Ken Carr, Advisory Board Member, M.DIV., brings more than 18 years of finance, technology, and human resource experience in the health and human service field. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated in St. Paul, Minnesota, a mental health treatment center. Mr. Carr started his career at Guild Incorporated in 1989 as Director of Finance and Administration, where he remained for eleven years before leaving the organization and returning in 2006. For the past eight years, in his role at Guild, Mr. Carr has used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead staff in the effort to implement Guild Incorporated’s electronic medical record system, which resulted in the organization’s ability to integrate its scheduling, service documentation, and billing. After eleven years, Mr. Carr went on to work with Goodwill Industries and the American Red Cross. While at Goodwill Industries, he served as the Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis, where he managed an operating budget of $26 million and oversaw financial planning and analysis of the growing organization. As the Director of Finance for the Red Cross, Mr. Carr was responsible for a budget of $12 million and led an effort to set standards and reorganize the financial systems. He also helped reorganize the timing and coordination of purchases to end emergency orders, resulting in a 38% reduction in shipping costs. Mr. Carr returned to Guild Incorporated in 2006 to serve in his current role as Chief Financial Officer.

Dr. Brannon is Director of Research and Organizational Development with Family Services of Western Pennsylvania where she is responsible for organizational outcomes, research projects, quality management and improvement, risk management and compliance, and staff training and development. She earned a master’s degree in adult education from the University of Pittsburgh and her doctorate in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Northcentral University. She has over 15 years of experience in outcomes and program evaluation, staff development, adult learning, quality improvement, and integrating organization-wide efforts.  She is trained in facilitation techniques, and enjoys providing training in both formal and informal venues.

Melanie Teves Bell is a senior manager, currently serving as the Senior Vice President of Clinical Services at Manatee Glens and has worked there for the past 14 ½ years. She has been working in the behavioral health field for the past 19 years with experience in crisis intervention, couples and family counseling and intensive outpatient and traditional outpatient services for children, adolescents, adults and co-occurring populations. She is also a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.

Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, Ed.M., Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.

Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.

Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, more than half of his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.

He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.

Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.

Mr. Condit is the Head of Behavioral Health Program Development for Aetna Behavioral Health, reporting directly to the Chief Medical Officer. His psychiatric nursing career includes work in the Pennsylvania State Hospital system, as well as clinical roles in both adult and adolescent residential treatment. He has been involved in managed behavioral healthcare for over 16 years, developing experience in the areas of utilization management, network development, appeals and program development, with an emphasis on the use of technology. He is a Certified Case Manager, as well as a member of the American Telemedicine Association and the American Organization of Nurse Executives.

Ms. Soutier joined the Cigna organization in 1995 and has held positions across the Total Health and Network Organization, most notably within the Behavioral Clinical and Network Operations divisions. In her current role, Anita is a member of the Behavioral Network Management Team and is responsible for the development and oversight of the Behavioral Contracting, Reimbursement and Unit Cost Strategy. Over the last 2 years Anita has been a key contributor in the development and implementation of Cigna’s Pay for Performance for Behavioral Hospitals Initiative. Anita received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts in Psychology.

As vice president of network, Matt Miller is responsible for the oversight and direction of the provider Network department for Magellan’s Behavioral Health business. In this role, Matt leads Magellan’s network development, management and provider relations activities for new business development opportunities, and implementation of new programs and manages Network activities in Magellan’s existing behavioral programs nationwide including unit cost and reimbursement strategies.

Matt has extensive experience working with commercial and public sector programs and stakeholders to develop effective systems of care. Prior to his current role, he served as vice president of network and as director of business development for Magellan’s public sector division. His responsibilities included strategic planning and proactive outreach to providers and other key stakeholders related to new business opportunities. His background also includes serving as network director for Magellan’s HealthChoices programs in Pennsylvania. There his role included developing network strategy, provider reimbursement methodologies, monitoring and reporting mechanisms and implementing a meaningful provider relations-based approach to ensure provider input into the system. Matt also led the efforts in Pennsylvania to develop new programs and services for the HealthChoices program while serving as service systems development manager.

Prior to joining Magellan, Matt held many positions within community mental health centers and freestanding psychiatric hospitals in and around the Philadelphia area. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota where he majored in Psychology and Criminal Justice.

Joseph P. Naughton-Travers, Ed.M., Senior Associate, has more than 30 years of experience in the health and human service field. In this tenure as senior associate with OPEN MINDS since 1998, he has served as lead of dozens of client initiatives, served as editor of OPEN MINDS publications, and is the author of many groundbreaking articles and presentations.

Mr. Naughton-Travers brings to OPEN MINDS a broad range of experiences in private and public sector delivery of behavioral health and social services. He started his career as a behavioral health clinician, working in both child welfare and community mental health clinic settings. Subsequently, Mr. Naughton-Travers held a senior business operations management position for a psychiatric hospital system and its community mental health clinics. Later, he was vice president of a firm specializing in information systems and billing and receivables management for community-based mental health programs.

Since joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Naughton-Travers has developed business solutions for provider and professional organizations, state and county government, technology companies, and venture capital firms. His primary areas of expertise include strategic planning and metrics-based management, electronic health record (EHR) and technology selection and implementation, operations improvement, and corporate compliance. For the past decade, more than half of his consulting practice has focused on aiding organizations in technology selection and implementation, including all aspects of strategic technology planning, functional specifications development, request for proposal development, vendor selection, and contracting.

He has written numerous articles, including “Winning the Human Resource Wars: Tried, True and New Strategies for Behavioral Health and Social Service Organizations,” “Five Pillars of Management Competency,” “Data Driven Decision Making: Moving to an Organizational Measurement Culture,” “Survival of the Smartest: What is Your Organization’s Information Literacy IQ?,” and “Strategic Human Resource Management: Aligning Compensation with Employee Performance and Organizational Strategy.” Mr. Naughton-Travers is also a nationally recognized speaker, having conducted hundreds of executive and professional executive training events around the nation.

Mr. Naughton-Travers received his Bachelor’s degree from Miami University of Ohio and his Masters’ of Education in Counseling Psychology from Boston University.

Ken Carr, Advisory Board Member, M.DIV., brings more than 18 years of finance, technology, and human resource experience in the health and human service field. He is currently the Chief Financial Officer of Guild Incorporated in St. Paul, Minnesota, a mental health treatment center. Mr. Carr started his career at Guild Incorporated in 1989 as Director of Finance and Administration, where he remained for eleven years before leaving the organization and returning in 2006. For the past eight years, in his role at Guild, Mr. Carr has used his expertise in change management and business process improvement to lead staff in the effort to implement Guild Incorporated’s electronic medical record system, which resulted in the organization’s ability to integrate its scheduling, service documentation, and billing. After eleven years, Mr. Carr went on to work with Goodwill Industries and the American Red Cross. While at Goodwill Industries, he served as the Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis, where he managed an operating budget of $26 million and oversaw financial planning and analysis of the growing organization. As the Director of Finance for the Red Cross, Mr. Carr was responsible for a budget of $12 million and led an effort to set standards and reorganize the financial systems. He also helped reorganize the timing and coordination of purchases to end emergency orders, resulting in a 38% reduction in shipping costs. Mr. Carr returned to Guild Incorporated in 2006 to serve in his current role as Chief Financial Officer.

David is a Senior Director Fiscal Practice Improvement for CCSI and for 32 years was Senior Vice President for Finance and Chief Financial Officer at Spectrum Human Services which is a private, nonprofit community mental health organization in Western NY. David has more than 44 years’ experience in public behavioral health and in his career, has worked as a Substance Abuse Counselor, Mental Health Clinician/Supervisor, Clinical Program Director and Executive Management CFO. David has joined his clinical training and experience with his business/financial training and experience to bring a unique perspective and set of skills to the efficient and effective management of behavioral health services. As a member of Executive management David has designed, implemented, and monitored systems to support Information Technology, Human Resources, billing, budgeting, financial modeling and reporting, site operations, risk management, security, and change management. Over the last 15 years David has focused on the development of analytic data and financial modeling tools and communication and knowledge management supports to transform raw data into meaningful information to enable more effective strategic and operational insights and decision-making.

George Braunstein, M.A., FACHE, Senior Associate, brings more than 35 years of experience in leading both private and public sector health and human service organizations – in both institutional and ambulatory settings. Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Braunstein served as executive director of the Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board (CSB) in Fairfax, Virginia, which provides community-based mental health, substance abuse and developmental disabled services. During his six-year tenure with the CSB, which had a $150+ million budget and over 1,200 employees, he both reduced the budget and increased service access. Before his role in Fairfax County, Mr. Braunstein was the executive director of the Chesterfield County CSB. In his eight years in that role, he restructured management to flatten the organization, which improved both service and budget performance and eliminated a $1.5 million deficit with no reductions in staff. Mr. Braunstein also served as the head of behavioral health for Aurora Healthcare in Milwaukee – the largest integrated healthcare system in Wisconsin with 13 hospitals, 20,000 employees and $1.5 billion in annual revenue. Additionally, Mr. Braunstein brings managed care experience to the OPEN MINDS team, having served as the director of behavioral health for Family Health Plan Cooperative, a Wisconsin HMO. Well respected in the behavioral health community, Mr. Braunstein has served on several boards of local and national associations including the SAMHSA National Leadership Council, and the National Association of Community Behavioral Health. He is also a fellow with the American College of Healthcare Executives.

Sonia Handforth-Kome, M.A., Chief Operating Officer, has been working in medical and behavioral health care systems for over 27 years. Her first job in the medical field was in 1987, as an office manager for a physical and occupational therapy management company in North Carolina. Sonia’s experience in health system management has run the gamut from providing technical support on practice management systems and electronic health record systems, to coding, medical transcription, billing and collections, organizational change management, EHR/EPM selection and implementation, grant writing, strategic planning, advocacy and policy development; and from for-profit urban office-based specialty care to non-profit rural/frontier facility-based integrated care, including primary care, emergency care, dental, substance abuse, mental health, and alternative medicine.

Sonia has worked in health systems in North Carolina, California, Alaska and Washington, and in payment systems including fee-for-service, capitated, grant-funded, and case rate. In July of 2001 she moved from an OB/Gyn physician practice in California to a position as Executive Director for the Iliuliuk Family and Health Services, Inc. community health center/frontier extended stay clinic in Unalaska, Alaska. During her time as ED of IFHS, Sonia also served on the board of the Alaska Primary Care Association (as President for five years), and on the board of the Northwest Regional Primary Care Association (as a member of the Executive Committee of that board for four years). Sonia also volunteered with many community organizations, including the Ballyhoo Lions Club and the Aleutian Arts Council, as well as serving for eleven years on the School Board, and for ten years as a Yoga instructor for the local community center. In October 2011 she retired as ED of IFHS and started consulting with local non-profits and CHCs in the state of Alaska.

In June 2013 she began working for Valley Cities Counseling and Consultation, a community behavioral health center in Washington as Chief Operating officer.

Sonia received her Bachelor’s degree in Physics with Honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her Masters’ degree in Organization Management from the University of Phoenix in Oakland.