Letty Elenes is the project director for the Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery, Technical Assistance Center-Doors to Wellbeing. She is a pioneer in the Alameda County Youth Consumer Movement and an award-winning program director with a record of identifying, creating and executing successful programs to address youth and adult mental health needs.

Elenes is co-author of Wellness Recovery Action Plan for Youth (WRAP®) and a popular public speaker with youth and adult audiences. She is a founding member of the Pool of Consumer Champions-Transition Age Youth Committee, the Alameda County Transition Age Youth System of Care, Transition Age Youth Advisory Board and the Copeland Center National Youth Council.

Elenes is passionate about community health and has been involved with efforts for systems change since she was 14. In her spare time she gives back to the community by raising awareness about wellness, breast cancer, and cervical cancer.

Term of Service: 2015 – 2020

Dr. Teresa Granillo is Executive Director of Con Mi MADRE, a nonprofit in Austin, Texas that helps young Latinas pursue higher education. Dr. Granillo is a first-generation college graduate of The University of Arizona, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and graduating Magna Cum Laude. She also earned a Master of Social Work and Master of Science in Psychology, as well as a dual Ph.D. in Social Work and Psychology from the University of Michigan.

Prior to her work with Con Mi MADRE, Dr. Granillo taught clinical skills at The University of Texas at Austin’s Steve Hicks School of Social Work and researched issues related to Latina/o mental health, with a particular emphasis on Latina youth.

Dr. Granillo serves as the Education Chair on the Board of the Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas and is part of the Education Committee of the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. She is also a board member of HERdacity and is the female Texas Affiliate representative for the National Council of La Raza. A recipient of the Lora Lee Peterson Teaching Excellence Award, the Texas Association of Mexican American Chambers of Commerce’s Women of Distinction Award, the Austin Under 40 Award in Nonprofit/Community Service, and 1^st Tee of Greater Austin’s Confidence Award, Dr. Granillo was recently featured on the cover of Austin Woman Magazine, and was nominated for the Austin Business Journal’s 2017 Best CEO Award.

Term of Service: 2018 – 2023

Roderick King, M.D., is chief executive officer of the Florida Institute for Health Innovation and an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine. He also holds faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health where he formerly directed the Program on Cultural Competence in Research at the Harvard Clinical Translational Science Center.

His academic work, teaching and key consulting roles focus on minority health policy and improving the health of underserved communities via leadership and organizational change to address health disparities.

Term of Service: 2014 – 2019

Chacku Mathai, an Indian-American born in Kuwait, got involved in mental health and addiction recovery advocacy when he was just 15 years old. Now President and CEO of Mental Health America of Rochester, his personal experiences of trauma as a youth in mental health and addiction recovery in New York acted as a catalyst for his engagement in efforts to advocate for improved services and alternative supports in the community.

Chacku’s more than thirty years’ experience in community-based mental health and addiction services has included roles such as Director for the STAR Center with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Associate Executive Director of the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services, and a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner with Unity Health System and DePaul Community Services.

Term of Service: 2018 – 2023

Ricardo Millett is principal of Millett & Associates and a principal associate of Community Science. He has over 35 years of experience in evaluation research and program management at the community, nonprofit, city, state, philanthropic and federal levels.

A scholar and practitioner who applies knowledge, data and research to better inform responsive programs and policy results for communities and funders, Dr. Millett has lectured and published extensively on the application of social science research methods and usefulness to addressing societal inequities. 

Term of Service: 2014 – 2019

Sheila A. Pires is a founding partner of the Human Service Collaborative of Washington, D.C., a policy and technical assistance group specializing in child and family service systems. She serves as the Senior Consultant to the Children in Managed Care and Child Health Quality Programs at the Center for Health Care Strategies and is a core partner of the National Technical Assistance Network for Children’s Behavioral Health, co-leading the Network’s focus on policy, system design and financing.

Ms. Pires has over 35 years of experience in national, state, and local government and non-profit agencies serving children, youth and families at risk. She has held senior staff and management positions in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare and the Carter White House. She co-chaired the children’s mental health and substance abuse committee of President Clinton’s Task Force on Health Care Reform, and co-authored the children’s issue brief and policy recommendations for President Bush’s New Freedom Mental Health Commission. In the Obama Administration, she was invited to present on children’s behavioral health at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Grand Rounds. Ms. Pires served as Deputy Commissioner of Social Services for the District of Columbia and led a reorganization of the city’s child mental health system as head of child mental health services. She has consulted with most states, as well as counties, cities, neighborhoods, foundations, and family organizations, and has authored numerous publications on systems change, including Building Systems of Care: A Primer.

Ms. Pires received her Bachelor of Arts from Boston University and a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University.

Term of Service: 2017 – 2022

Mary Rainwater, LCSW, consults with nonprofit and government health, mental health, and philanthropy organizations and academic institutions. Her professional areas of skill and expertise include policy analysis and development; design and implementation of philanthropic and publicly funded program initiatives; strategic planning; nonprofit administration and management; organizational training, technical assistance and capacity building; and resource development and fundraising.

She has extensive expertise in the areas of mental health, the delivery of integrated health services to underserved communities, and designing and developing programs for special populations.

Term of Service: 2013 – 2018

Steven Schnee, Ph.D., former Executive Director of the Harris Center for Mental Health and IDD (formerly MHMRA of Harris County), assumed the position in 1992. Previous roles include Superintendent of the San Antonio State Hospital and Executive Director of Central Counties Center for MHMR Services.

Term of Service: 2018 – 2023

Ken Thompson, MD, is a public service psychiatrist and a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. He has focused his career on improving public psychiatric services, primary care and public/population health with a particular emphasis on achieving health equity.

Since 2013 he has been the consultant psychiatrist at the Squirrel Hill Health Center (a Federally Qualified Health Center), the Milestone Mental Health Center, the Center for Inclusion Health at Allegheny General Hospital, and the Duquesne University Psychology Clinic. He also sees patients at the Center for Aviation Medicine, where he evaluates pilots for fitness to fly.

Dr. Thompson has 30 years of experience providing and leading psychiatric care in primary care, community mental health programs and other community settings.

Term of Service: 2016-2021