Over the past eighteen years Steve has provided consultation and technical assistance to over 100 state and local jurisdictions, and numerous national policy and advocacy organizations. The results of these consultations include comprehensive analyses of public mental health and human services systems, multi-year strategic plans, service system improvement and financing strategies, outcome and performance...
View More measurement systems, and organizational and human resource development plans.

Prior to founding TAC, Steve was Deputy Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and has a deep appreciation of both the opportunities and barriers associated with multi-system, interagency planning and implementation efforts in the public sector. At TAC, Steve has worked directly on state level service planning, implementation and financing initiatives in Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Washington.

Steve was among the senior consultants providing technical input and support to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, authoring a technical monograph on Medicaid's role in public mental health services, and assisting to draft recommendations related to state-level mental health system master planning and on linking mainstream service resources to supportive housing for people with mental illness. He has contributed to other major national policy initiatives related to state level system improvements, including publishing monographs on Olmstead and Supportive Housing: a Vision for the Future and Turning Knowledge into Practice: a Manual for Behavioral Health Administrators and Practitioners about Understanding and Implementing Evidence-Based Practices.

Steve specializes in the implementation and financing of best practice mental health and human services, organizational development and management, interagency service coordination and integration strategies, strategic planning, and consumer-based outcome and performance measurement. In addition to his experience in the fields of mental health, substance abuse, Medicaid, aging and related human services topics, he was a Commissioner of a public housing authority, and participated in the development and management of HUD and state-funded housing programs for elders, families with children, and people with disabilities.

Ann is nationally known for her public policy work to expand affordable and permanent supportive housing opportunities for people with disabilities and for her expertise in housing programs for people who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness. She has over 30 years' experience in federal, state and local affordable housing policy and is an expert in the use of federal affordable and subsidized housing programs to meet...
View More the needs of vulnerable, extremely low income populations.

Working with the Washington, DC-based Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force, Ann has successfully advocated for national housing policy initiatives and developed legislative proposals leading to the creation of more than 100,000 new subsidized housing opportunities for people with the most significant and long-term disabilities She has testified on these issues in the United States Congress on many occasions and is the author of numerous articles, monographs and studies related to expanding affordable and permanent supportive housing opportunities for persons with disabilities.

Ann has led successful TAC efforts with state housing and human service agencies to create systematic interagency approaches to expand permanent supportive housing, including work with state officials in Ohio, Maryland, Illinois, Hawaii, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Arizona and the District of Columbia. With funding from the Melville Charitable Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ann and her multi-disciplinary consulting team are currently assisting the State of Louisiana with the design and implementation of the nation's first state-initiated, cross-disability permanent supportive housing system. TAC's successful and sustainable Louisiana program design will provide 3,000 highly integrated units financed with Low Income Housing Tax Credits, Housing Choice Vouchers and Shelter Plus Care rental subsidies and Medicaid financing.

Ann provided housing consultation and technical assistance to the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health and co-authored the housing issues paper for the Commission's Subcommittee on Housing and Homelessness. She is also the primary author of TAC's Priced Out publications, a bi-annual study of the housing needs of people receiving federal Supplemental Security Income that is used by disability housing advocates across the country.

Prior to founding TAC in 1992, Ms. O'Hara served as Assistant Secretary for Housing and Director of Rental Assistance for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

As TAC's National Director of the Community Support Initiative, she assists state and local behavioral health systems to assure that the highest priority consumers are provided the best practice community support services they need to live successfully in the community, including current TAC projects in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Louisiana. Marti is also an expert in the use of federal Medicaid and state financing...
View More to ensure the delivery of high quality and sustainable mainstream funding for tenants living in permanent supportive housing.

Marti recently led important community-based mental health systems reforms as the first Director of the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health, a post she served in for over four years. Prior to this appointment she led TAC's project to create a long term plan to reform mental health services in the District. During her tenure, she successfully introduced the Housing First model of permanent supportive housing by contracting with the nationally recognized Pathways to Housing program in New York. Marti's three decades as a mental health clinician and administrator include heading up the Departments of Mental Health in Pennsylvania and Ohio and serving as past President of the North Carolina Low Income Housing Coalition.

Francine Williams Arienti is a Senior Associate in TAC's Human Services Group and has over 16 years experience working to address the housing and service needs of people with disabilities through direct service, technical assistance and training, and policy support. Her experience includes...
View More managing and providing technical assistance for multiple federal and state initiatives designed to prevent and end homelessness through community-based housing with mainstream services and supports for persons with disabilities. She manages TAC's permanent supportive housing TA initiative in Louisiana, which is reducing homelessness and the state's reliance on high-cost restrictive care settings through the implementation of best practice housing and community supports. She also manages TAC's Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) TA initiative, supporting community providers in accessing and leveraging federal, state and local resources to serve veterans at risk of or experiencing homelessness.

Prior to joining TAC, Francine was a Senior Project Associate at Policy Research Associates, Inc., where she managed and coordinated technical assistance, training, and knowledge dissemination activities for several homelessness, mental health and housing-related projects, including the State Policy Academies on Homelessness, HUD McKinney-Vento national homelessness technical assistance, and SAMHSA's National Resource Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness. She has co-authored several publications on evidence-based and promising practices in service delivery and housing for people who are homeless and have serious mental illnesses and/or co-occurring substance use disorders, and has worked in employment and residential treatment settings for formerly homeless individuals with mental illnesses in New York State.

Emily Cooper is a Senior Associate in TAC's Housing Group. She is a nationally recognized expert with over 17 years in helping organizations to access and better utilize federal homeless programs, including the use of Shelter Plus Care and the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program, to meet the needs people with disabilities, and people who are homeless, including individuals who are chronically homeless...
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As a principal consultant for TAC's federal McKinney-Vento homeless contracts, Emily has provided over 50 trainings and workshops to homeless providers and Continuum of Care planning groups on critical topics related to grant administration and compliance, program design, and the implementation of best practices. She has a proven track record as a knowledgeable and approachable trainer and in ensuring positive outcomes and results. She has provided direct individualized assistance to hundreds of community-based organizations to ensure that homeless and housing programs are well coordinated, non-duplicative, and delivered in the most effective manner.

Emily has provided on-site technical assistance to various state and local governments in long-range strategic planning and partnership building to expand housing for vulnerable populations and increase access to mainstream housing and service resources, such as public housing and Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers. Working with the City of Boston, the City of Des Moines, the State of Virginia, as well as numerous other governmental agencies, she has developed and helped the client to implement feasible and realistic strategies to maximize funding and leverage all available state, local, and federal resources for the lowest income households.

In addition to writing several publications for the federal government, such as the upcoming revised Shelter Plus Care Desk Guide, she is also the author of numerous TAC publications that focus public attention on the need to expand affordable housing options for people with disabilities and people who are homeless. Her most influential guidebook to date, Section 8 Made Simple, continues to be one of TAC's most-requested publications.

Prior to joining TAC, Ms. Cooper worked for the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development where she administered multiple federally-funded service-enriched housing programs for homeless and/or disabled people, and served as an agency liaison to the state human service commissions.

Kelly English, MSW, Ph.D. is a senior associate at TAC, who joined the organization in July 2010. Kelly comes to TAC with experience in Medicaid behavioral health managed care, policy, research, and clinical practice with children and families. Prior to joining TAC, ...
View More Kelly served as a consultant to Massachusetts Medicaid on the implementation of new behavioral health services for youth developed to remediate a class-action EPSDT lawsuit. Kelly also worked for several years for the Massachusetts Medicaid behavioral health carve-out vendor, assuming key roles on child and adolescent issues with the provider network, state agencies, and stakeholder groups. While there she also led efforts to organize care management approaches for children with serious emotional disturbance and worked to ensure providers delivered high quality behavioral health services to Medicaid members.

Kelly's expertise and interests are in the areas of design and implementation of care management approaches, systems of care development, person-centered planning, quality improvement strategies, and program evaluation. Her focus is also on assisting states to leverage Medicaid to develop services to ensure that vulnerable populations have access to the services they need to be successful at home and in the community. Kelly is a licensed independent clinical social work and holds a Ph.D. in social work from the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work.

Suzanne Fields, MSW joined TAC in January 2010 as a Senior Consultant. Suzanne has extensive experience as a clinician and an administrator in behavioral health, children's services, managed care, Medicaid, and child welfare. Before joining TAC, Suzanne was Director of Behavioral Health for Massachusetts Medicaid....
View More She was responsible for the service design and implementation of best practice services for children and youth under the Rosie D. judgment, a landmark class action lawsuit expanding behavioral health services to support children and their families. As Director of Behavioral Health for Massachusetts Medicaid, Suzanne was also a key contributor in reform efforts related to care for the dually eligible, medical homes, care management, and managed care design and purchasing.

Suzanne's primary focus is designing and implementing services and systems of care for individuals with behavioral health needs and their families; designing and implementing managed care approaches that address the integration of physical health and behavioral health; and financing services and systems through the development of federal Medicaid Waivers, Medicaid state plan amendments, and federal grant applications. Suzanne is a former Director for a behavioral health managed care organization where she led efforts to improve the mental health delivery system for children involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Suzanne also served as the City of Boston's first Director of Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health, where she led efforts across the city to promote youth mental health, reduce substance use and reduce violence.

Amy Horton Amy Horton is TAC's Communications and Technical Assistance Coordinator. She is responsible for the administration of over $1.5 million in federal grant funding from both HUD and the VA, including overseeing all of the logistics for TAC trainings. ...
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Prior to joining TAC, Amy worked in the non-profit sector at a Community Development Corporation assisting low-income families through the process of purchasing their first home and tracking a revolving loan pool for local home and business owners. In addition, Amy has volunteered extensively with homeless and disadvantaged populations and has extensive experience organizing events, fundraising, and spreading awareness about the issue of homelessness.

Gina Schaak is an Associate in TAC's Housing Group and is the Coordinator of McKinney-Vento Technical Assistance. She has over eight years experience helping non-profit housing and service agencies to navigate through local and federal regulations, in order to access resources for permanent supportive housing for the most vulnerable populations. ...
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Gina is responsible for overseeing the delivery of all of TAC's federally-funded homeless trainings, workshops, and direct individual assistance. She facilitates the delivery of over 25 trainings each year in over 21 States as well as managing staff and deliverables for over 50 direct TA interventions. She is TAC's direct link to the federal government, responsible for all billing, reporting, and grant tracking and administration activities.

Gina is also a skilled trainer and has extensive experience providing support and consultation to individual projects. She has worked with numerous non-profit homeless and housing organizations to troubleshoot project management issues, identifying obstacles and recommending realistic solutions. Gina has also worked with community and state planning groups to help build consensus and formulate collaborative partnerships to expand housing options for people who are homeless and disabled.

Gina serves as TAC's policy researcher and public liaison. She tracks federal congressional activity related to relevant homeless and housing legislation and disseminates information to the public, both via TAC's website and through partnerships with the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities Housing Task Force.

Prior to joining TAC, Gina worked for the City of Boston Department of Neighborhood Development managing multiple federal homeless Supportive Housing Programs and Shelter Plus Care grants.

Lisa Sloane is a Senior Associate at TAC. For over 20 years, Lisa has worked with federal, state and local governments as well as nonprofit agencies, including faith-based organizations, to address the supportive housing needs of people with disabilities, including homeless individuals and their families. Her work in the area of ending homelessness includes the development and implementation of training as well as technical...
View More assistance to Continuums of Care and individual programs. She has also worked with the States of Pennsylvania and Louisiana to develop and implement Permanent Supportive Housing programs. In Massachusetts, she played a key role in the development of innovative cross disability housing programs, including a housing locator system, a state housing bond fund and a state home modification loan program. She has expertise in the area of fair housing.

Prior to joining TAC, Lisa was principal of Sloane Associates, a woman-owned business that provided affordable housing and human services consultation, specializing in the development of housing programs and policies for persons with disabilities, including homeless persons with disabilities.

James M. Yates is a Senior Associate at TAC, with a focus on affordable housing for homeless people and people with disabilities. Jim works with non-profit agencies to troubleshoot and evaluate supportive housing programs and assists local and state governments to develop and implement strategic plans to address the needs of vulnerable populations. He also provides customized trainings and information...
View More dissemination on housing programs and regulations.

Prior to joining TAC, Mr. Yates served as a Housing Development Officer for the City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development, working collaboratively with communities on the planning, design and development of affordable housing throughout many of Boston's neighborhoods, as well as collaborating with local Public Housing Authorities on the Section 8 Project-Based Assistance Program and the Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation SRO Program for Homeless Individuals. He also played an important role in the program development of a specialized continuum of care for homeless veterans in the Boston area.