University of Maryland School of Medicine, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Dr. Beason is an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, faculty at the National Center for School Mental Health, and Director of Cultural Responsiveness, Anti-Racism & Equity at the National Center for Safe Supportive Schools. Dr. Beason is a licensed clinical and community psychologist with specialization in trauma-focused treatment for youth and families. Dr. Beason is a national trainer and technical assistance specialist, serving the behavioral health workforce with adopting trauma-informed and healing centered policies and practice to support well-being for all staff and people served.
Ms. Bekele is a Senior Clinical Research Assistant who assists with day-to-day needs of the Building Healing Systems initiative, including contributing to data collection, management, analysis, and data reporting.
Eliza Cooper is a daughter, sister, niece, wife, mother, Natural Health Educator and Community Anchor. Through her business Live Holistically Balanced and as a Community Anchor she partners with community organizations to provide Holistic Health education, relationship and community engagement classes, workshops and events. As the Director of Thriving Communities Collaborative (TCC) in Baltimore, MD, Eliza hosts many educational workshops, lectures and informational events targeted for the healing of African Americans and promoting equity for all. Eliza first became aware of Black Love Day when she lived in Washington, DC and began to participate in the Black Love Ceremonies hosted by founder Ayo Handy-Kendi, back in 2000.
Ms. Connors has over 35 years of experience as a clinical social worker working with children, families, and communities impacted by trauma. She has provided evidence-based mental health treatment to children and families in a variety of settings, including hospitals, residential treatment, private practice and clinic, home, and school-based programs. She leads projects in infant and early childhood mental health assessment and diagnosis, and works in interprofessional teams and with community and state leaders to increase access to child and family trauma and mental health resources.
Dr. Cunningham has extensive experience providing direct clinical service in urban school districts and often provides training, technical assistance, and consultation to local and state-level education and mental health agencies. Dr. Cunningham’s clinical and research interests include trauma, resilience, children of incarcerated parents, and empirically supported treatment for ethnic minority youth.
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Dr. Hoover, a clinical psychologist and Professor of child and adolescent psychiatry, provides crucial guidance for the development of assessment, continuous quality improvement, and training content for the Building Healing Systems initiative. She brings a wealth of experience as a Principal Investigator (PI), Co-Investigator (Co-I), and Evaluator on various federal and state grants focused on trauma-informed systems and interventions. Her extensive research and clinical work have revolved around establishing and sustaining trauma-informed behavioral health systems. Dr. Hoover is also a nationally recognized trainer in trauma interventions for the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, having trained numerous behavioral health leaders and staff in trauma-informed systems both nationally and internationally since 2004.
Dr. Lever is a seasoned clinical psychologist and Associate Professor with 20 years of experience providing behavioral health training at local, state, and national levels. She has led national Communities of Practice and large-scale in-person and online interdisciplinary training initiatives, including training and technical assistance for the US Department of Education, the SAMHSA National Safe and Healthy Students Center, and the SAMHSA National Center for Safe Supportive Schools. Dr. Lever oversees the development and execution of the Building Healing Systems trauma-informed systems training and learning collaborative.
Dr. Patterson is a school psychologist and Assistant Professor at the Division Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Patterson has extensive experience developing and delivering training and technical assistance within the school mental health clinical programs and to school stakeholders, including providing in-service curricula for teachers, school police officers, parents, and school staff.
Ms. Rahe works on the data portion of the Building Healing Systems initiative with a special focus on creating educational infographics, as well as acting as a Technical Assistance Specialist for organizations involved in the learning collaborative.
Dr. Reaves is a clinical-community psychologist and an Assistant Professor at the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She has experience working on national initiatives to improve service quality, including integration of best practices in trauma-informed care. Dr. Reaves leverages her expertise in measurement of organization factors to lead the development and implementation of the Building Healing Systems Trauma Informed Organizational Assessment (TIOA) tool and continuous quality improvement process.
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Dr. Schaeffer is a child-clinical psychologist and an Associate Professor at the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Schaeffer’s work has focused on the development, implementation, and evaluation of interventions for youth and families involved in or at high risk of involvement in the juvenile justice and child protective service systems. Dr. Schaeffer provides expert consultation on engaging providers in implementing best practices.
Ms. Yuille brings an extensive background in statewide program evaluation and public health. Her role encompasses overseeing daily operations, coordinating with public behavioral health system (PBHS) leads to identify training and technical assistance needs, and project management.
Joanna Prout, PhD, Former Co-Principal Investigator and Data Analysis Lead
Jamee Carroll, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Ayla Novas, Graduate Research Assistant (UMSOM)
Yohannes Girma, BA, Graduate Research Assistant (BSU)
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Systems Evaluation Center (SEC)
As a Co-Investigator, Dr. Goldman provides overall guidance and direction to the SEC as it conducts evaluation activities for the six focused data studies and the three web-based panel surveys. With over 40 years of experience as a behavioral health services researcher and 375 publications in the professional literature, he has decades of experience evaluating mental health programs.
Dr. McNamara, a seasoned mental health clinician and researcher, plays a pivotal role in the focused analyses and panel surveys. With over 20 years of experience, she previously served as the SEC lead evaluator on two SAMHSA grants for the Maryland Behavioral Health Administration (BHA), after her role as the Program Manager for the Maryland Early Intervention Program (MEIP). Her extensive background in research, clinical practice, and program evaluation complements her impressive skills in optimizing procedural workflows, multiplatform systems design, computer programming, and systems implementation, gained across various fields, including mental health, substance use treatment, insurance, and banking.
Mr. Santoni primarily focuses on in-depth analyses and assisting with panel surveys. He has been instrumental in data maintenance and analysis at the SEC since 2007, supporting BHA. His unique perspective comes from 32 years of service, with the last four as Deputy Director for the Mental Hygiene Administration (MHA) within the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. His career began in 1985, working on various MHA projects at the Center for Health Statistics.
Dr. Seybolt, the Project Manager for the SEC, leads focused analyses and panel surveys while overseeing all administrative aspects. With over 30 years of experience in behavioral health services, research, and program evaluation, including nearly two decades with BHA, she possesses a deep understanding of managing the Maryland public behavioral health system (PBHS). Dr. Seybolt excels in evaluation activities, employing diverse data collection methods, including administrative data analysis and web-based surveys. Under her guidance, the SEC has generated reports and delivered presentations translating data into practical applications for PBHS.
Bowie State University (BSU)
Dr. Griffin Gilchrist, an Assistant Professor at Bowie State University, brings over a decade of experience in educational research, program evaluation, and advocacy. She specializes in community engagement and healing-centered approaches to support trauma-informed systems, emphasizing sustainability. Dr. Griffin's work delves into the intricate relationships among race, education policy, research, and practice, particularly in the context of Black children and teachers. Additionally, she serves as a Senior Fellow at the Center for Academic Social and Emotional Learning, where her focus is on using a strengths-based model to promote social-emotional learning for equity and excellence in educational agencies, ensuring children thrive and flourish.
Maryland Department of Health
Behavioral Health Administration
Dr. Yoe serves as Director of the Office of Applied Research and Evaluation at the Maryland Department of Health, Behavioral Health Administration, a position that he has held since 2017. This Office serves as the focal point for the agency for performance measurement, data analytics, research and evaluation, and data-informed decision-making. Dr. Yoe has more than 25 years of experience in behavioral health services research and evaluation and has led multiple state and federal human services evaluation and performance improvement initiatives. Before moving to Maryland, he spent over 20 years as Director of Continuous Quality Improvement at the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
Bio Coming Soon.
Bio Coming Soon.
Adrienne Mickler
Ashley Griffin-Gilchrist
Ben Israel
Brendan Welsh
Brittany Patterson
Catherine Gray
Christine Fogle
Cindy Schaeffer
Claudia Remington
Dana Cunningham
Darren McGregor
Diana Seybolt
D'Lisa Worthy
Donna Batkis
Dwayne Dean
Erin Boguski
Frank Kros
Jamee Carroll
James Yoe
Jasmine Pope
Joanna Prout
Jonathan Shepard
Karen Duffy
Karen McNamara
Kathryn Collins
Katie Rouse
Kay Connors
Kimberly Lagree-Selah
Kris Locus
Samantha Reaves
Sharon Hoover
Sumer Rahe
Tammy Loewe
Teresa Heath
Tiffany Beason
Tiffany Deprospero
Trish Shelby
Ulysses Archie
Venus Stewart
Wendy Lane
Wendy Shaia-Devereaux
Yaneth Flowers
Yourdanos Bekele
Kristi Pier
Kyla Liggett-Creel
Maria Rodowski Stanco
Marie Yuille
Masica Jordan
Matila Jones
Michael Sinclair
Michelle Livshin
Monica Guerrero Vasquez
Naima Jackson
Nancy Lever
Nikardi Jallah
Pamela Rakhshan Rouhakhtar
Patricia Cobb-Richardson
Pilar Olivo
People with Lived Experience
As part of the Building Healing Systems initiative, we invited people from community organizations to talk to us about trauma, adversity, and healing. We listened to what they had to say about the strengths and needs in their communities and how the behavioral healthcare system should provide support, to learn more, read our summaries here.
We’d like to thank the people and organizations that made this work possible:
Erin Boguski
Jasmine Williford
Advisory Committee
The Building Healing Systems Advisory Committee functions as an advisory group that provides feedback and suggestions in the design and rollout of the initiative. The committee’s membership includes representation from key state and local behavioral health, advocacy, and other stakeholder sectors.
Maryland Trauma Informed Care Commission (TICC)
As part of the Building Healing Systems initiative, we invited people from community organizations to talk to us about trauma, adversity, and healing. We listened to what they had to say about the strengths and needs in their communities and how the behavioral healthcare system should provide support.
We’d like to thank the people and organizations that made this work possible:
Clay Pots
Healing Youth Alliance
Maryland Coalition of Families
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Maryland
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Metro Baltimore
On Our Own of Maryland
