TRIWEST - Key Persons
As a Consultant at TriWest, Brittany takes on a variety of tasks, including project management and other work supporting behavioral health projects.
Prior to joining TriWest, Brittany was a clinical research coordinator for a study investigating the best way to assess for suicidal risk in youth and young adults. She previously worked as a program evaluator for nonprofits and government agencies, primarily working with criminal justice programs serving individuals with behavioral health needs. She has also worked in nonprofit management, coordinating a program for incarcerated individuals who were preparing to re-enter the community.
When she is not working, Brittany enjoys spending time with her family, hiking, playing strategy games, and eating delicious food cooked by anybody else.
As a Director at TriWest, Cassie provides consultation, research, evaluation, and technical assistance to support provider efforts to improve the health and behavioral health of their communities. She evaluates outcomes for federally funded projects and serves as a fidelity evaluator for programs integrating physical health care into behavioral health settings for adults with serious mental illness.
Cassie has contributed to many projects involving the assessment and enhancement of state and local behavioral health systems, implementation of evidence-based and best practices for people with physical health and behavioral health conditions, and development of alternative payment arrangements to support the delivery of best practices in an ideal service array.
Prior to joining TriWest, Cassie was a behavioral health and health outcomes researcher at a midwestern school of medicine where she served as clinical coordinator and evaluator for projects funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Health Resources and Services Administration. Cassie provided clinical services for refugee and immigrant children at a community mental health and social services agency early in her career. This foundational experience continues to reinforce a commitment to improving health and behavioral health systems for marginalized groups.
Outside of her work at TriWest, Cassie enjoys traveling, hiking, and playing music. She can often be found tending to her ever-expanding vegetable garden in Durham, North Carolina.
Cassie earned a master's degree in social work and is licensed as a clinical social worker in Missouri.
Chelsea is a Senior Consultant at TriWest with experience in healthcare advocacy, health insurance policy, and integrated care teams management. She enjoys supporting the unique goals of community-based organizations and fostering community partnerships.
Prior to joining TriWest, Chelsea led grassroots organizing efforts to pass Medicaid expansion and to end surprise medical billing. Chelsea has also served as a grants manager and has led care coordination teams for people living with HIV.
Outside of her work at TriWest, Chelsea enjoys talking about whatever book she is currently reading with anyone who will listen. She is usually trying out a new skill, most recently old-home repair and parenting.
Chelsea earned a master's degree in social work and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow
- Senior Fellow With
David Bartsch is a Senior Fellow with TriWest who provides research and evaluation assistance to a range of service programs, foundations, and states. Most recently, David has worked with programs that provide care to people needing integrated primary care and behavioral health services, programs for youth in child welfare, and programs that provide outreach to seniors.
Perhaps David's most rewarding work has been with programs for people with behavioral health concerns who also have primary care needs. For example, his work with the Jefferson Center primary behavioral health care integration program helped establish a federally funded clinic that demonstrated successful health and behavioral health outcomes. In addition, David worked with the TriWest team that served as the statewide evaluator for the Colorado State Innovation Model effort to integrate primary and behavioral health care in primary care practice sites and Community Mental Health Centers.
When David is not working, he enjoys reading and outside activities such as hiking and working in the garden. He lives with his family in Louisville, Colorado, a small town in southeastern Boulder County.
David has a PhD in experimental psychology.
Job Titles:
- Editor and Special Projects Administrator
Deb returned from retirement to serve as Editor and Special Projects Administrator in support of TriWest projects. From 1999 to 2015, Deb was TriWest's business and operations manager, gaining invaluable experience working with TriWest's founders and partners to establish the company and then enjoying the challenge of helping them grow the enterprise into today's array of diverse professionals and project portfolios.
Prior to joining TriWest, Deb owned and operated an independent bookstore in Boulder, Colorado; served as a staff associate in the mental health program at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE); taught composition in the University of Colorado Writing Program; and held marketing and administrative positions at Westview Press in Boulder and at the Workers Defense League and the Ms. Foundation for Women in New York City.
When not working, Deb's interests focus mainly on Golden State Warriors basketball, San Francisco Giants baseball, reading, crocheting, and delving into the history of her home state of California, particularly the Monterey Peninsula where she lives with Romeo the retired racing Greyhound, Jax the confused Greyhound/Saluki, and their nanny, Lily the Bichon/Maltese.
Deb holds a master's degree in cultural anthropology.
A Senior Consultant at TriWest, Diane conducts quantitative data analyses to support projects, research, and evaluations in health and human services and behavioral health. She frequently works with Medicare and Medicaid payment data and occasionally provides editorial support. Diane is interested in combining context, data, and nuance into evidence-based practices to equitably serve populations and communities.
Prior to TriWest, Diane worked in education research and evaluation with a focus on literacy and early childhood education. She was also a grant writer and evaluation manager for a nonprofit animal shelter.
Diane and her husband live in Denver with their rescue pets and sometimes additional foster kittens.
Diane earned a Master of Public Administration degree with a concentration in research methods and education policy.
As TriWest's Chief of Staff, Erin fills multiple roles. These include project manager, qualitative researcher, resource coordinator, and general support person for the TriWest principals. She splits her time between working on projects and supporting the organization behind the scenes. Erin enjoys working on projects related to systems change, integrated care, substance use disorder recovery, and anything that allows her to interact directly with the people who will benefit from improved services.
Prior to joining TriWest, Erin led a behavioral health system improvement effort in Northern Colorado at a public health organization. She provided technical assistance and grant management for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and she was an occupational therapist and instructor at Colorado State University. Many years ago, she taught high school English and preschool in Kitakyushu, Japan.
When she is not working, you might find Erin on one of the many local mountain bike trails in Fort Collins, Colorado.
Erin earned a master's degree in occupational therapy.
Hailey is a Consultant at TriWest whose expertise lies in epidemiology and biostatistics. She is an advocate for equity and environmental justice and has experience in database management, statistical analysis, geospatial mapping, data visualization, and several programming languages.
Before joining TriWest, Hailey worked as an epidemiologist and statistical analyst for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Toxicology and Environmental Epidemiology Office, where she focused on environmental and occupational exposures through the Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Environmental Public Health Tracking, Occupational, and Refugee Health Programs. Previously, she worked as an analyst for both the Colorado School of Public Health, focusing on injury prevention, and for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality in toxicology. She holds a dual Master's in Public Health Epidemiology and Biostatistics, a post-baccalaureate in biology, and her undergraduate degree in pre-medical psychology and philosophy.
Hailey and her wife live in the mountains with their two dogs where they enjoy hiking, star gazing, and spending time together.
As Staff Accountant at TriWest, Heather is primarily responsible for supporting the billing, expense, and record-keeping activities, along with other behind-the-scenes functions as needed.
Prior to joining TriWest, Heather spent over 10 years supervising customer service and operations in bank branches. She also consults as a bookkeeper for entrepreneurs and volunteers with Cub Scouts.
Heather enjoys listening to music and audio books, having an essential oil for everything, and exploring her beloved Colorado. She and her children love to read together, go camping, and play board games, card games, and video games.
Heather earned a bachelor's degree in modern foreign languages, specializing in French and Spanish.
Job Titles:
- Principal and Director of Population Health
As Principal and Director of Population Health at TriWest, Jesse juggles many interests and activities within his role. These include qualitative and quantitative evaluation of behavioral health provider programs, application of psychiatric epidemiology for systemwide assessments, and preparing briefings on the intersection between behavioral health and special topics such as violence, technology use, and natural disasters.
His time is devoted to evaluating federally funded projects implementing team-based integrated care for people with behavioral health conditions and supporting research and analysis for special mental health policy-related reports. Jesse enjoys working on projects that require complex multi-level thinking to address project goals and objectives and anything that allows him to contribute to a project creatively.
Before joining TriWest, Jesse co-developed a pilot program for improving outcomes among children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and coordinated a regional training center focused on FASD for allied health professionals at Saint Louis University. He also completed his clinical social work training hours providing crisis and outpatient counseling to rural residents living with serious mental health conditions.
When he is not working, you might find Jesse onstage at a local improv theater, leading community activities at his neighborhood association, or teaching his dog new tricks.
Jesse earned a doctoral degree in public health, a master's in social work, and maintains licensure as a licensed clinical social worker.
Job Titles:
- Chief Leadership Officer
- Founder
- Partner
As a TriWest Partner, Jim provides consulting and methodological leadership on several health and human services consultation and evaluation projects. He has expertise in the assessment and design of mental health services systems, the implementation of evidence-based practices for adults with mental illnesses, integrated mental health/physical health care, outcome evaluation, and the development and use of fidelity assessment tools.
Jim lives with his wife, Ann, in Greenville, Illinois. He enjoys reading, playing guitar, traveling and camping with his family, and the endlessly challenging game of golf. As a volunteer in his local congregation, Jim provides companionship to people with mental health conditions who are seeking a more flourishing life in the community.
Jim holds a PhD in Clinical and Community Psychology.
As a Senior Consultant at TriWest, Joe takes on various tasks, including project management, editing, report development, graphic design, and other operational support work. He has helped with deliverables and direction for major projects involving child welfare systems, healthcare systems, state and local level behavioral health need analysis, and program operations.
Prior to his work at TriWest, Joe was a senior lecturer in English literature. He also worked for several years in newspaper and printing as a production manager, editorial support specialist, commercial print coordinator, and graphic designer.
In addition to his TriWest work, Joe has published several writing projects, enjoys time with his family, and watches too many Ingmar Bergman movies.
Joe earned master's degrees in theology and English literature. He also holds a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.
As a Consultant at TriWest, Josh splits his time between editing reports, project management, and data review. Before joining TriWest, Josh worked freelance as an editor for non-profits, refining reports, assessments, publications, and marketing materials. He has also worked on the ground in social services, first as a program coordinator at an urban farm-based vocational program for at-risk youth and later as a program assistant for a Forensic Assertive Community Treatment team.
Outside of work, Josh loves playing and teaching music, especially guitar and violin. Additionally, he is an avid rock-climber and outdoor enthusiast.
Josh holds a master's degree in environmental philosophy.
As a Partner at TriWest, Kathy is a senior advisor in the design, implementation, and evaluation of human services systems with an emphasis on Medicaid managed care. She designs ideal behavioral health systems within primary care and specialty settings for people of all ages. Kathy also helps our clients identify the financing mechanisms to support the delivery of best practices. During the past 40 years, Kathy served as a clinician and a senior executive of non-profit and public agencies. She also held senior positions in behavioral health managed care. As a consultant, she has conducted formal evaluations, quality reviews, and special studies in over 20 states.
When not working, you will find Kathy swimming at her local pool or visiting one of the many museums and scenic vistas in the San Francisco area with her husband.
Kathy earned a master's degree in counseling and an MBA in strategic management.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Project Manager
As a Consultant at TriWest, Keelin serves as a project manager and qualitative data analyst for projects relating to health and human services. She is particularly interested in assisting with the development of programs and public policies that aid minority groups across the country.
Prior to joining TriWest, Keelin worked on a COVID-19 response team as a data analyst. Additionally, she worked as a teacher's assistant and researcher. Her research predominantly focused on the impact of gender in political races, as well as within the executive branch and state legislatures.
Keelin and her husband live in Denver with their two dogs and can often be found hiking in the mountains of Colorado.
Keelin earned a master's degree in public administration.
As a Senior Consultant at TriWest, Kelsi's work primarily involves GIS map-making, data analysis and visualization, and project management. She also develops national policy podcasts, infographics, and virtual events alongside providing general technical, social media, and operational support to the team. She has worked on projects large and small-from rural communities in Texas to national-level policy work-and deeply enjoys making data meaningful and informative to community efforts at all scales.
Before joining TriWest, Kelsi worked on research teams specializing in adult mental health and early childhood education, providing literature reviews, program evaluation, and qualitative interviews. She has clinical experience with people in medical and psychiatric hospitals and has worked with high school students to achieve college readiness, assisted with program development and led empowerment support groups for middle school girls, and worked with survivors of intimate partner violence in crisis.
Outside of TriWest, Kelsi loves baking, traveling, camping, and hiking with her dog, Oso. She is passionately learning about native trees and plants and volunteers in her local community to help grow her local urban forest.
Kelsi earned her master's degree in social work and her undergraduate degrees in geography and women's studies.
As a Principal with TriWest, Leigh provides consultation, evaluation, and technical assistance to support implementation of evidence-based behavioral health practices and policies. She has expertise in substance use prevention and early intervention for youth and adults and integration of behavioral health services into healthcare and community-based settings.
In her previous work, Leigh led the implementation and evaluation of state and national initiatives focused on addressing the opioid crisis; screening, brief intervention, referral to treatment (SBIRT); integrated care; and Medicaid financing and service delivery reforms. She started her career as a direct services provider serving families engaged in the child welfare system as well as supporting pregnant and parenting adolescents in achieving their educational goals. Her early experiences working with families and across systems shaped her commitment to integrating the voice of those with lived experience in the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs. Leigh is an experienced meeting facilitator and has informed the development of tools, resource guides, and reports for different audiences, including the general public, program administrators, and policy makers.
Leigh lives in Denver, Colorado, with her family. She enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants, and adventuring in the Rocky Mountains.
Leigh earned a Master of Public Health in Community Health Sciences.
As a Principal at TriWest, Lisa's focus is on children, youth, and families and the systems that serve them. She has participated in and led efforts to improve children's mental health, child welfare, and school-based mental health services and to expand trauma-informed care.
Prior to joining TriWest, Lisa was instrumental in redesigning children's mental health service delivery in El Paso. She has also developed and implemented a college readiness program for at-risk high school students from underrepresented groups and several evidence-based prevention and early intervention programs for families at risk for child welfare system involvement. Lisa truly believes in systems of care and is excited to continue her work in this area.
When Lisa is not working, she spends time with her husband and two small dogs. Lisa enjoys swimming, cycling, and running. However, her favorite activity is dancing the hustle, salsa, swing, or cumbia with her husband.
Lisa earned her bachelor of arts degree in psychology and holds a master's degree in art therapy and a Master's in Public Administration.
As the Chief Financial Officer for TriWest, Mark manages TriWest's administrative, human resources, and accounting activities, including payroll processing, financial and project reporting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, insurance management, and the monthly accounting close.
Prior to his work at TriWest, Mark held management and controllership positions with both public and private companies and in both subsidiary and corporate roles. These positions spanned multiple industries and business stages, including start-up, established, and high growth.
When he is not working, Mark enjoys traveling with his family, woodworking, and hiking and skiing in colorful Colorado.
Mark earned his Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting degree and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Michele brings 20 years of experience in mental health policy development, evaluation, clinical work, grantmaking, teaching, and research to her role as a Principal with TriWest.
Michele enjoys supporting organizations in improving the impact of their work, collaborating with healthcare organizations in providing their patients with a high-quality experience that addresses both their primary care and behavioral health needs, and working with clients to tackle challenging mental health workforce issues.
When not working, Michele enjoys listening to audiobooks, walking her dogs, and traveling.
Michele earned her PhD in Counseling Psychology.
As Managing Partner, Peter provides ultimate oversight of TriWest's service to our customers. In his consulting practice, Peter leads TriWest's efforts to help improve the quality of child- and family-serving systems. For the past 20 years, he has served as a clinician, administrator, consultant, and evaluator in mental health, child welfare, juvenile justice, and school settings. Peter works hard to support state and local systems in implementing programs and policies in ways that are informed by data and narrow the gap between what we know works and what we actually do.
Outside of his work with TriWest, Peter spends as much time as possible helping his dog, Pancho Toast, chase squirrels.
Peter earned a PhD in Clinical/Community Psychology.
Sam Shore is a Principal with TriWest and has over 40 years of experience in the field of mental health services and policy. He has special interests and experience in crisis systems, jail diversion, self-directed care, integration of physical and behavioral health systems, and trauma-informed care. His consultations focus on creating recovery- and resiliency-oriented systems of care in publicly funded settings.
Sam has served in several leadership positions in his career and has acquired extensive experience in public mental health services policy development, operations, and evaluation. In his career in the Texas mental health system, Sam held positions in community mental health, state hospital psychiatric inpatient services, and the state office. He served as the project director for several successful SAMHSA grant projects, including the Mental Health Transformation grant, which allowed the state to build a strong foundation of recovery-oriented systems of care for people with serious mental illnesses and children with severe emotional disturbances. He also served as the state director of mental health services for veterans and their families, and project director of a jail diversion and trauma recovery grant.
In his spare time, Sam enjoys cycling and spending time with his family.
Sam holds a Master of Social Work degree and is licensed in Texas.
Job Titles:
- Director of Child and Family Health
As Director of Child and Family Health at TriWest, Suki focuses on children's mental health, with an emphasis on evidence-based practices and systems of care. She has coordinated and implemented the evaluation components for multi-agency community projects, including SAMHSA-funded system of care projects in several communities. She has experience with identifying evidence-based and best practices in the areas of child and family mental health, particularly Wraparound and early childhood models.
Prior to joining TriWest, Suki worked for the local community mental health center in clinical supervision, program development, and implementation roles and direct care roles.
Outside of work, Suki enjoys reading, watching foreign and independent films, knitting and crafting, and spending time with her daughter, husband, and two pets.
Suki holds a Master of Education degree in Guidance and Counseling. She speaks Spanish fluently.
As a Consultant at TriWest, Taylor conducts qualitative data analyses to assist evaluation and research in behavioral health. She also serves as a project manager for projects in various health and human service fields. Taylor is particularly interested in behavioral health disparities and strengths-based approaches to improving minority populations' overall well-being.
Prior to joining TriWest, Taylor worked as an instructor and research assistant at Florida State University. She researched a variety of topics, including sexual minorities' employment experiences, digital wellness communities, and media representation.
When she is not working, Taylor enjoys doing yoga, watching documentaries, and going to the beach.
Taylor earned a master's degree in sociology with a concentration in social inequality and a PhD in sociology.
As Chief Economist, Tim supports TriWest's data analysis team and projects involving quantitative program evaluation. He has experience estimating the prevalence of behavioral health conditions. He also calculates the cost and utilization of services for clients of primary care, clients of specialty behavioral healthcare, veterans, and people involved in the criminal justice and child welfare systems.
Prior to joining TriWest in 2014, Tim was Economics Department Chair at Central Washington University. He is a two-tour veteran of the Iraq War. And he now lives on an off-grid organic farm in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains.
Tim holds an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a PhD in economics.
Todd Camnitz is a Senior Consultant at TriWest. He writes evaluation design methodologies and uses many tools to clean, organize, and analyze large datasets tracking various physical and behavioral health outcomes and program costs. Todd specializes in R coding, statistical modeling, building interactive web-based data visualization applications through the Shiny framework, teaching advanced Excel skills, and mapping data through GIS.
When he's not in front of a computer, Todd plays competitive doubles beach volleyball, makes pottery, and pushes his friends into joining as many board game nights as possible. His cat, Watson, is also objectively the cutest of all cats.
Todd earned a BA in environmental science, with additional study in statistics and social psychology.
As a Principal at TriWest, Tonya leads evaluation and consultation projects in the areas of child welfare, juvenile and criminal justice, behavioral health systems, and physical-behavioral health integration. For over 20 years, Tonya has worked to help stakeholders develop and implement sound public policies and programs that will make a difference in the lives of children, youth, and families. Tonya also serves as TriWest's Privacy Officer and chairs the company's federally certified Institutional Review Board.
Prior to joining TriWest, Tonya served as the Senior Researcher at the Colorado Division of Youth Corrections and as a Research Project Director for the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, University of Colorado, Boulder.
When not working, Tonya spends much of her time enjoying her beautiful home state of Colorado, either walking the dogs with the family, hiking, running, or kayaking.
Tonya earned a master's degree in criminal justice and a PhD in public affairs/public policy.