service on the National Academy of Sciences Board on Children, Youth, and Families. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine. A graduate of Harvard College and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, he had residency and fellowship training at the University of Rochester and held faculty appointments at Rochester and Vanderbilt.
Donna Cohen Ross is an independent consultant working with nonprofit organizations, private foundations and states on health coverage policy issues. She focuses on designing and promoting strategies to optimize how Medicaid can be used to help finance new ways of delivering pediatric care and other critical services. Donna has devoted her career to reducing poverty and improving access to public benefits for children and families through policy innovation, advocacy and outreach.
As a Vice President at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Donna led the organization’s work to achieve better, more equitable outcomes for the nation’s youngest children and their families. Before joining CSSP, Donna was a Principal at Health Management Associates where she worked to advance opportunities to secure Medicaid support for early literacy, school nursing, and community health worker programs.
From 2010 to 2016, Donna served as a Senior Policy Advisor and Director of Enrollment Initiatives in the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. There she directed Connecting Kids to Coverage, the first-ever federal campaign to enroll eligible children and parents in Medicaid and CHIP. She also crafted federal guidance on Medicaid coverage for maternal depression screening conducted during pediatric visits. Prior to her federal service, Donna directed the outreach division at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, where worked to improve access to Medicaid coverage for eligible individuals and led the Center’s widely acclaimed Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign.
Kate Ginnis, MSW, MPH is Senior Director of Child, Youth, and Family Policy and Programs at MassHealth. She spent the previous 5 years as the Director of Behavioral Health Advocacy and Policy in the Office of Government Relations at Boston Children’s Hospital and as a member of the leadership team of the Children’s Mental Health Campaign, a coalition whose goal is to guide advocacy and policy strategies for youth with mental health disorders and their families, including access to care, quality of care, and system/organizational analysis and improvement. Kate worked clinically for over a decade as the Associate Director of Emergency Psychiatry at Boston Children’s. Throughout her work as a clinician, advocate, and policy-maker, Kate has worked on ways to provide high quality integrated pediatric care.
Lissette Blondet, EdM, is the Director of the Massachusetts Association of Community Health Workers (MACHW). She has dedicated most of her professional life to supporting community health workers (CHWs) as public health professionals. In 1993, she founded the Community Health Education Center (CHEC), one of the first training and resource centers for CHWs in the country. CHEC’s standards for CHW curricula and core competencies have been replicated in other states. The program was so successful that in 1997, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health funded its expansion to the northeast region of the state. Both centers — CHEC Boston and CHEC Northeast — are still thriving and have graduated over a thousand CHWs. More recently, Ms. Blondet provided technical assistance to the Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund on community health and CHWs. She also previously served as Director of Community Benefits for Cape Cod Healthcare, focusing on making healthcare accessible to the under-served while building her experience in healthcare financing.
BREAKOUT 1: CLINICAL TRACK. Implementation Challenges and Solutions: Improvement Strategies to Guide Your Implementation of Core BHI Clinical Workflows
Anita Morris (see above)
Charlotte Vieira, MPH is the Implementation Manager for TEAM UP for Children. In her role, she provides consultation and technical assistance to health centers implementing the TEAM UP pediatric behavioral health integration model and supports practice transformation across the TEAM UP community. Prior to joining TEAM UP, Ms. Vieira served on leadership teams for multiple state-wide initiatives to drive best practice model development, implementation and scale-up of evidence-based practices, and quality improvement. These efforts spanned child welfare, maternal and child health home visiting, managed care, and children’s outpatient behavioral health care. Ms. Vieira has also worked in direct care, providing problem solving interventions and case management support to families with young children.
Jane Marie Niven Dolan, MD, serves as the lead pediatrician and assistant CMO for Pediatrics and OB/GYN at Brockton Neighborhood Health Center. She graduated from St Louis Medical School and did her internship at Metropolitan Hospital in NYC and finished her residency at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. Dr. Dolan joined Brockton Neighborhood 15 years ago after working in hospital settings and private practice. Dr. Dolan has an interest in behavioral and developmental issues in children and has been the champion for screening children and their families. She also has run programs educating parents and also children who struggle with weight issues. Dr. Dolan is board certified in pediatrics.
Marsha Ilus began her career at Brockton Neighborhood Health Center (BNHC) in February 2017 as a clinical secretary. Marsha’s work ethic and desire to help people soon saw her enter her first Community Health Worker role where she was a member of BNHC’s Nutrition team. Prior to working as a CHW on TEAM UP, Marsha served as one of the STI CHWs. In this role Marsha was responsible for a plethora of tasks such as: outreach in the Brockton community, work with chronically homeless individuals, and assistance with both treatment and testing amongst adults and adolescents. Marsha received formal CHW training at Boston Medical Center and has committed to continuing her education in the social services career.
Huy Nguyen, MD, is a pediatrician and Chief Medical Officer at DotHouse Health. Dr. Nguyen began working at DotHouse in 2003, leading efforts to promote early childhood literacy, evidence-based care for adolescents, and culturally sensitive care. In 2017, he became Chief Medical Officer, overseeing patient care, population health initiatives, clinician recruitment and retention, and strategic planning and implementation. From 2011-2016, Dr. Nguyen served as Medical Director and Interim Executive Director at the Boston Public Health Commission. During his tenure at the local public health department for the City of Boston, Dr. Nguyen led new multi-sector collaborations to strengthen community-clinical linkages, led Boston’s public health response to Ebola, and developed new policies to prevent teen tobacco initiation.
Lara Jackson, MPH, is the Practice Transformation Director at DotHouse Health. Lara joined DotHouse in 2018 after completing her MPH in Health Management at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. Prior to returning home to the Boston area, Lara worked in diverse roles in FQHCs, Ryan White clinics, community-based non-profits, and health departments in Tacoma, New Orleans, and Managua. At DotHouse, she supervises the case management team, oversees PCMH-related initiatives, and coordinates the organization’s performance improvement efforts.
Michael Tang, MD, MBA, is the Chief Behavioral Health Officer, and a pediatrician, child psychiatrist, and adult psychiatrist at the Dimock Center. He is committed to behavioral health and social determinants of health integration within primary care. Michael previously was the Boston Site Director of Health Leads and is currently the Co-Chair of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Child Mental Health Taskforce, and a member of the Board of Directors of the RIZE Massachusetts Foundation. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and Boston Medical Center, and residency and fellowship in adult and child psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital. Michael is a graduate of Harvard College, Harvard Medical School, and the Brandeis Heller School for Social Policy and Management.
BREAKOUT 1: STAKEHOLDER TRACK. Support Your Workforce and Reduce Burnout: How Integrated Care Can Improve the Work Experience
Michelle P. Durham, MD, MPH is the Director of Clinical Training for TEAM UP for Children. She is an adult, child and adolescent psychiatrist whose public health and clinical roles have always been in underserved and under-resourced communities. She is dedicated to health equity and advocacy for equitable mental health treatment globally and locally. Her research focuses on workforce development that reflects underrepresented groups, training and education for both the pediatric workforce and mental health professionals. Dr. Durham practices clinically at Boston Medical Center (BMC), is the Training Director for the BMC general psychiatry residency program and the Associate Director for the BMC Global and Local Center for Mental Health Disparities. She received her MD from Louisiana State University in New Orleans, LA, completed her residency training at BMC and her child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Yale Child Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut. She received her Master’s in Public Health in Health Policy and Management from the Emory Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, GA. Prior to completing her medical education, she worked as the Assistant Director for the Center of Excellence on Health Disparities at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. She is involved at the state and national level in the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society, American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry to improve the standard of care for children and adolescents.
Sonia Erlich, LMHC, MFA, MA is the Manager of Clinical Role Development for TEAM UP for Children. Born and raised in Boston, Sonia has worked toward improving the health and wellness of this city and its communities for more than fifteen years. She provides psychotherapy for individuals, families, and groups of various ages, identities, cultures, and life circumstances and primarily sees clients at DotHouse Health Center in Dorchester. Her therapeutic approaches draw upon mind-body techniques, creative expression, and trauma-informed practice. Prior to her clinical work, her field experience included wilderness therapy in Utah, case management in Boston, teaching in after school programs, and group leadership in community centers and residential treatment facilities. As a meditation facilitator, yoga teacher, and reiki practitioner, she uses a range of healing approaches to create meaningful, accessible interventions in both clinical and community settings. Sonia earned her M.A. in Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Medicine and her M.F.A. in Creative Writing.
Emily Hames, LICSW serves as Director of Behavioral Health and Social Services at South Boston Community Health Center, where she has worked since 2014. She has led Behavioral Health integration efforts in pediatrics, adult, and family medicine as well as supporting specialty clinics within the health center. She has worked in a variety of programs including residential, inpatient, school based, and traditional mental health outpatient clinics. She spent the first part of her career providing mostly one on one traditional individual psychotherapy with children, adolescents and families. Her professional and personal goals are aligned with helping individuals, families, groups and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. She aims to help people develop their skills and their ability to use their own resources and those in the community.
Kevin Coughlin, MD, is a board certified adult and child/adolescent psychiatrist. He completed undergraduate studies and medical school at Brown University before pursuing general adult psychiatry training at Maine Medical Center followed by a child/adolescent psychiatry fellowship at Cambridge Health Alliance. His clinical interests include identification and early treatment for psychotic illnesses, care for individuals with autism spectrum disorder or other developmental disorders across the lifespan, and using family systems theory to improve team work and deliver youth-guided and family-driven treatment in the primary care setting. He will be completing a two year post graduate certification in Infant Parent Mental Health at UMass Boston beginning in March 2020.
Sarah Alexander, LICSW is Senior Clinician for the Pediatric Behavioral Health Integration at Lowell Community Health Center. Currently she supervises several pediatric clinicians as well as is one of the Clinical Leads on the TEAM UP project in Lowell. She has worked with children and youth for 30 years, in school-based, home-based, and several community health centers in Boston and Lowell. She has a long-time interest in refugee youth, working with Vietnamese, Cambodian and African youth in multiple settings in the greater Boston area and in South Dakota after graduating from Boston College School of Social Work. She has advanced training in clinical work with youth and in family therapy, and she earned a Master’s in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota in 2012.
Cathleen Bonacci, MD, FAAP, is a general pediatrician at Lowell Community Health Center. Dr. Bonacci has served as a pediatrician at the Health Center since completing her residency training in 2002. She served as a member of the Perinatal Committee at Lowell General Hospital, and from 2005-2006 she served as the Health Center’s liaison for a Maternal Depression Project, sponsored by Boston University, aimed at improvements in the identification and treatment of maternal depression during pediatric primary care office visits. Dr. Bonacci also served as the primary care leadership for the creation and implementation of integrated behavioral health in the Pediatric department at Lowell Community Health Center.
BREAKOUT 1: SPECIAL POPULATIONS TRACK. Special Programs to Serve Families with Young Children
Emily Feinberg (see above)
Beril Bayrak Bulucu, MD, FAAP, is a board certified pediatrician. She works at Lowell Community Health Center as a primary care pediatrician. She has special interest and expertise in infant mental health. In 2017, she completed a fellowship in Parent Infant Mental Health at University of Massachusetts Boston and is currently a Newborn Behavior Observation Trainer at Boston Children’s Hospital. She leads early child mental health activities at her health center and developed the Gentle Connections program there.
Rachel Lerner, LICSW, is the Senior Pediatric Behavioral Health Clinician at the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center. She has over 20 years of experience in providing community based and outreach mental health services to children and families in Boston and now in New Bedford. She has a particular interest in the intersection of social justice and mental health issues. She has developed group curriculum for school age children to support the development of social and emotion regulation skills. In addition to providing direct services to children and families, she has trained and supervised students and colleagues in working with complex issues and systems, including effective collaboration with schools and with DCF.
Ingrid Dautruche, BSW is a Pediatric Care Coordinator at Codman Square Health Center. As a Pediatric Care Coordinator Ingrid has an exciting role working closely with Codman’s Women’s Health Department as well as working with Pediatrics Behavioral Health team. She has obtained her bachelor’s in Social Work from Eastern Nazarene College and is currently working on obtaining her masters in Social Work. She has walked through the halls of Codman as a little girl and always hoped one day she would be back to help those who have different stressors.
Molly Brigham, LICSW is a lead clinician at Codman Square Health Center. As a clinical social worker, she joined Codman in 2012 on the Project LAUNCH grant and has enjoyed being part of the evolving implementation of psychosocial support within prenatal care and the primary care teams. As an integrated clinician in Family Medicine, she supports youth and families around development, stress, parenting, trauma, and mood. Outside of work you’ll find her spending time with her family riding bikes, at the beach surfing, gardening and coordinating community art programming at her kids school.
Cleisa Gomes, BA is a Family Partner at Codman Square Health Center. As a Family Partner; she supports families through parent coaching, empowerment and advocacy. She comes from a background of working with children in childcare and schools. She has her Bachelor degree in Psychology from Lesley University. As well; has begun pursuing her Master degree in Social Work from Simmons University. Through personal experiences she has developed a passion for making a difference in a child life and influencing children to know they’re capable of accomplishing anything they’re set your mind to do.
Jill Baker, LICSW is a Clinical Social Worker in the SOFAR clinic (Supporting our Families through Addiction and Recovery) at Boston Medical Center. She started at BMC in 2015 after graduating with her Masters in Social Work. She has worked in many different areas through the hospital including pediatric primary care, inpatient pediatrics, and the pediatric emergency department. She began working for SOFAR when the program started in July 2017. Since then Jill has developed a particular interest in working with families who are struggling with substance use. Her current work focuses on supporting parents by addressing their mental health needs through an integrated behavioral health approach during children’s primary care visits. By addressing parental mental health needs the IBH approach helps to reduce risk factors within the family system and increases positive attachment.
BREAKOUT 2: CLINICAL TRACK. Behavioral Health Integration: Voices from the Field
Sonia Erlich (see above)
Kira Armajani, LICSW, MPH is the Project Manager for Pediatric Behavioral Health Integration at The Dimock Center. Ms. Armajani also serves as an ongoing clinician for Dimock Pediatric Behavioral Health, managing internal and external referrals and engaging in outpatient therapy. She has been working in pediatric community health for the past 7 years. Ms. Armajani earned her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Beloit College and two Master’s Degrees from Boston University in Social Work and Public Health.
Alyce Norcross, BA is the Project Manager and a Community Health Worker for the Pediatric Behavioral Health Integration team at Lowell Community Health Center. Alyce has been at Lowell Community Health Center since December 2017, and as a CHW enjoys working with recent immigrants to the U.S. and helping to connect families with Developmental Medicine and other community-based, external behavioral health services.
Lauren Carpenter, LICSW, joined the Behavioral Health Pediatric Integration Team at LCHC in 2016 as a Behavioral Health Consultant. In addition to providing short term therapy and warm hand offs, she has provided invaluable support in organizing workflows, creating shortcuts for staff to access therapy tools and hand-outs, and making clinician schedules accommodate urgent needs as well as scheduled visits. Before LCHC she worked for several years at Franciscan Children’s Hospital. A graduate of Boston College School of SW and Boston University as a psychology major, she has had the longest tenure on the team as a clinician and has served on the health center Integration Work Group.
Molly Brigham (see above)
Cleisa Gomes (see above)
BREAKOUT 2: STAKEHOLDER TRACK. TEAM UP’s Learning Healthcare System
Megan Bair-Merritt, MD, MSCE is Evaluation Co-Director of TEAM UP for Children and Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University/Boston Medical Center (BMC). Dr. Bair-Merritt is a board-certified pediatrician with extensive training in epidemiologic methods. She is an expert in intimate partner violence and child health, and has extensive experience successfully completing RCTs and large primary data collection studies enrolling urban families from health care settings. Dr. Bair-Merritt’s work also includes studies examining rates of psychosocial adversity in primary care and use of EMR data to examine outcomes of infants born to mothers with post-partum depression.
Chris Sheldrick, PhD is Evaluation Co-Director of TEAM UP for Children and an Associate Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Sheldrick’s research focuses on the science and practice of clinical decision making, spanning from instrument development to implementation and evaluation of screening protocols. Collaborating with Dr. Ellen Perrin, Dr. Sheldrick helped to create the Survey of Well-being of Young Children (www.theSWYC.org), a freely-available comprehensive screening instrument for young children. In addition, Dr. Sheldrick has received training in systems science and decision analysis through a KM1 fellowship, and his current research harnesses these methods to address health disparities in behavioral health care for children.
Anita Morris (see above)
BREAKOUT 2: SPECIAL POPULATIONS TRACK. Addressing the Behavioral Health Needs of School-aged Children and Adolescents
Michelle Durham (see above)
Dana Rubin, MD, is a board certified pediatrician and child psychiatrist. She attended Medical School at the University of Illinois, graduating from the Medical Scholars Program where she received a joint degree in Social Work and Medicine. Interested in community health care, Dr. Rubin began her residency at Boston Medical Center in the Department of Pediatrics, with her primary care clinic placement at DotHouse Health. After completing Pediatrics, she was chosen for the Pollin Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital, providing training and supervision in helping children and families cope with chronic illness. This one year fellowship lead her to apply for psychiatry training Massachusetss Mental Health Center, now part of the Longwood Training Program at Harvard. Since that time, she has practiced primary care pediatrics and child psychiatry at DotHouse Health and at Boston Medical Center. She teaches in the Departments of Psychiatry and Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and supervises residents and fellows. She is one of the Champions for TeamUP at DotHouse Health.
Genevieve Daftary, MD, MPH, is the Pediatric Medical Director at Codman Square Health Center. She is also Codman’s Medical Director for School and Early Learning Partnerships and Clinical Champion for Pediatric Behavioral Health Integration. After Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health where she focused on Family and Community Health, she completed residency and a chief residency at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children. Dr. Daftary joined the Codman team as part of the inaugural class of Kraft Fellows in Community Health Leadership in 2012. She is interested in intersections between health and education, the promotion of family resilience through trauma informed care, and particularly enjoys finding ways to support adolescents and young adults as they assume roles of leadership and advocacy in the community. Her clinical areas of interest include newborns, behavioral health, obesity, and developmental challenges. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and is currently serving as the District 1 Representative for the Massachusetts Chapter of the AAP.
Hannah Carey, LCSW, is a Behavioral Health Consultant for Pediatrics at Codman Square Health Center. Hannah obtained her degree in Psychology at the University of Connecticut and Masters in Social Work from Simmons University. Prior to working at the health center, she worked as a clinician supporting individuals and families who had experienced trauma and domestic violence. In her current role she supports children and families in an integrated behavioral health setting.
Chanelle Thomas is a Dorchester native, who has 15 years of experience in customer service. She graduated from the Jeremiah E. Burke High school in Dorchester, MA. Chanelle is currently employed by Codman Square Health Center as a Family Partner. She started her career working in healthcare 6 years ago after being in a workforce development program for low-income women called Project Hope in Roxbury, Massachusetts. There she received her certificate in Health Care Administration. Currently Chanelle is “Newly” freshman at Quincy College where she is achieving her AA in Human services.
Grant Pike is an LCSW who holds a Master of Social Work from Simmons University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Clinical Psychology from UMASS Amherst. He has over 7 years counseling and clinical experience working with at risk communities in various clinical settings including community mental health and residential care. He has worked in LGBT youth empowerment for 20 years. He has presented at conferences on LGBTQ topics at various national conferences. His passion to support youth is reflected in his work and the current work within the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center.
Linda E. Doran is the Youth Program Coordinator for the South Boston Community Health Center’s Youth Ambassadors Program. Since 2005, the program has partnered youth, ages twelve to eighteen, with caring adults from the neighborhoods of South Boston and Dorchester. Linda has a lifelong commitment to the youth of Boston, having previously served as the Director of Educational Programs for Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston.
Linda was honored by Governor Charles Baker as a member of the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women’s 2018 Class of Unsung Heroes for her outstanding contributions to her community of South Boston, particularly on the lives of young people in the Youth Ambassadors program.
Linda has a passion and drive for the Youth Ambassadors program, having been a leader in this program since its inception over 14 years ago. Linda believes that adolescents have “a fundamental need to contribute” and are able to do so through the Youth Ambassadors program. They participate in weekly meetings on a wide variety of health-related topics that pertain to young people including, but not limited to; teen mental health, substance abuse prevention and, most recently, a youth anti-vaping initiative. The Youth Ambassadors learn and share information with their peers in workshops held throughout South Boston and surrounding communities. The program also offers college/career support, community service opportunities and art-based activities.
Linda is a lifelong resident of South Boston, and together with her husband Frank raised a family of five children there. She believes it “takes a village” to raise healthy and successful children and is pleased to be a positive influence in the lives of the more than 350 youth that have been involved in the Youth Ambassadors program. Youth Ambassadors of all ages know that at any time, regardless of “graduating” from the program, Linda is there to support them in their next endeavors in life.
Erica Rollock, LICSW, is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker currently employed at the South Boston Community Health Center. She received her MSW from Simmons University. Ms. Rollock provides outpatient mental health counseling for persons of all ages, as well as being the clinical role in Youth Ambassadors, a group that both empowers youth to take on leadership roles in the South Boston community as well as engages youth in positive and fun activities.
ADVOCACY SESSION. How to Advocate for the Long-term Sustainability of Pediatric Integrated Care
Suzanne Curry is currently Co-Director of Policy and Government Relations at HCFA. She leads HCFA's public health insurance, health reform, and children's health policy and advocacy work. Suzanne manages multiple coalitions, including the Affordable Care Today (ACT!!) Coalition and the Children's Health Access Coalition (CHAC). Prior to joining Health Care For All, Suzanne held various positions, including an organizer for the Services Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 888. She has a B.A. in Sociology and Political Science from Boston University.
As Associate Director of Policy at Community Catalyst, Eva Marie Stahl plays a leadership role within the organization at-large and works with the Director of Strategic Policy and senior management team to develop Community Catalyst’s state and federal policy agenda. Eva continues to maintain expertise in children’s health issues and state and local partnerships to ensure children and their families have access to high quality health care that contributes to their long-term wellness. In addition, Eva coordinates efforts to support health advocates and community partners in advancing a health equity agenda that more broadly addresses social determinants of health by engaging health-adjacent sectors to build collective movement for policy change. She completed her Ph.D. in social policy at Brandeis University. During that time, she worked for the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and for the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ). She holds a master’s degree from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and a bachelor’s degree from Colgate University.
