Consultants and State Building Bridges Initiative Team:

Janice LeBel, Ph.D., ABPP, Director of System Transformation,
Commonwealth of MA, Department of Mental Health
jlebel@comcast.net
Dr. Janice LeBel is a licensed, Board-Certified Psychologist with more than thirty years’ experience in the public sector working primarily in mental health but also with child welfare, juvenile justice, and intellectual and developmental disability populations.  She oversees a statewide system of inpatient and secure residential care for children and adolescents.  Dr. LeBel leads the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health’s’ nationally-recognized Restraint/Seclusion (R/S) Prevention Initiative and an Interagency Initiative with the same focus involving child-serving state agencies (7) and the public and private special education schools in the state.  She is a founding member of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors’ Office of Technical Assistance Center’s teaching faculty, co-authored an evidenced-based curriculum on R/S Prevention, and works to implement trauma-informed care and R/S prevention efforts throughout the United States and internationally.  Dr. LeBel has provided expert testimony at Congressional Briefings and legal proceedings.  She has researched and published on seclusion and restraint-related issues and presented at many national and international forums.  Dr. LeBel also serves as a peer reviewer for several journals.

Laura Tate, Youth Advocate, Seneca Family of Agencies, CA
laurentate374@gmail.com
Youth Advocate & founding board member of the Youth Advisory Board, Seneca Family of Agencies, CA Laura Tate is a youth intern and co-founder of the Seneca Youth Advisory Board. She entered the foster care system when she was an infant and lends her training style to using experiences from her own life to illuminate trauma informed practices and interventions for working with youth. She is a natural orator, with an engaging, enthusiastic, and inspiring approach to training staff.

Mark Nickell, M.Div., Executive Director,
Seneca Family of Agencies, CA
mark_nickell@senecacenter.org
Mark Nickell has been with Seneca Family of Agencies for more than 13 years and is currently serving as the Executive Director for the San Francisco Region. He has worked in Community Based Services that include Wraparound, Therapeutic Behavioral Services and Multi-Systemic Therapy. In addition, Mark is a trainer for Intensive Treatment Foster Care parents in Crisis Communication, and a certified Wraparound trainer for California Department of Social Services. Mark oversees service provision in partnerships with Family and Children Services, Juvenile Justice, Behavioral Health and Unified School Districts in order to develop service system continuums that support some of California’s most vulnerable families as they persevere through the most difficult time in their lives.

Angel R. Knapp, MSW
ngel Knapp serves as the Senior Director of External Initiatives & Quality Services for Damar Services in Indianapolis.  She has served in various Damar leadership positions for the past 10-years.  Her current leadership role is assuring that all clients, families, and community partners experience exemplary service throughout the agency that is reflective of best practices and family engagement. Previously, Angel served as the State Director of Integrated Services (ISP) in Indiana. ISP is the State’s clinical and financial residential reform model - deploying the services and resources historically associated with residential facilities to the homes, schools and communities of families and children served.   Angel led the collaboration with 13 partnering agencies to assure best practices in reducing the number of children experiencing out of home placements and improving long-term sustained outcomes for those youth and families touched by residential care.   Before joining Damar Services in 2005, Angel worked as a college-based counselor at Ball State University and then as the program coordinator for Indiana’s Homes for Black Children adoption initiative.  Angel currently serves as the Board President for Stopover, Inc. and serves as a practicum supervisor for the Indiana University School of Social Work where she earned bachelors and masters degrees in social work.  Angel is a member of the National Association of Social Workers. 

Madge ‘Pat’ Mosby, Family Peer Advocate, BBI Consultant 
Madge “Pat” Mosby is a Retired System of Care Family Coach and Trainer for The Institute of Innovation and Implementation at the University of Maryland Division of Social Work, which provides statewide technical assistance and training. Pat is a single mother of three children and a grandmother of four beautiful grandchildren. Pat’s involvement in children’s mental health began at home: she has three children, two with mental health challenges; one was on the Emotionally Disturbed Unit (which the title has now been changed) and the other, who was in Gifted and Talented Program in the Montgomery County School System. Pat has worked in the children’s mental health field for over 15 years, beginning as a consumer of services in the Wraparound process for her children. After receiving the support, she needed for her children and gaining the ability to navigate the child serving agencies, she decided to help other families and became a Family Support Partner. She has assisted families in their effort to find the support they need and helped them to become empowered and knowledgeable about the system and the care for their children. When the opportunity presented itself, she became a Family Support Partner and then Care Coordinator, facilitating and coordinating the wraparound process while working in a SAMHSA “Wraparound Grant Initiative” in Montgomery County, Maryland called “Community Kids.” She once stated she really liked the name because it included the youth with mental health challenges as part of the community and not as a problem in the community. Pat is an expert in the wraparound field and the engagement and partnership of families and youth. She has testified on the state and local level on behalf of children’s mental health and wraparound. Pat has trained and presented at national and state conferences, she has helped initiate youth involvement in Montgomery County, Maryland and peer support in several States around the Country. She has several certifications: National Certified Peer Support Partner, Certified Life Coach, CCAR Peer Recovery Coach and Trainer, Family Wraparound Coach and Trainer, Wellness Recovery Action Plan Facilitator Mental Health Core and Youth First Aid, Motivational Interviewing Trainer and Active Parenting Coach and Trainer. Pat continues to advocate and empower youth and families around the country.

Celeste Walley, Youth Specialist, Founding Member of Seneca Family of Services Youth Advisory Board, Seneca Family of Agencies.
Celeste is a founding member of the Youth Advisory Board whose passion for youth voice has had tremendous impacts on the staff and youth of Seneca. She grew up in various foster homes and attending multiple schools, which provides a unique narrative that’s through lines is defined by resilience and overcoming obstacles. Her story is the foundation of her passion, which is transformed into her desire to make a positive change in the world of foster care. She is currently working to complete her bachelor’s degree from the University of Merced, spending time off from school interning in the Seneca Wrap around program.