National Child Welfare Resource Center for Organizational Improvement


Staff Bios
Mary O'Brien, Consultant • • 207-721-8907
Mary O'Brien's consulting work with the NRCOI focuses on gathering and disseminating information on innovative organizational improvement strategies through publications, newsletters, and teleconferences. She played a key role in producing practice-oriented publications on interagency financing, quality assurance, strategic planning, and disaster planning. She has edited the NRCOI's newsletter, Child Welfare Matters, on a wide range of organizational improvement strategies since 1997, and organizes teleconference and webinar training programs. Prior to her work as a consultant, she was employed as a program analyst with the federal Health Care Financing Administration.

Steven Preister, Associate Director • • 202-723-0320 (v), 202-723-0320 (fax, call first)
As an Associate Director, Steve provides T/TA to States and Tribes in the following areas: strategic planning, planning for the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) in all its stages, stakeholder involvement, community partnerships, interagency collaboration, systems of care, the service array in child welfare, supervision, and workforce development. Previously, he served for five years as the director of training and technical assistance for the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice. Former positions include serving as the executive director of the National Association for Family-based Services, the deputy executive director of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, teaching graduate social work at The Catholic University of America, and directing a family service agency, a university family research center, and a family policy and education foundation.

Tammy Richards, Evaluator • • 207-780-5859
Tammy Richards, M.Ed., is a Research Associate at the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the Muskie School of Public Service. Tammy serves as an evaluator for the NRCOI, assisting the project in gathering feedback on NRCOI activities to help fine tune the delivery of training and technical assistance. Tammy's past work has included evaluating State court processes in child welfare cases (including several CIP Reassessment Projects) as well as conducting program evaluations of state, local and national projects that provide supportive services to children and families. Tammy is currently an evaluator for the Northeast and Caribbean Child Welfare Implementation Center project (NCIC); her work at the NCIC focuses on evaluating project activities as well as assisting states and tribes in developing evaluation plans for implementation initiatives designed to increase child safety, permanency and well being. Tammy is trained as a counselor and formerly provided mental health services to abused and neglected adolescents as well as parents of children exposed to domestic violence.

Gretchen Robbins, Senior Policy Associate • • 207-626-5224
Gretchen Robbins is a Senior Policy Associate at the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the Muskie School of Public Service. Gretchen is the lead for providing T/TA to States and Tribes in Training Systems and coordinates the Peer Training Network for the NRCOI. In her current position and as a former director of the Muskie School’s Child Welfare Training Institute, a collaborative effort between the University of Southern Maine and the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, her primary focus is on promoting best practice in child welfare through engaging practitioners, supervisors and managers in positive change toward meeting outcomes for children, youth and families. With over 30 years of experience in child welfare, Gretchen’s practice has encompassed all aspects of program leadership and service delivery. Gretchen has extensive training and presenting experience dating back to 1997. Currently she is creating training programs to enhance child welfare supervisory practices.
Kris Sahonchik, Principal Investigator • • 207-780-5856
As the Principal Investigator for the NRCOI, Kris Sahonchik is responsible ensuring the quality of our T/TA and coordination with the T/TA Network. This work often involves evaluating current systems and programs, developing strategies for system improvements and assisting with implementation and further evaluation in collaboration with the T/TA Network, ACF Regional Offices and Children’s Bureau. Previously she was NRCOI Director (9 years) and Director of Consultation (4 years) developing tools and strategies for system improvements and interagency collaboration.

In her former role as NRCOI Director, Kris facilitated the development and implementation of plans for children's services in over a dozen states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and Puerto Rico. She has worked with States and Tribes developing integrated service systems. She has also worked with court systems in over a dozen jurisdictions and in collaboration with the American Bar Association to develop assessment and planning tools for state court improvement projects.
Kris is also the Director of the Children, Youth and Families Program at the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy, Muskie School. The Program enjoys a national reputation for policy research, program evaluation, technical assistance and training in the area of child welfare.
Marion “Marti” Snyder, Administrative Assistant • • 207-780-5878
Marti Snyder provides administrative support to NRCOI staff and consultants. She responds to general requests from child welfare staff, helps individuals interested in our publications, and assists our staff and consultants with their logistical needs. Before joining the NRCOI, Marti worked in the fields of hospitality, aviation, and at other universities; organizing projects, working on newsletters, researching information, as well as general administrative work.
Peter Watson, Director • • 207-228-8330
Peter Watson is the Director of the NRCOI. He has provided training and technical assistance to numerous States, Tribes and agencies focused on developing and implementing quality improvement systems and improving outcomes for children and families. Peter believes the Resource Center’s best information comes from the States themselves, and he always includes examples from other States in his presentations and technical assistance. Before working at the NRCOI, Peter served as the Director of Quality Assurance at the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS). He managed DSS’s research, training, policy and foster care review units, and served as the project manager for DSS’s SACWIS development and implementation.
Senior Consultant Bios

Kathy Deserly, Senior Consultant • • 406-431-5941
Kathy Deserly has worked in the field of child welfare in Native communities since 1974. She spent twelve years working in tribal communities in Southern California, as Assistant Director of a Native American foster and adoption agency before going to work as a policy analyst and technical assistance specialist for the National Indian Child Welfare Association. In those positions she provided extensive training and technical assistance to Indian and non-Indian programs on topics related to tribal child welfare and social services. Kathy served as Indian Child Welfare Specialist for the State of Montana from 1996-2000. In 2004 Kathy became a founding board member of the Indian Child and Family Resource Center based in Helena, Montana, a training and technical assistance center for Tribal social service programs, private providers and state agencies. She is currently the director of ICFRC. Through the NRCOI, Kathy has provided technical assistance to states and tribes, including strategic planning, child welfare program reviews, and assisted in the development of a statewide Tribal child welfare association. ICFRC is a partner agency with the Tribal Law and Policy Institute, the lead agency for the new National Resource Center for Tribes. Jo Ann Lamm, Senior Consultant • • 252-903-4084 Jo Ann Lamm, MSW has over 30 years of child welfare experience in a county administered, state supervised system. In North Carolina, she served as a front line child welfare worker, county child welfare supervisor, state child welfare consultant and administrator, NC Child Welfare Director and Deputy Director for the NC Division of Social Services. As the child welfare director, she was instrumental in providing the leadership and direction in the successful implementation of the practice model in NC known as MRS. The successful implementation of Differential Response was a key strategy in the practice model. She provided leadership through the past 2 federal CFSR’s in NC and the successful completion of the first PIP and the establishment of the second PIP. She knows well the criticality of having an effective partnership with ACF, state and local stakeholders. She understands how to work in a collaborative partnership within both county and state administered systems. She values the efforts of strategic planning and understands the effects of political and fiscal climates in states. Ms. Lamm provides consultation to states regarding preparation, development and implementation of practice models, development of technical assistance models, engaging in strategic planning process, assessment of child welfare programs, and preparation, development and implementing Differential Response. Jo Ann strongly believes that all states work to achieve better outcomes for children and desires to assist states in any way possible.
Joe Murray, Senior Consultant • • 405-840-1084
Joe Murray provides training and technical assistance in the areas of supervision, continuous quality improvement processes, the service array in child welfare and planning for the Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) in all its stages. Previously, he worked in both the juvenile justice and child welfare areas of a state system, developing and managing programs for children, youth and families.
Ms. Webster is most familiar with evaluating systems and looking for opportunities to enhance systems. She believes all systems have positives to offer and seeks to build upon those positives. She works with NRCOI on system reviews, CFSR-related work, organizational assessments, strategic supervision planning, and disaster planning.