Speakers and panelists:

Setting the Stage: One Size Does Not Fit All — Effective Strategies for Mental Health and Employment Across All Disability Categories

  • Bill Hudock

    Bill Hudock, EFSLMP SME
    William J. Hudock is a change agent and innovator in how healthcare is organized and financed. His career includes over 24 years experience working with major insurance companies, during which he was responsible for management training, creating organizational change, data management, strategic planning, and managing the applied economics of healthcare. Following that experience, Bill ran a successful consulting practice for eight years in which he worked exclusively on issues related to behavioral health care. Clients included providers, government entities, and payors. His behavioral health experience includes running a major mental health provider organization, building a Medicaid HMO's behavioral health department, developing strategic plans for government entities and companies, and restructuring numerous provider organizations that were in financial difficulty.

    Bill recently served as Senior Public Health Advisor in the federal Center for Mental Health Services. In this capacity, he worked with federal departments, the states, providers, insurers, health plans, and private employer groups to address the strategic and operational issues that relate to the structuring and financing of behavioral health prevention, treatment, and recovery support systems. Included in this portfolio was policy and regulation review pertaining to health reform, Medicaid and Medicare, as well as programmatic work on issues impacting access, benefit design, and metrics of quality and impact. Bill earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Connecticut.

    Subject Matter Expert, Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program

  • Doug Crandell

    Doug Crandell has managed, staffed and directed community mental health and disability programs at the provider level for 25 years, providing customized and evidence-based practices to people with disabilities and mental illness and their employers. Doug works as a Senior Consultant with Griffin-Hammis Associates, and serves as an SME for EFSLMP. In addition, he is on the faculty of the Institute on Human Development and Disability at the University of Georgia. An author, Doug has published seven books, all of which focus on disability and mental illness.

    Subject Matter Expert, Employment First State Leadership Mentoring Program

Paths to Employment with a Mental Health Disability

  • Tania Morawiec

    Tania Morawiec is the Illinois Department of Human Services' Statewide Employment First Manager. Tania has experience working with Customized Employment and Individualized Placement and Supports. Her workforce development experience spans 15 years and includes employer outreach and education, assessment, placement and coaching for individuals with mental health diagnoses, TBI, developmental disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder and histories of justice system involvement. She manages the Illinois Employment First State Leadership Mentorship Program.

    Employment First Manager, Illinois Department of Human Services

  • Debbie Homan

    Debbie Homan, CRSS-E, is an IPS Trainer with the Illinois Department of Human Services – Division of Mental Health. She has worked in the mental health field for 12 years. For nine of those years she worked as an IPS Supported Employment Specialist with Thresholds Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centers in Chicago. She believes that work and employment have been a powerful force in her mental health recovery. Debbie received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from Elmhurst College and a Master's Degree in Broadcast Journalism from Northwestern University. Except for a brief six-month period, she has been working full time since her college graduation. Debbie helps to educate the public that Treatment Works, and recovery from a serious mental illness is not only possible – but probable. She lives with her husband Steve in the Chicagoland area.

    IPS Trainer, Illinois Department of Human Services – Division of Mental Health

Tennessee: A Case Study of Interagency Coordination Leading to Increased Competitive Integrated Employment for Tennesseans with Mental Health Disabilities

  • Jeremy Norden-Paul

    Jeremy Norden-Paul is the State Director of Employment and Day Services for the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. In this role, he leads initiatives to increase employment opportunities for Tennesseans with disabilities, including serving as co-chair of the Employment First Task Force and Core State Lead for EFSLMP. Jeremy has previously been a special education teacher, job coach, job developer, and program director. He lives in Nashville with his wife and daughter.

    State Director of Employment and Day Services, Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities

  • Doug Crandell

    Doug Crandell has managed, staffed and directed community mental health and disability programs at the provider level for 25 years, providing customized and evidence-based practices to people with disabilities and mental illness and their employers. Doug works as a Senior Consultant with Griffin-Hammis Associates, and serves as an SME for EFSLMP. In addition, he is on the faculty of the Institute on Human Development and Disability at the University of Georgia. An author, Doug has published seven books, all of which focus on disability and mental illness.

    Subject Matter Expert, Employment First State Leadership Mentoring