TAC also has contractual relationships with a number of seasoned experts who share TAC's commitment to the needs of persons with mental illness and other disabilities.

John O'Brien has extensive experience in the design and implementation of system reform initiatives for individuals with mental illness, individuals in recovery and the child welfare and juvenile justice population.  He has provided consultation to over 20 states and seven local human services authorities.  He has worked with Medicaid, child welfare, state behavioral health, and mental retardation authorities.  His primary focus is developing managed care designs, assisting states in developing federal Medicaid Waivers, state plan amendments, managed care vendor procurements and financing mental health, substance abuse and child welfare services and qualitative and quantitative research of children's behavioral health systems.  John is a former manager in the government service practice of KPMG Peat Marwick, manager at the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center for Mental Retardation, Associate Director for the Illinois Legislative Commission on Mental Health, Mental Retardation, Alcohol and Substance Abuse, and was a program manager at Thresholds, Inc. in Chicago.

Colette Croze specializes in the development of state-level strategies to develop and implement options for state-operated services competing in a managed care environment. From a national perspective, she can interpret federal and state statutes and regulations that impact the implementation of managed care financing approaches. Colette's public experience includes serving in senior management positions in mental health agencies in Missouri and Illinois. In Illinois, she was responsible for state facilities serving almost 6000 individuals.

Bert Davis, Jr. is a Certified Public Accountant. Bert brings extensive experience in auditing and consulting with public mental health programs to the design and implementation of financial compliance reviews, evaluation of fiscal viability, and help to financially troubled local agencies. His professional experience as financial officer for a Medicaid-funded health care organization and auditor with a large CPA firm provides an in-depth knowledge of government accounting and auditing standards, as well as the Federal Single audit requirements. His insight into the issues being faced by local mental health agencies grows out of service as director of a developmental disabilities residential program and as a volunteer board chair of a county mental health center in North Carolina.

Steve A. Wood is a partner with Healthcare Perspective, an independent consulting firm that specializes in healthcare information management systems consulting. Steve has an extensive background in healthcare information systems, management consulting, and financial management. Over the past 25 years, his range of experience included: Chief Financial Officer for Acute Care Hospitals, Director of Information Services, National Implementation Support Manager of a hospital information systems vendor, and ten years as a consultant dealing with a host of large projects. Steve is a fellow in the HFMA Society and is active in HIMSS both nationally and in the Ohio Affiliated HIMSS Chapters. He also served for several years on the IDEAS User Group Board of Directors, first as the Northeast Regional Director and then as Vice President, President Elect, and President. IDEAS represented approximately 120 hospitals in the United States and several other countries.

James Highland is a health economist focusing on decision support for pricing, contracting, strategic planning and capital budgeting for community oriented risk-bearing healthcare organizations. He has extensive experience with rate development; payment systems and incentives risk bearing; investment decisions; and cost-effectiveness modeling. Recently, Jim has been doing financial analysis and modeling for county-sponsored MCOs participating in the mandatory managed care program in Pennsylvania. This includes rate development and negotiation; RFP response; risk modeling, budgeting; claims analysis and reporting; developing provider payment methods; and evaluation of risk-sharing arrangements. Jim holds a Ph.D. in health economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and has taught health economics and health care financial management at the Wharton School.

Martha Curtis Hodge consults with mental health organizations throughout the United States. Martha has over thirty years of experience planning and directing systems that serve adults with severe mental illnesses and emotional problems. She has also worked in a state hospital in Georgia, directed a psychosocial program in downtown Atlanta, assisted in the planning and implementation process to downsize state hospitals, provided direct case management services, and helped develop managed care systems. Martha has authored at least 10 publications and has received numerous awards for excellence in service.

Alice Lin specializes in program evaluation, organizational restructuring, and program implementation and reimbursement systems. She brings to this task more than 30 years of experience in child welfare, mental health and developmental disabilities administration, policy research and analysis, and clinical practice and supervision. Alice assisted state and local governments and others in structuring managed care approaches to the administration and delivery of services, especially in children's services. Recently, she supported the states of Iowa, New York, Ohio, North Carolina, and Oklahoma in expanding services for children who are at risk of out-of-home placement.

Richard Ouellete is a senior health care consultant with more than 20 years of operations and consulting management experience. He has extensive experience in creating and managing large databases of Medicaid service encounters and paid claims and other related utilization data used for behavioral health systems analysis, planning, resource deployment, and evaluation. Richard worked with TAC in the District of Columbia to analyze Medicaid data, create consumer and provider profiles of service utilization and costs, and to conduct financial analyses related to the development of a Medicaid Rehabilitation Option Plan. His expertise includes: health system integration and consolidation; new business development; information system planning; executive and clinical information systems development; operations management; and operations analysis and improvement.
Richard is an Adjunct Professor for Healthcare Finance and Information Systems at Assumption College, Worcester, MA.

Human Services Research Institute, Inc. is a non-profit corporation that provides strategic planning, system evaluation, and policy-oriented technical assistance to federal, state, and local human services organizations. H. Stephen Leff, Ph.D., and Virginia Mulkern, Ph.D., two principles of HSRI, have collaborated with TAC on a number of state-level behavioral health needs assessment and system plan development activities. HSRI has designed a dynamic needs assessment simulation model (Mental Health Systems Strategic Planning Model), which has been used effectively in eight states. The model assesses demand for services; obtains profiles of people needing services; determines the array of services needed; estimates costs of services and potential funding mechanisms; and supports the development of strategic implementation plans.

HSRI is the national Technical Assistance Center for The Evaluation of Adult Mental Health Systems Change. HSRI is also expert in quality improvement, outcome and performance measurement, cultural competence, and human resource development. Recently, HSRI functioned as a Coordinating Center for two Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services multi-site studies, one on Medicaid behavioral health managed care for vulnerable populations and one on employment interventions for persons with mental illness. HSRI also has extensive experience in developmental disabilities, child and youth services and family support strategies.

Laurie Curtis is a nationally respected consultant and educator focusing on best practices in community mental health services and supports for people with psychiatric disabilities. She emphasizes recovery-oriented policy, service and support practices, and evaluation, and has special expertise in consumer empowerment, consumers as colleagues, and alternatives to coercive treatment. Laurie is an expert in program development and evaluation; curriculum design and delivery; development of human resource training, supervision, and competency standards; case consultation; and facilitation and consensus building. Before becoming an independent consultant, for 11 years Laurie was director of training and program development at the Center for Community Change through Housing and Support. There, she provided technical assistance and training throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Martin Cohen was a co-founder of the Technical Assistance Collaborative. He has provided consultation and technical assistance to state, county, and non-profit organizations on health, mental health and human service organizations. Martin has provided system and organizational assessment, consultation, and strategic planning to over 30 state and local human service agencies. These consultations have ranged from preparation for managed care, to changes in organizational structure and service system financing and development. He also consults with and provides technical assistance to the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the Center for Mental Health Services on Medicaid and related public managed care strategies.

Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, LLP is a large national law firm with special expertise in the area of community-based behavioral health care. Vorys has applied this expertise to help TAC meet its clients' needs, particularly when those needs involve legal research and analysis; legislative drafting; establishing contract and purchasing infrastructures; and developing certification systems. Vorys has attorneys and paralegals who are always "up to speed" with developments in legal issues associated with community-based behavioral healthcare.