Stephen Bartels, MD, MS

Dartmouth Centers for Health & Aging
Dartmouth Medical School

Dr. Bartels is a leader in the geriatric psychiatry field. He has been an expert consultant to the Older Adult Subcommittee of the President’s Commission on Mental Health, and has testified before Congress about aging and health policy. He directed numerous aging organizations, including the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry, where he served as president. He continues to conduct aging adult health promotion and aging adult mental health research.

• Geriatric psychiatry interventions and services for older adults with serious mental illness
• Geriatric health promotion, integration of mental health and primary care
• Medicaid and Medicare costs of medical and psychiatric disorders in older adults
• Shared decision-making, community-based models of long-term care, and evidence-based medicine

Gary Oftedahl, MD

Chief Knowledge Officer
Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement

Dr. Oftedahl, Chief Knowledge Officer at ICSI, has served as Medical Director and Medical Director for Quality with Olmsted Medical Clinic, Medical Director of five long-term care facilities, Board member for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Vice Chairman of the Quality Council for Mayo’s MMSI health plan, and President of the Zumbro Valley Medical Society. Dr. Oftedahl has presented frequently on quality improvement methodology, adaptive leadership and the collaborative process. He most recently helped develop DIAMOND, a new way to deliver and pay for care for patients with depression in primary care settings. His impact on health care improvement earned him recognition as one of the 100 most influential health care leaders in 2008 by Minnesota Physician magazine.

Virna Little, PsyD, LCSW-r

Senior Vice President
Psychosocial Services, Institute for Family Health

Dr. Little is responsible for the administration of 150 staff and delivery of behavioral health, community and grant funded programs in a community health center network throughout New York City and New York State’s Hudson Valley Region. She is also responsible for many of the services the organization provides to the uninsured and has extensive experience providing behavioral health services in healthcare settings as well as developing and operating community programs. Dr. Little has knowledge of special populations such as HIV/AIDS, homeless and substance abuse and the chronically medically and mentally ill. She has worked both nationally and internationally helping organizations develop integrated models of behavioral healthcare and has assisted in the development of suboxone treatment programs. Before joining the Institute for Family Health, Dr. Little provided social services at the Department of Corrections and was a Domestic Violence Coordinator chosen by the Mayor’s office to promote family violence identification and prevention in New York City and Health and Hospital Corporation. Dr. Little has her doctoral degree in psychology along with a masters in social work.

David Pollack, MD

Professor for Public Policy
Psychiatry, Family Medicine
and Division of Management, Oregon Health & Science University
American Association of Community Psychiatrists

David Pollack, M.D., is Professor for Public Policy in the departments of Psychiatry, Family Medicine, and Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in Portland. His activities include teaching, writing, and consulting on policy, systems, and medical leadership issues to various local, state, and national organizations. He also consults on services research projects. He served as Medical Director for the Addiction and Mental Health Division for the Oregon Department of Human Services from 2002-2006, and as Associate Director of the Public Psychiatry Training Program from 1987-2006. Dr. Pollack has worked as a community and public psychiatrist in Oregon for over 38 years. For nearly 11 years he served as Medical Director at Mental Health Services West, a large community mental health center in downtown Portland. His work on the Oregon Health Plan helped to shape how mental health services were integrated into that innovative health care reform project. In 1999, he co-edited a book addressing the interface between mental health and primary care, Advancing Mental Health and Primary Care Collaboration in the Public Sector. In 1998, he worked in the Health Office of Senator Edward Kennedy as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow. His work in the Kennedy office included the development of health and mental health related legislation, constituent and lobbying activities, speech writing, and interactions with federal regulatory agencies. His ongoing work with the American Association of Community Psychiatrists (AACP) has includes a strong emphasis on health care reform and delivery system issues.

Benjamin Miller, PsyD

Assistant Professor
Family Medicine, University of Colorado

Dr. Miller is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine where he is responsible for integrating mental health across all three of the Department’s core mission areas: clinical, education, and research. He is also the Associate Director of Research and Primary Care Outreach for the University of Colorado Denver’s Depression Center. Dr. Miller is a co-principal investigator and co-creator of the National Research Network’s Collaborative Care Research Network. He has been the principal investigator on several federal grants examining mental health integration into primary care. He has written and published on enhancing the evidentiary support for collaborative care models, and increasing the training and education of mental health providers in primary care. Dr. Miller often travels speaking on clinical, operational and financial components of integrating mental health and primary care as well as the policy implications for these strategies. He is the section editor for Health and Policy for Families, Systems and Health and reviews for four academic journals. Professionally, Dr. Miller is actively involved in the governance of the Collaborative Family Healthcare Association (CFHA) where he is currently a Board Member representing organizational partnerships was recently elected CFHA president for 2011- 2012. Dr. Miller’s research interests include models of collaborative care, health behavior interventions, primary care practice redesign, using practice-based research networks to advance whole person healthcare, and healthcare policy.

Roderick Shaner, MD

Medical Director
Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health

Roderick Shaner, MD serves as the Medical Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LAC DMH). Dr. Shaner’s major responsibility is to help ensure quality clinical services for individuals and their families who receive services through LAC DMH programs. His office encompasses development of clinical standards, clinical risks management, managed care, pharmacy, LPS designation, clinician credentialing, physician recruitment, and peer review. Prior to his appointment as DMH Medical Director, Dr. Shaner served as the Director of the Psychiatric Emergency Service at LAC+USC Medical Center where he managed a major community mental health resource and expanded liaisons with mobile emergency response teams and law enforcement agencies. Dr. Shaner is a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Keck School of Medicine at USC and has participated in published research about managing decreased hospital resources and on the effectiveness of police/mental health teams, as well as publications involving more clinical topics. He completed his undergraduate medical education at UCLA School of Medicine and his residency training in both general and child and adolescent psychiatry at the USC School of Medicine. He Board Certified in General Psychiatry and in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and has Added Qualifications in Addiction Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine, and Geriatric Psychiatry. He served as Director of Medical Student Education at the USC School of Medicine and authored a popular medical student textbook of psychiatry. He is a past president of the Southern California Psychiatric Society, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a fellow of the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Nancy Jaeckels

Vice President
Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement

Nancy Jaeckels has 20 years of experience in direct patient care, clinic management, health care administration, and quality and safety improvement in outpatient, inpatient and long-term care facilities.  She is skilled in quality tools and techniques, process and system improvement, project management, group facilitation, education and training, and program development.  Ms. Jaeckels led the development of ICSI’s DIAMOND program and is responsible for its spread across >80 primary care clinics statewide.  She is now leading ICSI’s strategic health care home initiative. Ms. Jaeckels has served as President of the Minnesota Quality HealthCare Professionals, and in leadership and committee roles for the National Committee on Quality Assurance, Minnesota Alliance for Patient Safety, the Minnesota Tobacco Forum, and the National Association for HealthCare Quality. Experience outside of ICSI includes stints as Director of Quality and Safety at the Glencoe Area HealthCare Center, Manager of Guideline Measurement for Park Nicollet and Methodist Hospital, and Quality and Safety Officer and Manager for Family Physicians of Northfield, MN.

Wayne Katon, MD

Professor
Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington

Wayne Katon, MD, is Professor of Psychiatry, Director of the Division of Health Services and Epidemiology, and Vice Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington Medical School. He is Director of a NIMH-funded National Research Service Award Primary Care-Psychiatry Fellowship that has successfully trained psychiatrists and primary care physicians for academic leadership positions. Dr. Katon is internationally renowned for his research on developing innovative models of integrating mental health professionals and other allied health personnel into primary care to improve the care of patients with major depression in primary care.  He has also been a leader in research on the prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders in primary care, the relationship of psychiatric disorders to medically unexplained symptoms such as headache and fatigue, and the impact of depression and anxiety on patients with chronic medical illness. Dr. Katon is Editor-in-Chief of General Hospital Psychiatry and is honored by being one of the Web of Science Highly Cited Authors. Dr. Katon has written over 500 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters, as well as Panic Disorder in the Medical Setting, a book for primary care physicians.  He has recently edited a book entitled Depression and Diabetes. In addition, Dr. Katon and his research team have written a self-help book for depressed patients titled Depression: Self-Care Companion for Better Living.

David Shern, PhD

President/CEO
Mental Health America

With more than 30 years of distinguished service in mental health services research and system reform, Dr. Shern is one of the nation’s leading mental health experts. In 2006 he was name president and CEO of Mental Health America, then named the National Mental Health Association. MHA is the country’s oldest and largest non-profit organization addressing all aspects of mental health and mental illness. Prior to joining MHA, Dr. Shern served as dean of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) at the University of South Florida, one of the largest research and training institutes in behavioral health services in the United States. He also founded and directed the National Center for the Study of Issues in Public Mental Health - a NIMH-funded services research center located in the New York State Office of Mental Health. His work has spanned a variety of mental health services research topics including epidemiological studies of the need for community services; the effects of differing organizational, financing and service delivery strategies on continuity of care and client outcome and the use of alternative service delivery strategies such as peer counseling and self help on the outcomes of care.  He has authored more than 100 publications including papers in Health Affairs, Psychiatric Services, Medical Care, Health Services Research, Behavioral Health Services and Research and the American Journal of Public Health. Dr. Shern not only has an extensive research background but is an advocate committed to represent the interests of mental health consumers. He serves on the board of the Campaign for Mental Health Reform and on the National Advisory Committee for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). He has testified before the U.S. Congress on the inclusion of behavioral health in all aspects of healthcare reform.

Lloyd Sederer, MD

Medical Director
New York State Office of Mental Health

Lloyd I. Sederer, MD, is Medical Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH), the nation’s largest state mental health system. As New York’s “chief psychiatrist”, he provides medical leadership for a $4 billion per year mental health system which serves more than 650,000 people every year and includes 26 hospitals, two research institutes, and community services throughout a state of 20 million people. He serves as Acting Director of The Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, the OMH research institute affiliated with New York University. Dr. Sederer is an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia/Mailman School of Public Health.

Previously, Dr. Sederer served as the Executive Deputy Commissioner for Mental Hygiene Services in NYC, the City’s “chief psychiatrist”. He also has been Medical Director and Executive Vice President of McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA, a Harvard teaching hospital, and Director of the Division of Clinical Services for the American Psychiatric Association.

In 2009, Dr. Sederer was recognized as the Psychiatric Administrator of the Year by the American Psychiatric Association and awarded a Bellagio Scholar in Residence grant by the Rockefeller Foundation. He has received an Exemplary Psychiatrist award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Dr. Sederer has published seven books and some 250 articles and reports in professional and lay publications. His writings have appeared in the New York Times/International Herald Tribune, The Washington Post, and The Boston Business Journal. He is Medical Editor for Mental Health for the Huffington Post, where his posts appear regularly. His website is www.askdrlloyd.com.