Kentucky Bios

	Carol Baker Carol Baker is the Community Supports Branch Manager for the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Division of Mental Retardation. She has been in this role for 3 1/2 years. The focus of this Branch is to regulate provision of supports to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities by the Commonwealth’s 14 Regional Community Mental Health Centers. In 2007, this Branch collaborated with these regional centers to develop and implement community-based crisis prevention and intervention services for adults with I/DD. Carol obtained her B.A. in Psychology from Transylvania University and her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Louisville. In addition to providing both outpatient and inpatient clinical services, she served as Directory of Psychology for Central State ICF/MR in Louisville, KY for 5 years before becoming Program Director of the unit for the Dually Diagnosed. Carol then served as the Executive Director of a non-profit community-based provider prior to returning to employment with the Commonwealth of Kentucky in her current position.
	Cheryl Bogarty Cheryl Bogarty serves as a Health Program Administrator for the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities in Frankfort, Kentucky. She develops and conducts mandatory and non-mandatory training for Supports for Community Living Providers and Individuals with Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities. Her training interests include building community inclusion, cultural competence, faith-based, self-advocacy, leadership development and train-the-trainer. She strives to offer meaningful, spirit-filled and life changing training. Cheryl received the Kentucky Self Advocates for Freedom, Inc. 2009 Fletcher-Keilson Advocacy Award for her service to Kentuckians with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh (MSW) and University of Kentucky (BA, Social Work).
	Rick R. DeMunbrun Rick R. DeMunbrun has been an advocate and educator for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities for over 34 years. Rick is currently Director of Citizen Programs at Brookwood and is responsible for the training and development of over 160 citizens and 200 staff members in a social-entrepreneurial support model. Rick holds has an executive MBA from Southern Methodist University, and is a requested speaker internationally on the cultures and lifestyles of people with functional and multiple disabilities. He is the co-founder of Brookwood, with the current director, Yvonne Streit.
	Derrick Dufresne As founder and senior partner of CRA, Derrick has been offering insightful training and consultation services since 1982. Over the course of his career, he has delivered conference presentations, trainings, strategic board planning retreats, workshops, and management consultation to over thirty thousand people in forty-nine states. He is deeply committed to assisting providers, advocates, state officials and others in the implementation of the principles of full inclusion for all persons with disabilities into the mainstream of community life. In 2002, he was recognized nationally as recipient of AAMR’s Service Award "For unwavering service to people with developmental disabilities in support of self-determined and inclusive lives in communities across our nation.” That same year, he received the Monsignor Elmer H. Behrman Award for outstanding contributions to the field of mental retardation from the Missouri State Chapter of AAMR. From 2003-2009, Derrick served as President and CEO of the Institute on Public Policy For People with Disabilities. The Institute is focuses on promoting best practice and quality community supports for people with disabilities. His innovative approaches reflect his genuine compassion for helping others. Derrick has served two terms on the Board of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIID – formerly AAMR). He was co-founder of AAIDD's Community Living Division (now Community Services) and served as chairperson of its Legislative and Social Issues Committee (LASI) from 1988-1990. Since entering the field in 1974, Derrick's dedication to the community has been demonstrated through his involvement in a variety of leadership positions in both community and institutional settings. His experience in running community residential services included the closing of nine ICF-MRs and eleven group homes and converting them to supported living arrangements based on the personal choice of the individuals served. As a former real estate broker, Derrick possesses a wealth of knowledge in the areas of real estate, financing, tax credits, and subsidies. He uses this knowledge to establish affordable integrated housing throughout the United States for people with disabilities. Among his many recent projects, he has been involved in the implementation of self-determination in a Medicaid environment. This has included pairing person-centered planning with individual budgets. He is deeply interested in systems change and has presented frequently on “Changing the System One Person at a Time.” He has also devoted increasing time to consultation with parents, school systems, and young people to assist in transition planning for individuals as they move from the educational system to adult services.
	Betsy Dunnigan Betsy is currently the Acting Deputy Commissioner with the Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities. The department provides the oversight/administration of state funded services and programs for persons with severe mental illness, substance abuse and intellectual/developmental disabilities provided in both institutional and community settings. Betsy currently serves as the lead for the Cabinet and Department for implementation of the Federal Court Settlement Agreement between the Cabinet and the U.S. Department of Justice. Under the Settlement Agreement the Cabinet has agreed to transition individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities from institutional settings into community homes and to transform the state owned Intermediate Care Facilities into Centers of Excellence to serve as a resource for individuals, families and providers in the community. Betsy has also worked at the Department for Medicaid Services and was instrumental in the development of the Medicaid community and demonstration waiver programs and the consumer directed option for service provision in Kentucky.
	Trish Farnham Trish Farnham loves doing what she can to build inclusive communities. As a former executive director and longtime disability "professional," Trish has lots of opinions about how people with developmental disabilities can become valued community members, but learned long ago that the best approaches usually emerge from the communities themselves. She currently supports community inclusion efforts throughout New Mexico and North Carolina.
	Sue Gabriel Sue Gabriel, PMHNP-BC, is a psychiatric nurse practitioner who has spent the last 2 decades providing services for people who have difficult to manage psychiatric and/or behavior problems in association with their neuro-developmental challenges. Sue has worked with CRA for many years. She also acts as the Director of Community Supports for Developmental Enhancement in Michigan. She is also an accomplished author, trainer, and consultant. For the past ten years she has assisted the Michigan Dept. of Community Health in these areas serves as a member of the state’s “Virtual Team” to assist Community Mental Health Centers to provide community based supports. Sue is also on faculty with the University of Michigan at the Flint Campus where she teaches Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing to both undergraduate and graduate level nursing students. According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, “Ms. Gabriel is a nationally recognized, locally based certified psychiatric nurse practitioner specializing in the treatment of persons with co-morbidity of mental illness and developmental disabilities. This highly specialized expertise is quite rare and not available to most community agencies, nor is it often available from the state level. Ms. Gabriel (is) available (to) provide emergent on-site consultation regarding very complex, difficult to manage persons in order to maintain them in their community and avoid hospitalization or institutionalization.” Sue is a long-term member of NADD, and a member of various NADD educational committees for many years. In addition to authoring many articles and 2 books (the most recent is: Quandaries, Understanding Mental Illness in Persons with Developmental Disabilities, (2004), NADD) to assist the general public in understanding the complex needs of persons with developmental disabilities, she was the primary author for one chapter and advisor for 2 other chapters of the new Diagnostic Manual for Persons with Intellectual Disabilities (DM-IM). Ms. Gabriel has been actively involved with local, state-level, and national level groups to create new service delivery options, including temporary care units to stabilize very medically fragile children for community placement, a model mental health clinic and other programs for adults with co-occurring intellectual/developmental disabilities and mental health issues, including personality disorders, and programs to address the complex needs of persons with disabilities as they age. She has a keen interest in assisting in recognizing the needs of those persons with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD).
	David Laman, Ph.D. Dr. Laman is Founder and Director of Developmental Enhancement in Grand Rapids, MI. He has specialized in working with intellectual and developmental disabilities and related mental health issues for more than 20 years. He is a recognized leader in the national movement to promote mental wellness for individuals and families affected by intellectual and developmental disabilities and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of the NADD and has been associated with the National Center for Persons with Mental Retardation/Mental Illness, the Center for Developmental Disabilities, and the Institute for Neurodevelopmental Differences. Dr. Laman frequently provides consultation and training in mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders on a regional and national basis. He also conducts research on related topics.
	Michael Mayer Michael “Mike” Mayer is a Senior Partner at Community Resource Alliance (CRA) and has worked internationally providing training and consultation to facilitate service innovation and quality improvement for organizations that provide services to people who have disabilities. Mike was recently nominated for the President’s Committee on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and serves on the faculty with the National Leadership Consortium on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware. He has worked with over 500 organizations and trained over 75,000 people in the U.S., Canada, the Middle East, the Pacific Rim, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Mike has worked with many community hospitals and community based crisis service providers as they strive to provide appropriate acute and emergency mental healthcare. He has been directly responsible for overseeing the development or management of community services, including crisis and other community support and treatment services for over 5,000 people who have disabilities, specializing in individuals with more severe and/or complex disabilities often termed “too difficult to serve in the community”. He is the co-developer of “5-Star Quality”, recently adopted by ANCOR for their community development awards and was involved in the development and initial training for Kentucky’s community crisis services. He has authored and edited over 50 publications including books, chapters, and articles and is a noted developer of numerous assessment tools and protocols used throughout the world to assist in the diagnosis, treatment and support planning, and service evaluation for people who have complex disabilities, including Experience Based Therapeutics and the Assessment of Motivation, Tension, and Resistance. As an internationally recognized leader in the field, Mike has served on the faculty of numerous colleges, universities, institutes, international forums, and boards of directors. His leadership, innovations, and products have resulted in recognition from numerous rights, advocacy, public policy, and professional associations, including the 2009 Pioneer Award from the Association of Self-Advocates of North Carolina.
	Rod Patterson Even though my original plans were to pursue a career in music, I took a summer student job at Fox Developmental Center during the summer between my first and second years of college, and I got “hooked” on meeting and supporting folks with disabilities. Throughout my undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Illinois, I continued to volunteer through Volunteer Illini Projects providing recreation opportunities for people institutionalized at Lincoln Developmental Center and several folks with disabilities that were living on their own in the Urbana/Champaign area. After returning from a tour of duty in Viet Nam, I was offered a full time position as a Program Coordinator and Activity Therapy Director back at Fox Center. At Fox I continued to learn from the folks that we were supporting. I learned that the old “developmental” model did not work and actually did more harm than good to people. Even though I must have been a rather slow learner, staying in an Institution for almost 28 years(!), I was de-institutionalized in 2002 when I became the Executive Director of a community agency. During my time as ED at Mosaic in Pontiac, I had the opportunity to learn even more about personal outcomes that are important to people and the many barriers faced by service providers in Illinois as they attempt to provide quality, cutting-edge services that allow people to be “of” the community, and not just “in” the community. I was also fortunate to serve on the Board of Directors of the Institute on Public Policy. I especially enjoyed serving as the Co-Chair of the Institute’s Crisis Innovations Project (CIP), which was developed to help people having issues get the specialized supports that they needed in order to remain in their chosen residence and/or job in the community. The CIP also focused on helping people successfully transition from an institutional setting to a setting in the community where he or she could receive appropriate services and supports. Seven months ago, I was offered the position of President/CEO of the Institute on Public Policy. This is a very “interesting” time in Illinois. I believe that services for people with disabilities in Illinois are truly at tipping point. For two many years, Illinois has talked about community supports, but very little has been done to provide the resources and supports that are needed. The State has continued to place emphasis, and the vast majority of its resources on large and smaller institutional settings. A great deal of time is spent on trying to make people fit into “slots”. If they do not fit the slot, extraordinary methods are used to try to force them to comply and accept. My mission, as the President/CEO is to continually push for the changes that must take place to make sure that “without exception” people needing services and supports are able to find and receive them in the community of their choice.
	Carol S. Whitmore Carol S. Whitmore is a professional educator with three decades experience in special education, including coordinating school-wide special education programs for students who have learning, intellectual, and developmental disabilities. Currently she is serving as the Assistant Director of Citizen Programs at Brookwood which includes transition planning, supervision of the job and enterprise programs, and coordinating professional development for Brookwood’s teaching staff. Carol holds a B.S. in Education from the University of Houston and has completed advanced training in programming for children with autism and language problems. Her expertise in TEACCH and special education has gained Carol much recognition in the field and she is a requested presenter at local, regional and international conferences. In 2005, Carol was chosen as a member of the Special Education representative of the US Delegation for Friendship Among Women, and has since traveled with this organization to Argentina, China, and South Korea, in addition to Libya and North Korea.
	Rae Williams Rae Williams works for the Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities, Division of Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities in Frankfort. As a trainer, her role is to research, write and educate providers, staff and individuals about the best practices in Supported Employment, Core Values, Abuse Prevention, Crisis Prevention & Intervention and Sexuality Education. She is certified in QPR Suicide Prevention Training and Cognitive Behavioral Causation. She is a core member of Project SAFE a multi-disciplinary collaboration of victim service and disability-related service providers. Project SAFE is dedicated to ensuring safety and accessibility for everyone. She has extensive experience in the field of Public Health. She served as a Program Director for an Abstinence and Teen Sexual Health Program and Liaison and Coordinator for the Kentucky Physician Care Program. She also researched, collected and organized health care data to determine the service needs of communities. She is a graduate of the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.

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