Keynote Speaker

Haruv Distinguished Lecture

Susan Bales
Founder and President
Frameworks Institute, Washington DC

Susan Nall Bales is founder and president of the FrameWorks Institute, an independent nonprofit research organization founded in 1999 to advance the nonprofit sector’s communications capacity by identifying, translating, and modeling relevant scholarly research for framing the public discourse about social problems. The institute has become known for its Strategic Frame Analysis™, which roots communications practice in the cognitive and social sciences. Ms. Bales is a veteran communications strategist and campaigner with more than 30 years of experience researching, designing, and implementing campaigns on social issues. A graduate of UCLA with an MA from Middlebury College, Ms. Bales is a senior fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.  She has served on the Adolescence in the 21st Century Study Group of the Society for Research on Adolescence and the Working Group on Prior Political Movements and Ideological Change as part of the Ford Foundation’s Building Knowledge for Social Justice Project.

Ortho Award Recipients for 2012

Recipients of the Blanche F. Ittleson Award for distinction in the promotion of child mental health

Barbara Huff
Consultant and Founding Director
Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health

Barbara Huff is retired founding director of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. Ms. Huff left a career in interior design to develop a statewide family-run advocacy organization in Kansas. As founder of Keys for Networking, she assisted families in receiving appropriate services for their children struggling with mental illness. Ms. Huff then helped found the national Federation of Families movement to include families in their children’s care, in systems change, and in the evaluation of services and supports. She served on the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Advisory Council and served as an advisor to the President’s New Freedom Commission to identify policies to support adults with serious mental illness and children with a serious emotional disturbance.  She received the first Outstanding Advocacy Award given by the Midwest Symposium for Leadership in Behavior Disorders. She studied at Wichita State University and completed the Senior Managers in Government Program at Harvard University.

John A. Morris
Consultant and Executive Director
Technical Assistance Collaborative and Annapolis Coalition

John Morris is an independent consultant with the Technical Assistance Collaborative, Inc., a national not-for-profit consulting group based in Boston. He is also executive director of the Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce, which published the nation’s first action plan for workforce development in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Retired from the Department of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, he retains an appointment as clinical professor of psychiatry. Before joining the university, he spent 25 years in the public behavioral health field. He graduated from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis and returned annually as a visiting professor of mental health policy from 1991-2004. He is immediate past chair of the board of directors of Mental Health America and is a past president of the American College of Mental Health Administration. He has received numerous achievement, leadership, and community service awards. He is an editorial board member and reviewer for several academic journals.

Recipient of the Marion Langer Award for distinction in the promotion of human rights and social justice

Roger J. R. Levesque
Professor
Department of Criminal Justice, Indiana University

Roger J. R. Levesque is a professor in the Department of Criminal Justice, Indiana University. He formerly was professor of Law and Psychology at the University of Arizona and was a Fellow in the Law & Psychology program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, as well as its Center on Children, Families and the Law. He serves as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence and the New Criminal Law Review. Professor Levesque edits Advancing Responsible Adolescent Development, a book series, and is currently working on a book that examines the law’s potential role in addressing the place of stigma in adolescent life. He received his JD from Columbia University School of Law and his PhD from the University of Chicago. The recipient of numerous awards for his writing and teaching, Professor Levesque is Fellow in the Association for Psychological Science, the American Psychological Association, the American Psychology/Law Society, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. He has chaired the American Orthopsychiatry Association’s Task Force on Mental Health and Human Rights.

Other Plenary Speakers and Pre-Conference Discussion Leaders

Mary Armstrong, University of South Florida

Mary Armstrong is the director of the Division of State and Local Support, Department of Child and Family Studies, at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida. She is responsible for the administration of the division, including the direction of evaluation and research activities for public sector entities nationally and in Florida. She is currently pursuing a national study of financing strategies and structures that support effective systems of care, evaluation of child welfare privatization, out-of-home treatment alternatives, and supports for parents of children with mental health problems.  She is co-chair of the Outcomes Roundtable for Children and Families and president-elect of the American Orthopsychiatric Association. Dr. Armstrong, who holds degrees from Temple University, State University of NY, and Memorial University, was formerly the director of the Bureau of Children and Families at the New York State Office of Mental Health.

Oscar Barbarin, III

Oscar Barbarin holds the Lila L. and Douglas J. Hertz Endowed Chair in Psychology at Tulane University. He is director of the Center for Children, Families, and Schools at Tulane and is a Fellow of the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives. He is Chair of the US National Committee for Psychology, National Academies of Science and is co-editor of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. He was formerly Preyer Bicentennial Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His primary research interests include examining educational interventions for achievement and social well-being and the role of community and family in health risks. Barbarin, who received his PhD from Rutgers University, has published scores of articles and books about early childhood education, child development, and African American families.

Robin J. Kimbrough-Melton, University of Colorado School of Medicine

Robin J. Kimbrough-Melton is a senior instructor in pediatrics affiliated with the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, University of Colorado School of Medicine.  She formerly was a research professor and associate director of the Strong Communities initiative of the Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life at Clemson University, where she remains an adjunct professor. While with IFNL, Professor Kimbrough-Melton was director of Building Dreams, a federally funded effort to enhance support for children of prisoners. She received her JD degree from Nebraska and has long been active in service system reform in juvenile justice, criminal justice, substance abuse services, and the courts. She is currently the executive officer of the American Orthopsychiatric Association.

James McDonell, Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life

James McDonell is interim director of the Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life and associate professor of sociology at Clemson University. His work focuses primarily on neighborhood indicators of child safety and family well-being. He has particular interests in child maltreatment, adolescent dating violence, and teen pregnancy. Professor McDonell, who received his PhD from Columbia, led a 3-year research demonstration to examine the effectiveness of a comprehensive, community-based intervention for pregnant and parenting teens in several high-need South Carolina counties. He has also received a grant from the National Institutes for Health for a 4-year study of rural adolescent dating violence.

Gary B. Melton, University of Colorado School of Medicine

Gary Melton is Associate Director for Community Engagement and Prevention at the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect and professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.  He was formerly the director of the Institute on Family & Neighborhood Life at Clemson University. A Fellow of the American Psychological Association, he is a past president of American Psychology-Law Society, Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice, Childwatch International, and the American Orthopsychiatric Association. He served on the US Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect and was the principal architect of the new national child protection strategy proposed by the board. The author of hundreds of publications, Dr. Melton has received numerous achievement, research, and public service awards. He is co-editor of the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry and Child Abuse and Neglect. He received his PhD from Boston University.

Andres J. Pumariega, Cooper University Hospital and Health System

Andres J. Pumariega, MD, is the department chief and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, Cooper University Hospital and Health System, Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in New Jersey. Previously, he was chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the Reading Hospital and Medical Center and professor of psychiatry at Temple University School of Medicine. His main academic focus over his 30-year career has been in the areas of children’s systems of care and cultural diversity in mental health. Past president of the American Orthopsychiatric Association, Dr. Pumariega is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, and American College of Psychiatrists. He received his medical degree from University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and completed a residency and fellowship at Duke University.

Bob Witeck, Witeck Communications, Washington, DC

Bob Witeck is CEO and Co-founder of Witeck Communications, Inc. (formerly Witeck-Combs Communications, Inc.) and has more than 30 years of professional communications experience in the private sector and in public service. He serves as senior counselor and strategist, as well as a specialist in crisis communications for his clients. An Echols scholar at the University of Virginia, he graduated with distinction. He previously served as communications director for the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and as a Senate press secretary. He co-authored Business Inside Out, considered the first book on marketing insights, tips, and strategies targeting the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender market.