Heidi Arthur has nearly 30 years of experience in delivery system redesign to promote health equity and build access to community-based health and human services. She specializes in supporting national, state, and local leaders to design, finance, and implement interventions that promote child welfare, maternal health, and child and family mental wellbeing. Her recent work has focused on developing care models for states, counties, managed care organizations and behavioral health provider networks serving children and youth, with a focus on addressing the youth behavioral health crisis, advancing 988, and improved models of care for children in foster care. Prior to joining HMA nearly a decade ago, she was the vice president of a behavioral health grant writing firm for 10 years. She also formerly held management positions for the New York City Department of Health and the New York State Office of Mental Health in support of behavioral health organizations and schools responding to the mental health impact of 9/11. She started her career in direct practice with children and families, including implementing an early Systems of Care program for women who were pregnant and parenting and then serving as a child welfare worker, a foster care worker, and providing intensive in-home therapy. She earned her Master of Social Work from the Columbia University School of Social Work, where she has also served as a field instructor and an adjunct lecturer.  She is a frequent conference presenter and the co-editor and author of the book Service Delivery for Vulnerable Populations: New Directions in Behavioral Health.

A seasoned consultant, Ellen Breslin draws upon her nearly 30 years of experience and expertise in health policy, with a commitment to payment and delivery reform and to improving outcomes for persons with disabilities.

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As an independent consultant for nearly 10 years, Ellen provided extensive financing and policy expertise to an array of clients including states, health plans, and providers on major state and federal payment and delivery reforms including the Medicare-Medicaid Capitated Financial Alignment Initiative. Her portfolio of work also includes development of the financing model for a State Innovation Models (SIM) Initiative grant applicant, and creation of the state-required funds flow model for a New York organization as part of the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program.

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Previously, she spent nearly two decades of her career in health policy positions for state and federal government with a focus on helping to improve access and care for persons with disabilities. At the state level, Ellen was the first director of managed care reimbursement and analysis for MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program. At the federal level, Ellen was a principal analyst for the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, where she worked on national health care reform and wrote analytic reports and testimony for Congress.

She is the co-author of several publicly available reports for the Massachusetts Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA), the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI), the Massachusetts Disability Policy Consortium and the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP), and Community Catalyst.

Sheilah Gauch has worked with students who have complicated mental health needs for more than 20 years. She championed the passage of legislation that requires healthcare providers to cover the treatment of sick children in Massachusetts with Pediatric Acute-Onset Neuropsychiatric Syndrome and Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal Infections, conditions that have been linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder, food restriction, depression, and other behavioral changes after cases of strep and other infections. And she has blogged for Psychology Today, exploring best practices to help children with complex illnesses heal.

Kelsey is a marketing and communications specialist with extensive experience in education and health and human services. She spent the over a decade working in school administration which drew her attention to critical gaps in the education system and inequities in accessing a free, appropriate education.

In 2013, she took her skills in marketing and passion for addressing barriers faced by underserved families to the behavioral health sector. Since then, she has worked as a marketing and communications professional for nonprofits serving families impacted by mental health and substance use challenges, developmental disabilities, and other needs. She has tremendous compassion for all youth and families and has the lived experience as an individual and parent of a child who experiences mental health and education challenges.

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Her work with families over the years brings insight and understanding of youth and family voices. Hearing directly from families about their experiences across systems (healthcare, education, child protective services, justice) deepened her commitment to advocating for policy and system change and to the Lifting Voices initiative.

Echo Lustig (they/them) is a longtime mental health advocate, with a degree from Hampshire College in mental health policy and advocacy, as well as many years of direct lived experience in the youth and adult mental health care system, from outpatient therapy to state level institutionalization. Echo’s undergraduate thesis, titled Experiencing Policy: An Introspection on the Public Policy of Inpatient Mental Health Care for Children and Adolescents, combines personal writing and storytelling with policy analysis and concrete research-based policy proposals in a way that evokes the emotions necessary to spark change and gives recommendations for what that change might look like. Currently, Echo works at New Village, a daycare in Northampton, MA with a focus on growing the social-emotional capacities of young people, but hopes to break into the policy and advocacy workforce to help bring about the change that is so desperately needed. In their free time, Echo enjoys folk dancing, rock climbing, and taming their spunky bearded dragon, Skid Steer. 

With a background in patient care and psychology, Courtney Thompson has expertise and experience providing Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) and services to pediatric patients in emergency psychiatric departments and outpatient settings.

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Courtney served as a pediatric behavioral health specialist with Children’s Hospital of Colorado/Bloomfield where she was responsible for direct patient care and safety including supervision and management of children and adolescents. She also served on several committees and boards to develop protocol and connect with stakeholders.

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She has a significant amount of experience with those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and ABA therapies and previously served as a behavioral therapist and camp counselor providing clinical skills instruction and behavior reduction protocols to children with Autism and related developmental disabilities. She also has experience as a behavioral and ABA therapist in a clinical setting.

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Courtney is the founder of Courtney’s Camp, where she and other occupational, physical, and music therapists and medical providers support children who have been diagnosed with Snyder-Robinson Syndrome, an extremely rare disease, by creating a therapeutic camp environment.

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She earned a Master of Science in public health and clinical mental health counseling from Grand Canyon University and bachelor’s degree in psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.

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Courtney loves to travel and has lived on three continents (North America, Asia, and Europe).