Staff Profiles

Leadership
Technical Assistance & Training

Policy & Research
Operations & Administration

Kevin J. Mahoney

Director

In addition to serving as NRCPDS director, Dr. Mahoney is a professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. During a 30-year career in gerontology and long-term care, he has held many policy-making and administrative positions in the state governments of Connecticut and California. He also has held academic appointments at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, the University of California-San Francisco and the University of Maryland.

From 1996 to 2008, Dr. Mahoney was the national program director for the Cash & Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation, a policy-driven evaluation of one of the most unfettered forms of consumer direction of personal-assistance services. An expert on state government and long-term care innovation, he speaks and writes extensively on consumer direction, the roles of the public and private sectors in financing long-term care, long-term care insurance and care management.

Jim Wironen

Director of Product Development & Consulting Services

Jim coordinates technical assistance efforts and leads the development of new products to assist in the delivery of technical assistance and training. Prior to joining the NRCPDS, he worked as VP of financial products at AARP. Earlier in his career, he held senior leadership roles at financial services firms including New River, Morningstar, New York Life Benefit Services, State Street Global Advisors and Fidelity.

Suzanne Crisp

Director of Program Design and Implementation

Suzanne provides technical assistance across the country by assessing existing programs to determine compliance and efficiency, developing products to enhance understanding of the implementation of participant direction and performing diagnostic program reviews. Her prior positions include senior research lead at Thomson Reuters, state liaison mentor for the Cash & Counseling national program office and assistant director to the Arkansas Division of Aging and Adult Services.

Mark Sciegaj

Senior Consultant for Training and Research

Mark leads training services for the NRCPDS. He also directs work on our National Survey Publicly Funded Participant-Directed Services Programs. In addition this role at the Center, Dr. Sciegaj is the associate director of the Smart Spaces Center for Adaptive Aging in Place and associate professor of health policy and administration at the Pennsylvania State University. His research focuses on the areas of elder autonomy, preferences and participant-directed long-term care models.

Casey Sanders DeLuca

Associate Director of Training

Casey leads training program development at the NRCPDS. Prior to her current role, she worked at the Cash & Counseling national program office. She also has clinical social work experience working with adults with disabilities and children and families in hospital settings. Casey earned a master of social work, clinical health services, from Boston College.

Mollie Murphy

Financial Management Services Lead

Mollie provides technical assistance to federal, state and local participant direction programs for the NRCPDS. She calls on her experience in fiscal/employer agent roles, regulations and best practices (in which she is one of the few national experts) and workflow system design to support nonprofits and government. In addition, she is co-founder of Annkissam, an organization dedicated to building software tools for nonprofits.

Sandra Barrett

Technical Assistance Consultant

Sandra works on projects including the Administration on Aging CLP Grants and the Veteran-Directed Home and Community-Based Services program. She was a state liaison mentor with six of the expansion Cash & Counseling states and retired as assistant director with the Division of Aging and Adult Services in 2003.

Isaac Selkow

Financial Management Services Research Analyst

Isaac provides technical assistance to federal, state and local participant-direction programs. Prior to his work at the NRCPDS, he served as head tutor and MCAS instructor for African Community Education in Worcester, Mass.

Patrick O'Keefe

Program Analyst, Veteran Directed HCBS

Pat works on veterans issues for the NRCPDS, focusing on the VD-HCBS program. He has a bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of New Hampshire. Most recently he completed a graduate program in International Relations from Regent's College London. He has previously participated in internship programs at a number of different locations including a US Senate office, US Congressional office and abroad at the campaign headquarters of a major British political party.

Ruth Fleisher

Project Implementation Specialist

Ruth manages the development of the Center’s Knowledge Management System, and works with staff on the implementation of the Center’s technology based projects. Prior to joining the NRCPDS, Ruth served as Director of Knowledge Management at the Forum Corporation in Boston and Technology Manager for the Management Consulting Division of Arthur D. Little, Inc. She joined our team with years of experience in project and process management.

Merle Edwards-Orr

Director of Veteran's Initiatives

Merle oversees work with the VA and ACL surrounding the development and dissemination of the VD-HCBS and VD-Respite programs. Before joining NRCPDS, Merle was the Consumer Direction Manager at the State Unit on Aging in Vermont. He also spent several years in case management and social work, and was an Associate Professor and Chair in the Department of Social Work from University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Merle received a Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Molly Hurt Morris

Membership & Innovations Program Specialist

Molly is a central contact and coordinator for program and financial management services member services. Prior to her work at the NRCPDS, she earned her master of social work from Boston College, with a specialization in practice with older adults and macro social work. As an MSW student, she was selected for the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education and worked with older adults in various capacities.

Joe Keune

Communications, Web & Event Specialist

Joe is responsible for all communications, web, and event strategies and activities for the NRCPDS. Prior to his work at the NRCPDS, Joe was an event planner and a team leader at Southern Seminary. Joe earned a bachelor of arts in Business Adminsration from Lindenwood University and a Master of Divinity from Southern Seminary.

Ellen Mahoney

Research Director of Applied Research & Policy

Ellen oversees research initiatives and serves as the principal investigator on research grant applications and projects. She is also an Associate Professor at the Boston College School of Nursing. Ellen earned her Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco.

Lori Simon-Rusinowitz

Senior Consultant for Research

Dr. Simon-Rusinowitz has served as research director for the NRCPDS, the Cash & Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation, and the Next Steps replication project. She is an associate professor at the Department of Health Services Administration within the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Her long-time research focus has been in the field of aging and disability policy issues.

Erin McGaffigan

Policy/Research Consultant

Erin supports policy efforts for the NRCPDS, including coordinating the Public Policy Advisory Committee. Prior to this role, she collaborated with the Cash & Counseling national program office to build effective strategies for enhancing the involvement of participants in designing programs and services. Earlier in her career, she was senior project director for the Emergency Preparedness Initiative at the Center for Developmental Disabilities Evaluation and Research, E.K. Shriver Center. She also directed the Massachusetts 2001 Real Choice Grant, 2003 Independence Plus Grant and 2005 Systems Transformation Grant. Ms. McGaffigan received a Master’s of Science in Public Policy from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in Community Organization, Public Policy and Administration from Boston College. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and the focus of her dissertation research was the complex factors and related outcomes associated with stakeholder engagement practices.

Christie Cohen

Director of Finance & Administration

Christie, who joined the NRCPDS in 2010, has been in budget administration for over a decade, carrying out pre- and post-award grant activities and managing endowed, operating and gift funds. Prior to her work here, she served as grant manager at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and as assistant director at the Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University.

Patti Krusz

Grant Proposal & Post-Award Administrator

Patti provides high-level financial support and assists with matters related to budgets and personnel to ensure the NRCPDS properly maintains administrative, financial and operational systems and controls. Patti previously served as fiscal/office assistant for the Cash & Counseling national program office. Patti worked for Norfolk County for nine years before coming to Boston College in 2003.

Mary Quirk

Administrative Assistant to the Director

Mary is the administrative assistant for Kevin Mahoney, NRCPDS Director. From 1984 to 1998, Mary worked in the Alumni Association and Bureau of Conferences at Boston College. She returned to the school in 2008 after taking time off to raise her family. She currently is working toward her master of science in administrative studies at the Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College.

Sierra Horn

Staff Assistant

Sierra Supports staff on a variety of projects and completes general administrative tasks. Prior to joining the NRCPDS, she worked as a News Writer at WHDH-Boston and participated in various internships in the communications and marketing field. Sierra earned her bachelor of arts in Journalism and Mass Communication, Public Relations Sequence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services