ACCREDITATION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Operations Manager
- Program Manager
As a peer reviewer and team leader at the Council on Accreditation (COA) for more than ten years, Bobbie has reviewed a variety of agencies, including nonprofit, faith based, and military organizations, among others. Bobbie's concentrations include, but are not limited to, Performance and Quality Improvement (PQI) programs and Financial Education and Counseling Services (FEC.)
For 20 years, Bobbie has served as operations manager, program manager, and PQI chair for Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Green Bay, WI. She has guided the agency through two consecutive successful reaccreditations.
Bobbie holds certifications as a consumer credit counselor, student loan counselor, and Department of Housing and Urban Development housing counselor. She has chaired the National Asset Development Committee for Catholic Charities, USA, where she also served as a national trainer. Bobbie, who presently sits on several local boards and committees, is involved with numerous collaborative efforts to improve life in her community. She holds a BA from the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay.
A strong supporter of the accreditation process, Bobbie believes that earning and living accreditation allows agencies to affirm what they are doing well and offers organizations the opportunity to enhance their services through nationally accepted best practices.
Throughout her 40-year career working in the behavioral health field as a clinician, supervisor, administrator, and consultant, Carol brings a variety of human services experiences to Accreditation Guru. Her experiences include working in prevention and education, outpatient and intensive outpatient care, residential and inpatient care, sub-acute detoxification, and psychosocial and vocational programs.
She has also worked in programs dedicated to special populations, including adolescents, those in the criminal justice system, persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and persons with co-occurring disorders. Carol recently retired as the behavioral health director of a faith-based organization that provides services throughout 21 counties in northern Michigan. Additionally, she is on the faculty of Western Michigan University.
Carol experience as a surveyor for the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) for the past 29 years provides her with an exceptional foundation from which to guide our clients through the accreditation process. In addition, she is a survey report editor, trainer and mentor who serves on the appeals board for CARF.
Carol received an MA in Counseling Psychology from Michigan State University and is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Certified Clinical Supervisor and Certified Advanced Addiction Counselor.
With more than 40 years of administrative, executive leadership and board governance experience in a variety of health and human service organizations, integrated delivery systems and health plans, Dave has served as a provider, purchaser and funder. He specializes in achieving and maintaining accreditation, improving risk management practices and creating supportive accountability systems.
Working at CARF International for more than 12 years, Dave has led more than 120 accreditation surveys across 40 states and Canadian provinces as an administrative and program surveyor, team leader and report-writer for the Behavioral Health, Opioid Treatment Program, Employment and Community Support and Business and Services Management Network standard manuals. He also serves on CARF's appeal and review boards.
In addition to administering several million dollars in grant funding, he has delivered dozens of conference program presentations and participated in more than 20 statewide and national policy and practice improvement initiatives.
Dave earned a Doctorate in Education and an MA degree, along with a certificate in transition planning, from Southern Illinois University and a BS in Psychology from Central Michigan University.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Registered Nurse
- COA Reviewer
Janice is a Registered Nurse with advanced degrees in psychiatric nursing, community mental health and a PhD in public administration. She began her career as a staff nurse in hospitals both public and private while she obtained her advanced education so that she could work in social services and administration. Some of the agencies included inpatient both stand-alone psychiatric and substance abuse facilities, outpatient mental health centers and social service agencies.
In the past she surveyed for Council on Accreditation (COA), The Joint Commission, Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS) and National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
In her fifteen years as a COA reviewer, Janice has participated in site reviews as a Peer Reviewer and Team Leader. She has reviewed private non-profit as well as for-profit agencies, military reviews, and Canadian agencies. While reviewing organizations for COA she worked for Catholic Charites as the Quality Improvement Director.
Janice also has a true passion for teaching, and she taught for 20+ years at a local community college and for a local university during her career.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Founder
- Founder and CEO of Accreditation Guru, Inc
A nationally renowned expert in accreditation and nonprofit governance, Jennifer Flowers is the founder and CEO of Accreditation Guru, Inc. Jennifer has devoted her 20+ year career to working with a variety of organizations in the social services, behavioral healthcare, and education sectors, including the role of Director of Accreditation Commission at the Council on Accreditation (COA). Jennifer's background gives her firsthand knowledge of what reviewers look for during an onsite survey and what commissioners need to make an informed accreditation decision.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- LMHC Accreditation Consultant
Marcel C. Rivas has over 26 years of professional child welfare, adoption and human services experience serving in administrative, senior management, supervisory and direct service roles. He has over 18 years of accreditation experience as a Peer Reviewer, Team Leader and Commissioner for the Council on Accreditation (COA).
At Children's Home Society of Florida for 21 years, he managed a variety of prevention and intervention programs to include: Shelter & Residential Group Care, Maternal-Infant Health, Behavioral Health, Dependency Case Management, Child Care & Out of School.
As senior Director of Operations at Citrus, he oversees the Adoptions, Transitioning Youth Services, Youth Programming and Education departments.
Marcel's passion for adoption, focused on minority population adoptions, resulted in 2,500+ children adopted and management of the largest post-adoption program in Florida serving over 4,000 children.
Marcel earned a master's degree in Mental Health Counseling and a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Economics from Florida International University.
Marcel is fully bilingual (English/Spanish) and a consummate results-oriented, innovative, customer friendly professional.
Mary has served in child welfare for more than 30 years. As a human services program representative specializing in child welfare, she works at the state level to improve and ensure transparency, quality, efficiency and internal best practices for numerous nonprofit agencies and consumers of their services.
In addition to her vast experience at the state level, Mary has been volunteering for the last 15 years as a volunteer Peer Reviewer and a Trained Team Leader for the Council on Accreditation (COA).
Mary also has extensive experience in overseeing and monitoring compliance of child welfare regulation, providing technical assistance, conducting site surveys and evaluating private and public agencies to ensure the safety of children and families. She was instrumental in developing a widely-used quality service review tool to measure organizational programs services and identify inconsistencies with systems that are directly related to service outcomes.
Mary has specialized in domestic adoptions at a longstanding child welfare agency in Pennsylvania, which required direct communication with prospective adoptive families and partnerships with numerous social service agencies. This collaboration included developing and writing home studies and child profiles along with coordinating legal services with child advocates and attorneys. Additionally, Mary has worked to provide technical guidance in the area of international adoption via her working knowledge of the Hague Adoption Convention,
Mary received an MSW Administration, Policy and Planning degree from Rutgers State University and earned a BS in Psychology at Tuskegee University.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager, Marketing and Data
Job Titles:
- Director of Behavioral Health
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Leader
- Clinical Social Worker With an
Tracy has been a leader in the field of behavioral health for more than 25 years with experience in child welfare, addiction treatment, community mental health, and as the Executive Director of the Behavioral Health Accreditation program for The Joint Commission. Tracy is the Regional Director of behavioral health for a large Chicago-based hospital and health care system in Illinois.
Tracy is a licensed clinical social worker with an MSW in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago. She earned a BS in psychology at Gustavus Adolphus College and received a management certificate from DePaul University.
Job Titles:
- Consultant
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Viviane Ngwa is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 25 years of experience in the human services field in both non-profit and for-profit arenas who has led core growth and new business development in multiple states. In her current role as Corporate VP & IL Executive Director of a multi-state nonprofit organization, she is a leader in providing services to individuals with chronic mental illness, intellectual and developmental disabilities, youth in treatment foster care, DJJ probation and homeless youth, while ensuring an affirming work environment on issues of equity, inclusion and belong in the workplace.
An expert in child welfare and behavioral health service structures, Viviane was a member of the Family Focused Treatment Association's Board of Directors and a past Board President. She also served on the Board of Trustees of the Council on Accreditation (COA) where she worked on the Standards Committee, Board Development, and strategic planning. She has been a COA Peer Reviewer Team Leader and a Hague Evaluator for many years, leading numerous accreditation site visits across the United States and Canada.
Yvonne has an extensive regulatory and compliance background. During her career as a healthcare executive, Yvonne led successful Joint Commission Surveys in a variety of healthcare settings, including all areas of behavioral health, skilled nursing, home care, and hospice. Yvonne's most recent experience includes Associate Director of Behavioral Health Care at The Joint Commission.
With an in-depth knowledge of the accreditation standards, policies and processes, Yvonne leads teams to overcome obstacles and achieve goals.
Yvonne has an MBA, MHCA, CPHQ and an Executive Leadership Certification from Harvard Business School. She is Certified in Quality (CPHQ) and LeanSix Sigma.