SPEAKERS AND PANELISTS FOR STRENGTH IN PARTNERSHIPS

Sacramento, October 21, 2019

Speakers

Senator Richard Pan

Dr. Richard Pan is a pediatrician, former UC Davis educator, and State Senator proudly representing Sacramento, West Sacramento, Elk Grove and unincorporated areas of Sacramento County.  Dr. Pan chairs the Senate Committee on Health and the Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Health and Human Services. He also chairs the Senate Select Committees on Children with Special Needs, Asian Pacific Islander Affairs and the 2020 United States Census. He serves on the Senate Committees on Agriculture; Business, Professions and Economic Development; and Education.

First elected to the State Assembly in 2010, Dr. Pan strives to keep our communities safe and healthy.  When local governments planned to close fire stations during the recession, Dr. Pan authored legislation to bring over $100 million in federal funds for fire departments including $6 million for the Sacramento region.  He partnered with law enforcement and local businesses to establish a statewide database to catch thieves attempting to sell stolen property to pawnshops, and he authored legislation to allow campus police to use body cameras.

TIME magazine called Dr. Pan a “hero” when he authored landmark legislation to abolish non-medical exemptions to legally required vaccines for school students, thereby restoring community immunity from preventable contagions.  Dr. Pan also authored one of the most expansive state laws regulating health plans eliminating denials for pre-existing conditions and prohibited discrimination by health status and medical history. He demands transparency and accountability in state health programs; holding hearings on reducing fraud, investigating poor access to dental care, and ensuring children with cancer and other serious conditions have access to pediatric specialty care. Dr. Pan provided leadership in enrolling families for health coverage, resulting in halving the number of uninsured in California, and he sponsored numerous health fairs providing resources including free glasses, dental screenings, and vaccines.

Dr. Pan has devoted his career to solving problems and helping everyone in the community.  Prior to serving in the legislature, Dr. Pan was a UC Davis faculty member and Director of the Pediatric Residency Program where he created a nationally recognized service learning curriculum, Communities and Health Professionals Together to build partnerships between health professions students and neighborhoods to build healthier communities. Dr. Pan co-founded and served as chair of Healthy Kids Healthy Future, where he helped secure health, dental and vision coverage for over 65,000 children in the Sacramento area. For his leadership in education and community development, Dr. Pan has been recognized with the Campus Compact's Thomas Ehrlich Faculty Award for Service-Learning and the Physician Humanitarian Award from the Medical Board of California.

Assemblymember Kansen Chu

Assemblymember Kansen Chu was elected in November 2014 to represent California’s 25th Assembly District. In 2015, Chu led an important discussion on homelessness as the author of Assembly Bill 718, which would have prohibited the citation of individuals that have no option but to sleep in their vehicle. Assemblymember Chu also authored legislation which expanded CalWORK’s benefits for grieving mothers and improved safety for bicyclist and pedestrians—both of these were signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown.

 Kansen Chu previously served on the San José City Council for seven years. He was the first Chinese-American to serve on the region’s City Council. During this time, he made public health and environmental issues top priorities, passing legislation to require citywide green building standards and championed a ban on single-use plastic bags. He also spearheaded the installation of automatic heart defibrillators across San José as a way to save lives.

A long-time advocate for education, Chu was elected to the Berryessa Union School Board District in 2002. As a school boardmember, he worked to bolster public education materials, strengthen curriculum and improve public access to school board meetings. Born in Taiwan, Chu moved to the United States in 1976 as a graduate student. He holds a Master's in Electrical Engineering from Cal State Northridge, and worked as a Microdiagnostics Microprogrammer at IBM for 18 years. In addition, he also owned and operated Ocean Harbor Chinese Restaurant for 16 years.

Superintendent Tony Thurmond

Superintendent Tony Thurmond is an educator, social worker, and public school parent, who has served the people of California for more than ten years in elected office. Previously, Superintendent Thurmond served on the Richmond City Council, West Contra Costa Unified School Board, and in the California State Assembly, representing District 15.

Like many of California’s public school students, Superintendent Thurmond came from humble beginnings. His mother was an immigrant from Panama who came to San Jose, California, to be a teacher. His father was a soldier who didn’t return to his family after the Vietnam War. Superintendent Thurmond met him for the first time when he was an adult. After Superintendent Thurmond’s mother died when he was 6, he and his brother were raised by a cousin who they had never met. Superintendent Thurmond’s family relied on public assistance programs and great public schools to get out of poverty. Superintendent Thurmond’s public school education allowed him to attend Temple University, where he became student body president. He went on to earn dual master's degrees in Law and Social Policy and Social Work (MSW) from Bryn Mawr College and began a career dedicated to service.

Education is at the core of Superintendent Thurmond’s legislative record. He authored legislation that successfully expanded the free lunch program, bilingual education, and the Chafee Grant college scholarship program for foster youth. Additionally, Superintendent Thurmond’s legislation guaranteed preferential voting rights for student school board members, improved access to families for early education and childcare, and shifted millions of dollars directly from prisons to schools. Superintendent Thurmond introduced legislation to expand STEM education, improve school conditions for LGBTQ youth, and tax private prisons to fund early education and afterschool programs.

Panelists

Curtiss Sarikey, Oakland Unified School District, Chief of Staff

Curtiss Sarikey is currently Chief of Staff with the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) and brings over thirty years of experience in social work and education. He was most recently at the Stuart Foundation from 2016-17 as Senior Director where he led work for the Foundation on educator leadership, labor management collaboration, and state level policy on continuous improvement and capacity building. He was also the Deputy Chief of Community Schools and Student Services in OUSD from 2011 to 2016. In 2016 Curtiss was awarded the Community Schools Initiative Leadership Award from the National Coalition for Community Schools.

Mr. Sarikey was adjunct faculty for University of San Francisco School Counseling Program where he taught courses in family engagement and school improvement. He spent 10 years with San Francisco Unified School District as a school social work and supervisor, 5 years as Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the East Bay, Inc., and 5 years with the US Navy as head of Oakland Naval Medical Center’s Family Advocacy Program (domestic violence and child abuse intervention program).

He is currently a member of the Steering Committee for the National Coalition for Community Schools, California State Social Emotional Learning Workgroup, and UCLA/Mental Health Services Oversight & Accountability Commission, and a board member for Peter Senge’s Systems Leadership Institute, Californian’s Dedicated to Education Foundation, and Region A Board Director of the California NASW.  He has consulted with cities and school districts across the country in areas of collective impact, community schools and social emotional learning. Curtiss received a B.A. from the State University of New York at Geneseo and a Masters of Social Welfare from the University of California at Berkeley. He is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) and has education pupil services and administrative credentials from San Francisco State University and Sonoma State University. 

Janet Schulze, Pittsburg Unified School District, Superintendent

Dr. Janet Schulze has served as Superintendent of Pittsburg Unified School District since July of 2014. Prior to coming to Pittsburg, she was the Assistant Superintendent of High Schools for San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). While at SFUSD, Dr. Schulze led the implementation of the district’s equity focused strategic plan. Prior to that, she was a high school principal in SFUSD, an assistant principal in El Paso, Texas, and she began her career as a seventh grade English and reading teacher in El Paso. While in graduate school, she also worked for the states of Massachusetts and New York evaluating Charter Schools.

Dr. Schulze received her B.S. in Secondary Education and English from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Texas, El Paso. Her Master’s Degree of Education, along with her Doctor of Education are from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she was also in the Urban Superintendents Program. Her dissertation topic was on, “English language learners’ experience of high school reform."

Michelle Doty Cabrera, County Behavioral Health Directors Association, Executive Director

Michelle Doty Cabrera joined CBHDA as Executive Director in May 2019. Ms. Cabrera has a wealth of experience on state budget and policy as an advocate and staff for the California legislature. Prior to joining CBHDA she served as the Healthcare Director for the California State Council of the Services Employees International Union (SEIU California), where she advocated on behalf of healthcare workers and consumers, including SEIU California’s county behavioral health workforce. She served as a Senior Consultant for the Assembly Human Services Committee, where she specialized in child welfare issues and staffed legislation which extended foster care in California to age 21.

Ms. Cabrera also served as a Program Officer for the California Healthcare Foundation, working as a liaison on state health policy in Sacramento. Ms. Cabrera serves as a member on the National Quality Forum’s Standing Committee on Disparities and on the Board of Directors of the California Pan-Ethnic Health Network.

Toby Ewing, Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, Executive Director

Toby Ewing, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, the body that oversees Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). Voter approved Prop 63 is funded by a one percent tax on millionaires and has generated approximately $14.4 billion for public mental health programs since 2005.

Dr. Ewing has worked on governance reform, government oversight and improving outcomes of public programs for many years. He has worked on a range of public policy issues, including mental health, child welfare, immigrant integration, workforce and education, and veterans projects. From 2011 through 2014, Ewing served as a consultant to the California State Senate Governance and Finance Committee. He also served as Director of the California Research Bureau from 2009 to 2011. Prior to that, for eight years, he was a Project Manager with the Little Hoover Commission, an independent body charged with improving government. Ewing did his undergraduate studies at Grinnell College and received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Syracuse University.

Lisa Carlisle, Alameda County Behavioral Health, Director of Child & Young Adult System of Care

Lisa Carlisle is the Director of the Child and Young Adult System of Care (CYASOC) for Alameda County Behavioral Health (ACBH).  As the CYASOC Director, Ms. Carlisle provides leadership for six subdivisions under the CYASOC umbrella. Ms. Carlisle has worked in Alameda County for nine and a half years and has 20 years of experience working in public education, community mental health, and County mental health settings.  She began her career in in 1999 at the former Cal State Hayward (now known as Cal State East Bay) in the Learning Resource Center as a workshop facilitator, trainer, and English tutor for incoming freshmen and international students.  Ms. Carlisle has spent many years creating and implementing School Based Behavioral Health programs and services that benefit children, youth and families in Alameda County.

Barbara McClung, Director, Behavioral Health Initiatives, Oakland Unified School District

Barbara McClung is an educator and therapist whose work with communities over the past 25 years has focused on interrupting the school to prison pipeline. She has worked with youth and families in schools in California and Washington and in the juvenile justice system, implementing programs and services designed to heal trauma and promote equity.  After completing graduate school in Seattle, Barbara worked for Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, Department of Child Psychiatry coordinating school- based and juvenile justice intervention programs.  She currently works for the Oakland Unified School District leading the District’s Behavioral Health Department that includes Early Behavioral Intervention Programs, Restorative Justice, School-based Mental Health and Crisis Response Programs, Violence and Substance Abuse Prevention Programs and services for Foster and Homeless youth.

 

Moderator

Christine-Stoner-Mertz, LCSW

California Alliance CEO Christine Stoner-Mertz presides over all Alliance advocacy, accreditation, member services and executive support activities and staffs the Executive and Nominating Committees. Chris came to the California Alliance in 2019 after being President and CEO of Lincoln Child Center in Oakland, a California Alliance member agency delivering behavioral health and family strengthening services in the San Francisco Bay area. Since 2005, she led the organization through a transformational period, moving from a residentially-based services focus to designing an array of culturally responsive community and school-based services for children and youth ages 0-21. Her deep commitment to equity is reflected in the transformation of services at Lincoln.

A licensed clinical social worker in California, Chris received her MSW from the University of Michigan and began her career in California in 1985, as co-founder of Seneca Center, now the Seneca Family of Agencies, where she was instrumental in the development of programs and oversight of operations for 15 years.

 

Los Angeles, October 28, 2019

Speakers

Superintendent Tony Thurmond

Superintendent Tony Thurmond is an educator, social worker, and public school parent, who has served the people of California for more than ten years in elected office. Previously, Superintendent Thurmond served on the Richmond City Council, West Contra Costa Unified School Board, and in the California State Assembly, representing District 15.

Like many of California’s public school students, Superintendent Thurmond came from humble beginnings. His mother was an immigrant from Panama who came to San Jose, California, to be a teacher. His father was a soldier who didn’t return to his family after the Vietnam War. Superintendent Thurmond met him for the first time when he was an adult. After Superintendent Thurmond’s mother died when he was 6, he and his brother were raised by a cousin who they had never met. Superintendent Thurmond’s family relied on public assistance programs and great public schools to get out of poverty. Superintendent Thurmond’s public school education allowed him to attend Temple University, where he became student body president. He went on to earn dual master's degrees in Law and Social Policy and Social Work (MSW) from Bryn Mawr College and began a career dedicated to service.

Education is at the core of Superintendent Thurmond’s legislative record. He authored legislation that successfully expanded the free lunch program, bilingual education, and the Chafee Grant college scholarship program for foster youth. Additionally, Superintendent Thurmond’s legislation guaranteed preferential voting rights for student school board members, improved access to families for early education and childcare, and shifted millions of dollars directly from prisons to schools. Superintendent Thurmond introduced legislation to expand STEM education, improve school conditions for LGBTQ youth, and tax private prisons to fund early education and afterschool programs.

Toby Ewing, Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, Executive Director

Toby Ewing, Ph.D. is the Executive Director of the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission, the body that oversees Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act (MHSA). Voter approved Prop 63 is funded by a one percent tax on millionaires and has generated approximately $14.4 billion for public mental health programs since 2005.

Dr. Ewing has worked on governance reform, government oversight and improving outcomes of public programs for many years. He has worked on a range of public policy issues, including mental health, child welfare, immigrant integration, workforce and education, and veterans projects. From 2011 through 2014, Ewing served as a consultant to the California State Senate Governance and Finance Committee. He also served as Director of the California Research Bureau from 2009 to 2011. Prior to that, for eight years, he was a Project Manager with the Little Hoover Commission, an independent body charged with improving government. Ewing did his undergraduate studies at Grinnell College and received a Ph.D. in Sociology from Syracuse University.

Panelists

Dr. Jon Sherin, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Director

Dr. Sherin, a psychiatrist and neurobiologist by trade with a wide range of professional experience, was appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors as the County’s Director of Mental Health effective November 1, 2016. In this role, he leads the largest public mental health system in the country, serving over 250,000 clients annually in the most populous and one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the nation.

Most recently he served as both the chief medical officer and executive vice president of military communities for Volunteers of America, an organization with a vast national network that serves a full spectrum of vulnerable clients including at risk youth and family, intellectually disabled, veteran, frail elderly and prison re-entry populations. In these posts he brought key clinical, research and systems as well as policy expertise to the organization as a whole and oversaw a massive expansion of its services to military community members, particularly homeless veterans.

Dr. Sherin is a leading authority on the care of veterans struggling with trauma and reintegration challenges. He has testified in Congress on veteran homelessness and suicide. Prior to joining Volunteers of America, he had a distinguished career in the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) where he held various clinical, teaching, research and administrative leadership positions. In his last VA post, he served as chief of mental health for the Miami VA Healthcare System. He has also held a variety of full academic appointments, most recently as professor and vice chairman for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Miami.

Dr. Sherin is an accomplished neurobiology researcher with notable achievements including his work discovering a core sleep circuit in mammals, published in “Science” magazine that garnered international recognition. In addition, he is a recipient of the prestigious Kempf Award from the American Psychiatric Association for his conceptual model of the psychotic process. More recently, his efforts have focused on developing access programs to dismantle myriad barriers facing vulnerable populations as well as methods for measuring wellbeing (and human flourishing) as an outcome.

Dr. Sherin completed his undergraduate studies in neuroscience at Brown University, his graduate work at the University of Chicago and Harvard, and his postgraduate training at UCLA. He is a volunteer clinical professor as well as a member of the Center on Aging at the University of Miami and a volunteer clinical professor at UCLA.

Avra Warsofsky, Foothill SELPA, Glendale, California M.S., Program Specialist/School Psychologist

Avra Warsofsky, M.S., Board Certified Behavior Analyst, is a Program Specialist/School Psychologist with the Foothill SELPA, Glendale, California. Ms. Warsofsky works with the SELPAs Emotional Disturbance (ED) programs. She has been in this position with the Foothill SELPA since 2007. In addition to her role with the ED programs, Avra has participated in the development and facilitation of behavior trainings for the Greater Los Angeles Areas SELPAs and behavior trainings across the Foothills SELPA. Ms. Warsofsky is a certified trainer of Non-Violent Crisis Intervention (NCI) and is a member of the statewide Positive Environments Network of Trainers (PENT) cadre since 2005.

Avra’s background also includes working as a Staff Research Associate II-Supervisor with the UCLA/RAND Center for Adolescent Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, which is funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During her time with the Center, Avra facilitated and assisted in the development of a worksite parenting program, which was funded the National Institutes of Health (NIH).    

Gina Plate, California Charter Schools Association, Vice President, Special Education

Gina has spent her career in special education serving as a special education teacher, administrator, and Educational Policy Consultant before joining CCSA to lead the special education team where she provides information and guidance to charter schools on a variety of issues affecting the delivery of high quality services to the field. Gina is appointed by the Governor of California as Chair of the Statewide Advisory Commission on Special Education.

 

  

Alex Briscoe, California Children's Trust, Principal

Alex Briscoe is the principal for the California Children's Trust. He was appointed director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency in 2009 where he led one of the state’s largest public health systems, overseeing health and hospital systems, public health, behavioral health, and environmental health departments with an annual budget of $700 million and 6,200 FTE contracted and civil service staff.

Before joining the county, he was the director of the Chappell Hayes Health Center at McClymonds High School in West Oakland, a satellite outpatient center of Children’s Hospital and Research Center. Mr. Briscoe’s work has helped design the nexus of public health and public education. He has designed and administered a number of mental health and physical health programs and services in child serving systems, including home visiting programs, programs for medically fragile children, and clinical and development programs in child welfare, juvenile justice, and early childhood settings.

Mr. Briscoe has served on the Alameda County First Five Commission, The Alameda Alliance, and The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and The Uninsured, as well as a number of other public and private boards and commissions. Mr. Briscoe is a mental health practitioner specializing in adolescent services and youth development. He has advised or collaborated with a number of local and national foundations including The Atlantic Philanthropies, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The California Endowment, and most recently with Tipping Point Community. He has specialized in Medicaid policy and administration, emergency medical services, youth voice and crisis counseling, and safety net design and administration.

Eric Sahakian, Pasadena USD, Assistant Superintendent of School Support Services

Eric Sahakian joined Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) as principal of Loma Alta Elementary School in 2009 and principal of Rose City Continuation High School in 2011. He has also served as an assistant principal of Toll Middle School in the Glendale Unified School District (GUSD) from 2002-07; head counselor of Hoover High School in GUSD from 1997-2002; and as a counselor with the L.A. County Office of Education from 1995-97. Eric has served K-12 public education for the past 26 years. Currently Eric serves as the Assistant Superintendent of School Support Services with the Pasadena Unified School District.
Eric earned his Bachelor’s degree from California State University, Northridge (CSUN), and a Master’s degree in psychology with a pupil personnel credential and administrative credential. He recently completed his Ed.D. in Educational Leadership at Brandman University/Chapman University System.

Youth Panelist (TBA)

Moderator

Christine-Stoner-Mertz, LCSW

California Alliance CEO Christine Stoner-Mertz presides over all Alliance advocacy, accreditation, member services and executive support activities and staffs the Executive and Nominating Committees. Chris came to the California Alliance in 2019 after being President and CEO of Lincoln Child Center in Oakland, a California Alliance member agency delivering behavioral health and family strengthening services in the San Francisco Bay area. Since 2005, she led the organization through a transformational period, moving from a residentially-based services focus to designing an array of culturally responsive community and school-based services for children and youth ages 0-21. Her deep commitment to equity is reflected in the transformation of services at Lincoln.

A licensed clinical social worker in California, Chris received her MSW from the University of Michigan and began her career in California in 1985, as co-founder of Seneca Center, now the Seneca Family of Agencies, where she was instrumental in the development of programs and oversight of operations for 15 years.