About the Medical Director Institute
Leadership
Co-Chairs
Expertise: Community Mental Health, Medicaid, Medical Education, Payment Models
Dr. Parks is the Vice President, Practice Improvement & Medical Director at National Council for Mental Wellbeing. He has nearly two decades of experience with public health. He was named director of the Missouri HealthNet Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services in 2013. He also holds the position of Distinguished Research Professor of Science at the University of Missouri – St. Louis and is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri, Department of Psychiatry in Columbia. He practices psychiatry on an outpatient basis at Family Health Center, a federally funded community health center established to expand services to uninsured and underinsured patients in central Missouri. He previously served for many years as Medical Director of the Missouri Department of Mental Health and as President of the Medical Director’s Council of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Director. He also previously served as Director of the Missouri Institute of Mental Health at University of Missouri St Louis and as Division Director for the Division of Comprehensive Psychiatric Services of Missouri Department of Mental Health.
Expertise: Child/Adolescent, Consultation to Schools, Psychiatry
Dr. Sara Coffey is assistant professor and Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences. Additionally, Dr. Coffey is the behavioral health director of the OSU Health Access Network. Dr. Coffey’s professional interests include integrated care with pediatricians and consultative work with community partners including the Department of Mental Health, the Oklahoma Health Care Authority and the Public-School System. Dr. Coffey is board-certified in general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry.
Members
Expertise: Child/Adolescent, Addictions, Community Mental Health
Dr. Allen serves as medical director for Rushford/Hartford Healthcare. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit Michigan in 1989. He did his internship and General Psychiatry residency at the Tufts University Medical School / New England Medical Center and his Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training at Harvard University Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital program. Dr. Allen served as Medical Director of Psychiatric and Family Services at Franciscan Children’s Hospital in Brighton, Mass from 1995 until 2003 when he moved to Connecticut to take the position of Unit Chief at Riverview Hospital for Children and Youth in Middletown, Conn. Dr. Allen has served as Medical Director at Rushford since 2005. Dr. Allen has held the title of Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard University Medical School (1994–2003) and at Yale University Medical School (2003–2005). Currently Dr. Allen trains Residents from the Institute of Living in Addiction Psychiatry. Dr. Allen was seated on the SAMHSA Pharmacotherapy Expert Consensus Panel which developed Pharmacotherapy Principles for individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders published in 2012. Dr. Allen is certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in General and Adult Psychiatry and is ABPN certified in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as well as being certified in Addiction Medicine by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM).
Expertise: Evidence Based Psychotherapies, Personality Disorders, Primary Care Integration, Trauma
Dr. Allender completed his residency in Psychiatry at the University of Washington in 2007, where he developed his passion for community behavioral health care and the need to move Evidence Based Practices into real world settings. After residency, he started work as a community psychiatrist at Valley Cities Behavioral Health Care. He became the Chief Medical Officer at Valley Cities in 2012. Since then he has spearheaded efforts to integrate behavioral health treatment with primary care partners and to provide Evidence Based Practices focused on treating trauma, psychosis, and substance use disorders.
Expertise: Child/Adolescent, Medical Education, Integrated Care
Dr. Donald Bechtold is medical director and vice president of healthcare and integration of Jefferson Center and chief medical officer of Foothills Health Solutions. Previously, he served as the medical director of Foothills Behavioral Health and Foothills Behavioral Health Partners. He has served on the manuscript review panels of Child Abuse and Neglect: The International Journal and American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research: The Journal of the National Center and on the Editorial Boards of The Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatric Emergency News and as a National Institute of Mental Health external reviewer. He has also participated in numerous research projects and teaches, consults, publishes and presents both regionally and nationally. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Medicine where he also received his post-graduate specialty training in general psychiatry, his subspecialty training in child and adolescent psychiatry and was part of the full-time faculty. He also served as adjunct faculty at the Denver Seminary in the Master of Arts in Counseling program and as a contract consultant with the Indian Health Service. Dr. Bechtold is Board-certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. He is a Distinguished Fellow of both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Expertise: Integrated Public Health, Behavioral Health
John Bischof, MD currently serves as Medical Director – Behavioral Health for CareOregon.
He earned his MD from University of Missouri – Columbia in 1990, trained in psychiatry at Oregon Health & Science University from 1990 – 1994, and completed the Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University 1999 – 2000.
He has dedicated his career in clinical and administrative psychiatry to serving people in public mental health and substance use recovery programs. Prior to joining CareOregon in September 2019, he served as:
- Senior Medical Director – Specialty Behavioral Health Services for Central City Concern from 2012 – 2019
- Associate Medical Director for United Behavioral Health – Public Sector Systems from 2008 – 2012
- Chief Psychiatrist consultant to the Oregon Addictions and Mental Health division and the Oregon State Hospital from 2006 – 2008
- First Medical Director for Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare from 2002 – 2006
He is a Past-President of the Oregon Psychiatric Physicians Association, having served a year-long term in 2008 – 2009. He was the April 2015 recipient of an Oregon Primary Care Association Innovation Award “For establishing CHCs as centers of excellence through innovative clinical, operational and administrative practices” and is a member of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing – Medical Director Institute, February 2017 – present.
Expertise: Child/Adolescent
Dr. Biuckians has been providing outpatient psychiatric evaluations and ongoing medication management for children and teenagers ages 3-17 at MAPS Behavioral Health since January 2011. He also provides psychiatric services for young adults on a case by case basis. He has been providing psychiatric consultation to the school districts served by the Lincoln Intermediate Unit in Adams and York counties since 2008. Dr. Biuckians obtained his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in 2003. He then completed his Adult Psychiatry Residency and Child/Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at Pennsylvania State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center. Dr. Biuckians is a Board Certified Adult and Child/Adolescent Psychiatrist and was honored with the prestigious Patients’ Choice Award in 2011, among several other awards during medical school and residency. Dr. Biuckians collaborates with MAPS Behavioral Health psychologists and therapists to develop and implement treatment plans for children and teenagers participating in services. He was appointed the Medical Director for Community Services Group in November 2013.
Henry Chung, M.D. is Senior Medical Director for Behavioral Health Integration Strategy at Montefiore Care Management Organization (CMO) and Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In this role, Dr. Chung leads the implementation of behavioral health integration initiatives in the Montefiore Health System and its affiliated partners. He is currently Chair of the Committee of Integrated Care of the American Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Chung has a national track record of progressive achievement and leadership in multiple sectors of healthcare including community health, pharmaceutical, global university health, and academic medical centers. He has contributed notable scholarly work and led regional and national initiatives in the integration of behavioral health and primary care. In 2012, he received the Lewis and Jack Rudin Prize for Medicine and Health awarded by the New York Academy of Medicine and the Greater New York Hospital Foundation for his contributions to the NYC health care delivery system. From 2014-2018, he was a member of the National Advisory Council of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. From 2015-2018, Dr Chung led a 4 year grant by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations to integrate and sustain behavioral healthcare in primary care using the collaborative care model. More recently, he led the development of a new continuum based framework for behavioral health integration in primary care that is being widely used in NYS health reform initiatives. In 2020, he received a new 7 year award from CMS working with the NYS Department of Health to lead a Bronx based initiative called Integrating Care for Kids (InCK) which will improve children and family outcomes through: coalition building; care management across medical, behavioral, school and social service sectors; quality improvement and data sharing; and the development of an alternative payment model.
Dr. Carl Clark’s early experience with his father’s bipolar disorder sparked a commitment to helping people with mental illness regain their lives, hopes and aspirations. As President & Chief Executive Officer of the Mental Health Center of Denver, Dr. Clark leads the organization in “focusing on what people can do, not what they can’t do. He is dedicated to achieving the organization’s vision of touching all lives in Denver and creating extraordinary experiences that improve well-being.
Dr. Clark’s has extensive involvement at the local, State and national levels. Dr. Clark’s colleagues and the Denver community recognize his valuable contributions. Dr. Clark joined the Mental Health Center of Denver in 1989. He became the Medical Director in 1991, Chief Executive Officer in 2000 and President & CEO in 2014.
Over ten years ago, Dr. Clark challenged the Mental Health Center of Denver to be “The Center of Excellence” with the best and most innovative mental health services in the country. Since then he has led the way in delivering strengths-based, person-centered, culturally-proficient services as well as employing trauma-informed, evidence-based practices.
Under his leadership, the Mental Health Center of Denver has recently been named a finalist for a 2018 World Changing Idea Award from Fast Company Magazine, and recently won the 2018 Excellence in Behavioral Healthcare Management Award from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. The Mental Health Center of Denver is proud to be a Denver Post Top Work Place for 7 years running.
Expertise: Child and adolescent behavioral health, family-centered approach to Integration, psychiatric evaluation, foster youth, training MH professionals
Expertise: Adult Psychiatry
Jeffrey Eisen, MD, MBA is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, and the Chief Medical Officer of Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare, the largest provider of community-based mental health and substance use treatment services in the state of Oregon. Prior to these appointments, Dr. Eisen served as a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and as the Medical Director for Community Behavioral Health Services at Lahey Health, one of Massachusetts’ largest healthcare providers. His team at Lahey Health received a $4.2 million grant to design innovative programs for improved care for patients with co-occurring medical, psychiatric, and addictions diagnoses. He has presented nationally on such topics as the opioid overdose epidemic, the prescribing of controlled substances, and treatment approaches for homeless populations. He currently sits on Oregon’s advisory panel for the development of standards of care for substance use disorder treatment. Dr. Eisen received his MD from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral residency in adult psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School. He was a fellow in public sector forensic psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts, affiliated with the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. Dr. Eisen also holds an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, with certification in Public Management.
Expertise: Child/Adolescent, Addictions
Dr. Fishman is an addiction psychiatrist and a member of the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is the Medical Director of Maryland Treatment Centers, a regional behavioral healthcare provider, which offers programs for residential and outpatient treatment of drug-involved and dual-diagnosis adolescents and adults. Dr. Fishman is a national expert on adolescent addiction treatment and program development. His academic work has focused on models of care and treatment outcomes for addictions in youth, in particular opioid dependence.
Matthew L. Goldman, MD, MS, is a Clinical Instructor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and he in the UCSF Public Psychiatry Fellowship, where he works as a clinical psychiatrist in a community mental health clinic and on the San Francisco mobile crisis team. He is an expert in mental health crisis services and is pursuing research in suicide prevention best practices in these settings. Dr. Goldman is also a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Advocacy and Government Relations and he sits on the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s Medical Director’s Institute as the public psychiatry fellow. He is Co-Editor of the Editor’s Choice Collections for the journal Psychiatric Services and co-leads the Psychiatric Services Policy Advisory Group. From 2018-2019 he was a Policy Fellow in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration through the Health and Aging Policy Fellowship and the Congressional Fellowship Program. He graduated from Pomona College and the UC Berkeley – UCSF Joint Medical Program, and he completed his residency and chief residency in psychiatry at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.
Expertise: Addiction psychiatry and co-occurring disorders, administrative and community psychiatry
Expertise: Managed Care, Financing, Integrated Care, Financing in Medical Education in Evolution: Developing Personally Effective Physicians (TCU SOM)
Dr. Hopper is the Western Regional Vice President and Behavioral Health Medical Director of Anthem’s Government Business Division. In this role, he leads clinical and quality initiatives in behavioral health and integrated medical-behavioral health. He has served as physician leader and chair for government business integrated service innovation. Clinical and professional practice began 26 years ago for Dr. Hopper. He has held a variety of clinical leadership positions over his career. These positions have included medical director roles at psychiatric facilities, clinical organizations, and at two major health plans. For five years, he served in the behavioral health CMO role at one of these engagements. Honors conferred on Dr. Hopper include being voted “Exemplary Psychiatrist” by NAMI in 1997, and he currently is a member of NAMI’s Leadership Alliance since late 2011. He has presented national conferences on Wellness and the integration of behavioral health into medical settings. He participated on a panel discussion at the Royal Society in London on the topic of mental health financing in 2008. Dr. Hopper currently is a part of the American Psychiatric Society’s workgroup on medical/behavioral integration. Educational pursuits started at Baylor University where he was a Summa Cum Laude graduate and member of Phi Beta Kappa. He completed medical school at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, and then graduated from The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School psychiatric residency program. Dr. Hopper also received an MBA with honors from The University of Texas at Dallas (in partnership with Southwestern Medical School). Dr. Hopper is a member of The American Medical Association, The Texas Medical Association, The American Neuropsychiatric Association, The American Psychiatric Association, The Texas Society of Psychiatric Physicians, The National Alliance of Managed Care Physicians, The American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, and The American Telemedicine Association.
Expertise: Primary Care, Integration, Collaborative Care, IMPACT, Physical Health in SMI Populations
John Kern, MD serves as Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington.
His work focuses on training and implementation of the collaborative care model, as well as the implementation of team-based, data-driven services to improve disparities in health care for people living with serious mental illness. He was involved with the American Psychiatric Association’s TCPi grant, supporting training in collaborative care to over 3500 psychiatrists and primary care providers across the country, with a special focus on leading a years-long series of learning collaboratives for psychiatric providers on collaborative care.
Prior to his UW appointment, he was for 22 years the Chief Medical Officer at Regional Mental Health Center in Merrillville, IN, where he developed and supervised several integration programs, including two Collaborative Care behavioral health in primary care programs, served as project director for a SAMHSA PBHCI grant providing primary care for a seriously mentally ill population, and developed and served as Chief Medical Officer of a new Federally Qualified Health Center, merged with the CMHC.. He is one of the authors of two American Psychiatric Press textbooks on integrated care for psychiatrists and has published on the care of bipolar disorder in the primary care setting. Other interests include the expansion of scope of the collaborative care model, innovations directed towards improving the psychiatric workplace, and improving the effectiveness of instruction provided to practitioners of collaborative care.
Expertise: Psychotic and Mood Disorders, Psychopharmacology, Interventions and Biomakers
Jeffrey A. Lieberman, M.D. is the Lawrence C. Kolb Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and Psychiatrist-in-Chief of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia University Medical Center. His career has focused on research and clinical care of people with severe mental illness including psychotic and mood disorders. He has authored or co-authored over 600 articles published in scientific literature and wrote or edited 11 books on mental illness, psychopharmacology and psychiatry. He is the recipient of many national and international honors and awards, and in 2000 was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine.
More recently, Dr. Lieberman’s work has extended into public policy and advocacy for enhancing awareness of mental illness and improving mental health care, as well as diminishing stigma. During his term as President of the American Psychiatric Association in 2013-2014, Dr. Lieberman actively contributed to government policy and legislation including the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act, and was a visible spokesperson to the media on mental illness and psychiatry. This motivated him to write the critically acclaimed book Shrinks: The Untold Story of Psychiatry for general audiences. He has also written numerous articles for the print and electronic media in addition to appearing on broadcast news programs and TED-like talks on stigma and mental illness.
Expertise: Recovery-oriented, integrated MH/SUD/PH/DD systems; organization QI and transformation; managed care contracting and UM
Dr. Minkoff is a Board-Certified Addiction Psychiatrist, and recognized as one of the most preeminent experts on integrated services and systems for individuals with co-occurring serious mental illnesses and substance use disorders. The focus of his career began with a passion for community psychiatry, and over the years, his work has evolved to incorporate interest, experience, and expertise in ever more complex and diverse systems, services, and populations. For over 40 years, he has worked to develop services and systems within limited resources to best meet the needs and inspire the hopes of individuals, families, and populations with the greatest challenges.
In that journey, he has been involved in service provision, management, and consultation in almost every area of behavioral health. Examples of this include: Chairing a SAMHSA Managed Care Initiative Panel on Co-occurring Disorders in the late nineties, and developing a national model for integrated system design for individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders (Comprehensive, Continuous, Integrated System of Care), which has been implemented in multiple state and local systems nationally; co-editing “Managed Mental Health Care in the Public Sector: A Survival Manual” (1997); developing a toolkit for implementing recovery-oriented integrated systems for individuals and families with all types of complexity (2001-present), including co-authoring the Center for Integrated Health Solutions Organizational Assessment Toolkit for Integration (OATI), addressing integration of health and behavioral health, in 2013. He has recently been appointed as one of the two non-federal psychiatrist members of the Interdepartmental Serious Mental Illness Coordinating Committee, created by the 21st Century CURES Act to bring multiple federal departments together to create a transformed system of care for individuals and families addressing serious mental illness and serious emotional disturbance.
Expertise: Disaster Psychiatry, Emergency Psychiatry, Community Mental Health, Rural Psychiatry, Organizational Psychiatry, Integrated Care, Telepsychiatry, Veterans Issues
Dr. Ng is a board-certified psychiatrist and is the chief medical officer at Acadia Hospital and Chief of Psychiatry at Eastern Maine Medical Center. He is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of Health.
He is a past President of the American Association of Emergency Psychiatry as well as being a member of the board of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists. He has a lengthy history of involvement and advocacy in community mental health issues. He has extensive experience in the area of primary care and mental health, cross cultural issues, community system issues, substance abuse and homeless issues. He is also involved in community mental health, emergency psychiatry and disaster mental health. He was the former chairperson for the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) Multicultural Advisory Committee, which advised the Commissioner of Mental Health on issues of cultural competency within the OMH system.
Dr. Ng completed his psychiatry residency at St. Vincent’s Hospital and an additional year of training as a Public Psychiatry Fellow at Columbia/Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Ng was the director of the Primary Care Consultation-Liaison Service at Gouverneur Hospital in New York City and later, one of the associate medical directors of Project Renewal, Inc, a non-profit agency that works with the homeless with mental illness and substance abuse in New York City. Dr. Ng had also worked with Project HELP, a homeless outreach team in New York City.
Expertise: Trauma, Organizational Change, Recovery-oriented Care, Confronting Structural Racism in Community Care
Paula G. Panzer, MD, Chief Clinical and Medical Officer at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services in New York City, is a community psychiatrist with extensive clinical and administrative experience in the development and management of community practice models and trauma-based mental health services, including evidence-based practices and practice-based emerging-evidence models. Dr. Panzer provides leadership for the Clinical and Medical Services Division of this very large Health and Human Services Agency which collaboratively sets practice standards, structures and promotes continuous performance improvement, identifies and analyzes client outcomes, and supports discipline specific practice for Psychiatry, Nursing, Medicine and Psychology. Dr. Panzer provides oversight for the training and trauma departments which provide direct services to bereaved youth, kin-caregiving relatives and communities recovering from crises and disasters. Her division also includes the well-respected Martha K. Selig Educational Institute whose staff brings core competency training as well as cutting edge learning to both The Jewish Board staff and the larger community. Training is seen through the lens of practice improvement with a focus on bridging the worlds of health and behavioral health for the most welcoming, collaborative, respectful, effective and efficiently delivered care. Dr. Panzer holds an AB from Hamilton College, an MD from Cornell University Medical College and did her psychiatry training (as resident and chief resident) and public psychiatry fellowship at Columbia University in New York. She is currently a board member of the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is the lead author of Traumatic Stress in the Community, a chapter in the 2012 book Handbook of Community Psychiatry and proudly teaches in multiple settings about the necessity of integrating the impact of micro-aggressions and structural racism on people in to the crucial system and clinical lenses of Trauma Informed Care, Recovery Oriented Practice and Evidence Driven Practice.
Expertise: First episode psychosis, integrated care, CMH and health system integration
Expertise: Integration/Reverse Integration, Psychiatric Leadership, Tribal and Correctional Mental Health, Telepsychiatry
Dr. Lori Raney is a psychiatrist and principal with Health Management Associates in Denver and an authority on the collaborative care model and bidirectional integration of primary care and behavioral health. Her work focuses on service design and training of multidisciplinary teams to implement evidence-based practices.
For 15 years, she served as the medical director of a community mental health center where she fostered development of a full range of evidence-based services, including a telepsychiatry program. She has worked for more than 15 years with tribal populations with the Indian Health Service in remote clinics in the Southwest and continues her clinical work with the Ute Mountain Ute tribe in Towaco, Colo. She also worked as a staff psychiatrist and Clinical Director for an ambulatory care center in rural Arizona on the Navajo Reservation.
Dr. Raney received her undergraduate degree in biology from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduated from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Medicine and completed her residency at Sheppard Pratt Hospital.
She participated in the design of a fully integrated healthcare facility that combined primary care and traditional behavioral health, which made it possible for her to rapidly address the physical health issues in patients with serious mental illness.
Expertise: First Break Psychosis, Telepsychiatry and ACT populations
Dr. Rekerdres is native Texan and dedicated Narrative Psychiatrist with experience in providing Recovery oriented Psychiatric treatment to individuals with severe and persistent mental illness. She graduated cum laude with a degree in Philosophy from the University of Dallas. From there, she went on to earn her MD from UTMB in Galveston, TX and then completed her residency in Psychiatry at UT Southwestern. She has collaborated and received additional mentorship in Family and Systems Psychotherapies from the Family Studies Center at UT Southwestern under the guidance of Connie Cornwell, MA, LMFT-S, LPC.
Dr. Rekerdres has clinical experience in Emergency Psychiatry, Inpatient Psychiatry, Outpatient Psychiatry, Homeless Psychiatry, Medication Assisted Treatments including Buprenorphine, Telepsychiatry, First Break Psychosis, Family and Couples Therapy, IDD populations and Assertive Community Treatment. She also has Psychiatric Administrative experience as the former Medical Director of Child and Family Guidance Center in Dallas and the former Chair of the Psychiatric Leadership Advisory Group for the North Texas Behavioral Health Authority. Currently, she sees patients via Telepsychiatry and is the Medical Director of the North Texas Region of ETBHN and is also the Medical Director for ADAPT Crisis Services in the North Texas region.
Expertise: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Pediatrics
Dr. Karen Ann Hendrix Rhea is chief medical officer and represents internal and external behavioral and psychiatric health services for Centerstone of Tennessee, a community mental health with focus on those with severe mental illness. She is especially interested in integration of behavioral and physical health care at the organizational level. She is the psychiatrist member of the TennCare Pharmacy Advisory Committee, a member of the national Behavioral Health Subcommittee and the national Behavioral Health Pharmacy Subcommittee for Anthem (Wellpoint). She has also served on state committees on child welfare and adult and child mental health and provider groups for managed care insurance companies in Tennessee. Dr. Rhea received her MD degree with honors from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and completed a residency in pediatrics. She returned to do a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship, a research fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry and a residency in general psychiatry. Dr. Rhea is triple-boarded in pediatrics, general psychiatry and child and adolescent psychiatry. She is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Vanderbilt School of Medicine, a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, secretary of Tennessee Chapter of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, a member of American Osteopathic Association and a National Association of Mental Illness-Exemplary Psychiatrist.
Expertise: Adult Psychiatry, Managed Care, Occupational Psychiatry, Psychiatric Leadership
Dr. Rosenzweig is Behavioral Chief Medical Officer with Optum® and has served in this function since July 2017. Prior to this he served in the role of senior medical director and oversaw the clinical administration of behavioral benefits for many large national customers. In addition, he has functioned as Optum® National SUD clinical lead since 2012. He has helped develop national programs aimed to improve access to quality, evidence-based care for people with psychiatric disorders, in particular those most impacted by the opioid epidemic.
Dr. Rosenzweig has over 25 years of industry experience in behavioral managed care. He has focused his efforts on helping develop customized solutions for employees in the areas of mood disorders and substance use. He has clinical expertise in the area of occupational psychiatry and how to address psychiatric disability in the workplace.
Martin is board-certified in psychiatry and a clinical associate in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to his work with Optum, he maintains a role in active clinical practice focused on the treatment of individuals with mood disorders and other psychiatric disorders. He is a Graduate of the University of the Witwatersrand Medical School in Johannesburg, South Africa and completed his residency and psychiatric residency at Pennsylvania hospital and his fellowship in psychopharmacology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Expertise: Integrated Care, Medical Education, Payment Models, Trauma
Dr. Patrick Runnels serves as medical director at the Centers for Families and Children where he helped implement one of the original 13 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration grants, has overseen development of a psychiatric nurse practitioner Fellowship program and orchestrated integrated care clinics in collaboration with the Cleveland Clinic and other large hospital systems.
He serves as director of the Public and Community Psychiatry Fellowship at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.
Dr. Runnels attended medical school at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and completed his general psychiatry residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City and Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University when he worked in public policy at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the New York State Office of Mental Health.
He is communications director for the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, served on the Council for Advocacy and Government relations, is a past Board member of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), serves on the Board of Trustees for the National Association of Mental Illness Ohio and is on the Scientific Planning Committee for the APA Institute on Psychiatric Services.
Expertise: Child/Adolescent
Dr. Bhagi Sahasranaman, MD, is Board Certified in General Psychiatry and in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr. Sahasranaman was at Henderson Behavioral Health, a large behavioral health organization in South Florida since 1991 where she was medical director for over seventeen years. She is currently medical director at Sunshine Health Plan, a subsidiary of Centene Corporation. Sunshine Health operates the Child Welfare Specialty Plan (CWSP) through a contract with the Agency for HealthCare Administration (AHCA), which provides personalized healthcare for children in Florida’s child welfare system. She is also the consultant child psychiatrist for several agencies serving children.
Dr. Sahasranaman has served on various committees and panels at the district and state levels. She has been a member of the expert panel for the “Florida Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program for Behavioral Health” for several years, which has developed best practice medication guidelines for treatment of various behavioral health conditions in children and adults. She is a member of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, Medical Director’s Institute. Dr. Sahasranaman has provided numerous presentations, workshops, and trainings and has received several awards and recognitions. She was Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Nova Southeastern University College of Osteopathic Medicine and on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry, Florida International University College of Medicine.
Expertise: Healthcare Systems, Psychiatric Leadership, Psychodynamic Psychiatry
Dr. Santopietro is the first physician-in-chief of the Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network, Connecticut’s leading provider of addiction and mental health services. A nationally recognized leader, Dr. Santopietro comes to Hartford HealthCare from Silver Hill Hospital where he served as president and medical director. Prior to that, he was chief clinical officer for behavioral health and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Carolinas HealthCare System, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit healthcare systems. He has published and lectured extensively, especially on the use of technology to enhance the delivery of behavioral health services, and integration of behavioral healthcare into primary care practices.
Expertise: Managed Care, Intellectual Disabilities, Geriatrics, Pharmacy Management and Integrated Care
Dr. Sosunmolu Shoyinka is the Chief Medical Officer for the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services (DBHIDS). In this role, he works to ensure that policy and programs throughout DBHIDS are aligned with current evidence and best practices to achieve optimal population health outcomes.
Prior to this role, Dr Shoyinka held a number of leadership positions, including director of the Missouri Behavioral Pharmacy Management program and medical director for the Sunflower and Home State Health Plans at Centene Corp. While at Centene, he served as thought leader and subject matter expert on addiction treatment. His accomplishments in that role included co-leading the development of a patent-pending addiction-focused analytic platform, developing addiction-related programs and writing addiction services policy covering more than 12 million lives.
Dr Shoyinka’s clinical experience spans multiple settings. These include telemedicine, academic medicine, private for-profit and state hospitals, forensics, correctional settings, primary care, federally qualified health centers, health homes and community mental health settings. He is board-certified in general adult psychiatry, community and public psychiatry, and addiction medicine. Dr. Shoyinka completed fellowships in psychosomatic medicine and public psychiatry at Yale and Columbia Universities respectively. He completed a fellowship in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at NYU, and holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business.
Expertise: Telepsychiatry, Psychiatric ED
Dr. Wayne Sparks completed his undergraduate education at Duke University with B.S. degrees in Zoology and Psychology, and his M.D. at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He also completed his Psychiatric Residency at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. He joined Atrium Health in 1997 at the start of one of the nation’s few 24-hour Psychiatric Emergency Departments staffed with Board Certified Psychiatrists. He also served as the Medical Director of the Psychiatric ED from 2001 – 2017.
Dr. Sparks has been doing Telepsychiatry since 1997, which started as a coverage system for one facility’s solo psychiatrist. He has been Medical Director of Telepsychiatry since 2001 and has been integral in the implementation, growth, and management of the delivery of virtual psychiatric care for patients in 22 Medical ED’s and Inpatient Medical Units across Atrium Health. He has also been the Regional Medical Director for the Behavioral Health Service Line of Atrium Health and served as Chief of the Department of Psychiatry of Carolinas Medical Center. Currently, Dr. Sparks is the Senior Medical Director for Behavioral Health Services for Atrium Health.
Expertise: Health policy, Re-entry Services
Expertise: Primary Care, Integration
Jack Todd Wahrenberger is a Family Practice physician who currently works in Pittsburgh, Pa. as the Chief Medical Officer at the Pittsburgh Mercy Health System. He studied Medicine and Public Health at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine where he obtained an MD and MPH degree. Dr. Wahrenberger co-founded the North Side Christian Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center that serves uninsured and underserved persons in the inner city of Pittsburgh. He served as the Medical Director of this FQHC for 16 years. In 2012, Dr. Wahrenberger joined Pittsburgh Mercy Health System to start a fully integrated primary care clinic that serves as the medical and mental health home for over 5,000 individuals as part of SAMHSA’s PBHCI grant program. In 2017, Dr. Wahrenberger became the Chief Medical Officer and oversees a medical staff consisting of 15 Psychiatrist, 8 CRNP’s and 5 Primary Care Providers. Pittsburgh Mercy is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic, which provides a wide array of services including 4 ACT teams, a crisis center, partial hospitalization programs, adult, child and adolescent outpatient mental health, outpatient primary care, street medicine, as well as services for those with intellectual disabilities.
Expertise: Adult Psychiatry, Addiction Medicine