NAPSA Board of Directors and Staff

Officers

Mary Counihan, President
Rebekah McGowan, President-Elect
Lynn Koontz, Past-President
Marta Fontaine, Secretary
Carol Lieske, Treasurer

Committee Chairs

Joe Snyder, Public Policy
Paul Needham, Education
Barbara Pastirik, Conference
Carol Dayton, Research
Betty Malks, Fundraising
Marta Fontaine, Membership
Nyla McCarthy, Senior Action
Lynn Koontz, Regional Representatives

Regional Representatives

David Viens, Northeast I
Alan Lawitz, Northeast II
Roxanne Perales, Northeast II
Gail S. Nardi, Southeast
Steve Fisher, Southeast
Alice Hayes, Central
Jessica Naberhaus, Mountain
Rebekah McGowan, Southwest
Bethany Berube, West I
Lori Delagrammatikas, West I
Lisa Marie O’Neill, West II

Staff

Kathleen Quinn, Executive Director
Andrew Capehart, Assistant Director
Lucie Caron, Finance Manager
Bill Benson, National Policy Advisor

NAPSA Board of Directors and Staff: Bios

NAPSA Officers

Mary Counihan, President
Mary Counihan, MSW, was Director of Adult Protective Services (APS) for San Francisco from 1992 until retirement in May 2009. Under her direction, the APS program grew from a small, minimally staffed program of 4 social workers to a comprehensive program that was a model for the provision of quality services through effective collaborations and partnerships with a staff of nearly 60 social workers and nurses. At the state level she led the multi-county collaborative that wrote successful legislation creating a comprehensive APS program and increasing its funding by 50%. Ms. Counihan has extensive experience building coalitions among and between public and private agencies (e.g., police, attorneys, medical and mental health providers, banks, CBOs); developing partnerships; creating innovative service-delivery approaches; facilitating groups; and developing protocols, policies, and training manuals to provide the highest quality services to elderly and disabled-adult victims of abuse/neglect. She is currently consulting on projects in the field of elder and vulnerable adult abuse prevention and is a member of the California Elder Justice Coalition.

Rebekah McGowan, President-Elect
Rebekah McGowan is the Program Manager for Community Adult Protective Services section of the Family Support Division of Oklahoma Department of Human Services. She has held this position since 2002. She is responsible for administrative oversight for the Community APS program which involves developing and delivering training, writing policy and procedures for the field APS staff, technical assistance, quality assurance, data system monitoring and reports, and adherence to policy and procedures.

Prior to becoming the Program Manager, Mrs. McGowan was an APS State Office Program Field Representative for 12 years. She was responsible for quality assurance, data development and analysis and statewide training of APS staff. Prior to coming to the State Office, she supervised APS at the county level for 10 years. She has been a OKDHS employee since 1973 and received a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the University of Oklahoma in 1980.

Lynn Koontz, Past-President
B. Lynn Koontz, a 37-year veteran of New Hampshire’s Department of Health & Human Services, retired in June of 2009 as the Adult Protective Services (APS) Administrator in the Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services. She was a member of numerous task forces and committees that focused on elderly and incapacitated adults’ issues, including the Governor’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, the Domestic Violence Fatality Review Committee, and the Elder Abuse Advisory Council. Lynn is currently the President of the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA), whose mission is to strengthen the capacity of APS at the national, state and local levels, to effectively and efficiently recognize, report and respond to the needs of elders and adults with disabilities who are the victims of abuse, neglect, or exploitation, and to prevent such abuse whenever possible. She also serves on New Hampshire’s Elder Rights Coalition, and consults and trains on Adult Protective Services.

Marta Fontaine, Secretary
Marta Fontaine has worked for the MO Department of Health & Senior Services, Division of Senior & Disability Services since 1992. She focuses on development and supervision of Elder Abuse prevention programs and Adult Protective Service policy, serves as the designated Legal Service Developer for Missouri under the Older Americans Act, and is the department’s contact person for the MOSAFE project to address exploitation. Marta is also a member of the Elder Justice Coalition and a Regional Council Member of the National Association of Legal Services Developers.

Carol Lieske, Treasurer
Carol Lieske served as the Adult Protective Services Coordinator at the Nebraska Department of Health & Human Services, Aging and Disabled Division, in Lincoln, Nebraska, for 20 years, retiring in 2008. Carol was one of the founders of NAPSA in 1989, and served on the board for many years helping the organization grow and develop. In 2008, she returned to the Board as Treasurer. Carol continues her work on behalf of abused, neglected and exploited older persons and younger adults through her volunteer work with NAPSA and through her consultancy work.

NAPSA Committee Chairs

Joe Snyder, Public Policy Committee
Joe Snyder has been the Director of Older Adult Protective Service at Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA) since 1993. Joe has testified as an expert witness on Elder Abuse and Protective Services before the Senate Special Committee on Aging on numerous occasions. Joe spoke at the first annual Elder Abuse Awareness Day at the United Nations representing Adult Protective Services staff across the U.S. Joe has co-created a successful banking project and model with Wachovia that has evolved into a national fraud prevention toolkit. Joe has served on the Board of Directors for the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA) since 1999 holding a variety of positions. Joe is a Past-President of NAPSA and currently serves as the Public Policy Chair.

Paul Needham, Education Committee
Paul Needham is a Program Field Rep for the Training Unit for the Family Support Services Division of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. He has been the Lead Trainer and Training Developer for the APS Academies since February 2003. He has 32 years of experience with the Department, 31 in Adult Protective Services, making his first Adult Protective Services investigation in Lincoln County in 1980. Mr. Needham is a 1975 graduate from Oklahoma Baptist University with a degree in Business administration and obtained his MBA from Oklahoma’s Central State University in 1990. He has been the chairperson for the elder abuse tract for the Oklahoma Conference on Aging since 2005. Mr. Needham is currently on the Board of Directors for the NSDTA. In the past 3 years, Mr. Needham has been a part of several national training development projects with NAPSA and is the current Chairperson for the NAPSA Education Committee. Mr. Needham recently took part in the Domestic Violence Instructor Training Program with FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) and is now a certified FLETC trainer. Mr. Needham was a co-trainer at the ELDER ABUSE Training for the New Law Enforcement Grantee Orientation Meeting in Washington D.C in January 2012 for NCALL/FLETC. Over the years, Mr. Needham has trained thousands of professionals, para-professionals and lay people on Adult Abuse issues.

Barbara Pastirik, Conference Committee
Barbara has worked for 25 years in Georgia DHS Social Services, and is Georgia’s APS Program Administrator. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Roanoke College VA, and Master of Science degree in Social Gerontology from Valdosta State University. She earned a post-graduate Certificate in Gerontology from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1989. Barbara has served APS in the capacity of: Supervisor, Consultant, Trainer, Presenter, Policy Writer and Administrator for Georgia’s Adult Protective Services Program. Originally from Philadelphia, Barbara and her husband Mike and daughter Carsen Lee live in metro Atlanta.

Carol Dayton, Research Committee
Carol Dayton is a consultant and educator in the field of aging. She has focused her career on aging and elder abuse as a caseworker, researcher, and administrator of a three-city senior service network, administrator of an urban adult protective service department and currently as a consultant, writer and educator. Her commitment to improving services for vulnerable adults is demonstrated by participation and leadership in local, state and national organizations. She currently serves as Co-Chair of the NAPSA/NCPEA Research Committee. Ms. Dayton received her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from the University of Illinois and her Master in Social Work from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Betty Malks, Fundraising Committee
Betty F. Malks has over 30 years experience in the field of Aging. Since 1997, as department director, she has spearheaded the creation of the Santa Clara County Social Services Agency’s Department of Aging and Adult Services (DAAS), bringing together all adult programs under one umbrella, including Adult Protective Services, Public Administrator/Guardian/Conservator, In-Home Supportive Services, and Senior Nutrition. Most recently, Ms. Malks has been appointed as the North American Regional Representative for the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA), has been a member of the World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD) Steering Committee 2006-present and is a member of the Education Committee of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA). Ms. Malks is a member of the National Advisory Panel of the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education of the New York Academy of Medicine’s Social Work Leadership Institute, 2005 – present. She is the lead of the California Social Work Education Center’s Northern Collaborative, consisting of 10 California counties and 4 Universities, 2005 – present. This project is funded by the Archstone Foundation.

Ms. Malks is the Project Director of the “Enhancing the Capacity of a Diverse Faith Community to Address Elder Abuse”, funded by the Archstone Foundation and County Mental Health Department 2006 – present. She was elected into the Who’s Who in America in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 and Who’s Who in the World in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. Ms. Malks has also published several articles, one appearing in Journal of Gerontological Social Work entitled Elder Abuse Prevention: A Case Study of the Santa Clara County Financial Abuse Specialist Team (FAST) Program, 2002 and another in the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect entitled Combating Elder Financial Abuse – A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to a Growing Problem 2005.In addition, 2 articles will be published in the Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, both on Systems Change and Building Systems that Work funded by the Archstone Foundation in Fall 0f 2010.

Marta Fontaine, Membership Committee
Marta Fontaine has worked for the MO Department of Health & Senior Services, Division of Senior & Disability Services since 1992. She focuses on development and supervision of Elder Abuse prevention programs and Adult Protective Service policy, serves as the designated Legal Service Developer for Missouri under the Older Americans Act, and is the department’s contact person for the MOSAFE project to address exploitation. Marta is also a member of the Elder Justice Coalition and a Regional Council Member of the National Association of Legal Services Developers.

Nyla McCarthy, Senior Action Committee
Nyla is Director of the Training and Prevention Unit of the Oregon State Department of Human Services’ Office of Adult Abuse Prevention and Investigations (OAPPI). Survivor of a traumatic head injury at age 13, her commitment to issues affecting people with disabilities has influenced her professional development, resulting is such things as serving as founding Chair of the Portland Commission on Disabilities and Advisor to the National Abuse and Disability Project. Nyla is Chair of the NAPSA Senior Action Committee and three time past Chair of the NAPSA conference planning committee. A past winner of awards from the World Health Organization, the National Prevention Institute, and Stanford University’s Health Promotion Research Center, Nyla is also the founder and director of Catalysts for Change Consulting, a social justice business which she created more than 20 years ago to assist organizations and communities in facilitating positive organizational and social change.

NAPSA Regional Representatives

David Viens, Northeast Region I
David Viens was a police officer for 21 years prior to working at the Massachusetts Disabled Persons Protection Commission (DPPC). He began his career with DPPC in 1997 and is currently the senior investigator for the agency. David has three years military service with the Army serving both in the US and Germany. He has attended numerous conferences focusing on protecting the disabled. He is also a trainer to law enforcement at the various police academy classes in Massachusetts focusing on adult protective services and M.G.L. Chapter 19c, which is the statute his agency operates under. He resides in western Massachusetts and is married with 3 children.

Alan Lawitz, Northeast Region II
Alan has since November, 2007 served as the Director of the Bureau of Adult Services of the New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS). The Bureau oversees the Protective Services for Adults and the Family Type Home for Adults programs. Alan previously was an Associate Attorney for the New York State Department of Health, heading up the Long-Term Care Group of the Bureau of House Counsel, and dealing with legal issues relating to Assisted Living, Adult Care Facilities, Nursing Homes, and Home Care, among other areas. He also previously served as a Senior Attorney for the former New York State Department of Social Services, representing the agency in the areas of Protective Services for Adults, Adult Care Facilities/Assisted Living and Homeless Housing, serving as counsel to the Homeless Housing and Assistance Corporation. He is a 1977 graduate of Columbia College, Columbia University (B.A.) and a 1980 graduate of the Syracuse University College of Law (J.D.)

Roxanne Perales, Northeast Region II
Roxanne was employed for five years as a Child Protective Services Caseworker in Rochester, New York. She then relocated to Erie, Pennsylvania and has worked in Adult Protective Services for thirty years beginning as a caseworker and then to her current position as Supervisor for APS and the Domiciliary Care Program. She is a member of the Pennsylvania’s PS/Guardianship Committee, Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition, Erie County Elder Abuse Task Force and serves on numerous boards. Roxanne is a graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York, and is active with the local American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life Event.

Gail S. Nardi, Southeast Region
Gail Shea Nardi is program manager for Adult Services/Adult Protective Services and the Auxiliary Grant Program at the Virginia Department of Social Services, which provides program oversight and regulatory guidance for adult programs at 120 local departments of social services. She serves on the Commonwealth Council on Aging, which advises the governor on aging issues, and the Virginia Guardian and Conservator Advisory Board. Before joining VDSS in 2005, Ms. Nardi held senior staff positions with the Democratic Caucuses of the Virginia General Assembly and the Democratic Party of Virginia. A former bureau chief with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Ms. Nardi is a graduate of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She is the mother of three daughters, has three perfect grandchildren and lives in Richmond, Virginia.

Steve Fisher, Southeast Region
Steven Fisher, BA is a Human Services Branch Manager for the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. He is a charter member of the Kentucky Elder Abuse Committee and Governor’s Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. He has 19 years of experience in the field of adult protection.

Alice Hayes, Central Region
Alice Hayes has served as an elder abuse program coordinator with the Illinois Department on Aging’s Elder Abuse and Neglect Program since the program became statewide in 1991. In her role as program coordinator, she provides technical assistance to provider agencies in both programmatic and fiscal areas. Her years of experience with the program assists in meeting the needs of Illinois’ vulnerable older adults. She serves as the Central Region Chair representing the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.

Jessica Naberhaus, Mountain Region
Jessica Naberhaus is currently employed with the Denver Department of Human Services in the Adult Protective Services (APS) Program as a Senior Social Caseworker. Jessica has worked with the aging population for over six years primarily in protective services and eligibility determination in both case manager and supervisory capacities. She investigates allegations of elder abuse, serves as guardian, representative payee and advocate for many vulnerable adults. Jessica has trained hundreds of professionals in the Metro Denver area about various topics in the aging arena including adult protective services, elder abuse, domestic violence in later life and abuse in facilities. Jessica is a national trainer with the National Clearinghouse on Abuse in Later Life (NCALL). She is a member of Denver’s coordinated community response, Justice Project for Older Adults (JPOA) and the Denver Forensic Collaborative. Jessica has participated in grant reviews with the Administration on Aging. Jessica has a Master of Public Administration degree from University of Colorado and Bachelor of Science degree in psychology and sociology from Eastern Michigan University. Jessica is also a co-founder of Animal Haus, a nonprofit in Denver that works to prevent pet homelessness by temporarily providing basic necessities to pets and their owners to support the human/animal bond.

Rebekah McGowan, Southwest Region
Rebekah McGowan is the Program Manager for Community Adult Protective Services section of the Family Support Division of Oklahoma Department of Human Services. She has held this position since 2002. She is responsible for administrative oversight for the Community APS program which involves developing and delivering training, writing policy and procedures for the field APS staff, technical assistance, quality assurance, data system monitoring and reports, and adherence to policy and procedures.

Bethany Berube, West Region I
Bethany R. Berube, J.D. serves as the Western Regional Representative for NAPSA, the National Adult Protective Services Association. Currently, Bethany is also serving a one (1) year term as chair for PSOC, the Protective Services Operations Committee is a subcommittee of the CWDA Adults Committee. For the past four years, Bethany has served as the Tulare County Public Guardian. As the Public Guardian, Bethany oversees the Adult Protective Services division and has drafted numerous policies and procedures related to both programs. Before coming to Tulare County Bethany served as an adjunct faculty member at California State University, Fresno, where she has taught for the Criminology Department.

Lori Delagrammatikas, West Region I
Lori Delagrammatikas has been the program manager for M.A.S.T.E. R. for the last 5 years. In this position, she has coordinated the development of national core competency trainings for APS workers and their allied partner agencies. Ms. Delagrammatikas also has 8 years experience as the APS program specialist for one of the largest counties in California and she was the chair of California’s statewide APS committee for 2 years. She frequently presents to national audiences on the need for standardized training for APS workers.

Lisa Marie O’Neill, West Region II
Lisa M. O’Neill, MPH, is an Associate Faculty of the University of Arizona, College of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, General Medicine and Palliative Care. She is the Director of Elder Abuse Resources at the UA Center on Aging. Ms. O’Neill is a founding member of the Southern Arizona Hoarding Taskforce – responsible for educating working professionals on hoarding issues and increasing knowledge of local resources. A long-time member of the Arizona Attorney General’s SAFEE (Stop Abuse and Financial Exploitation of Elders) Committee, she publishes in various Pima County newsletters on Elder Abuse and Financial Exploitation. She coordinates two national educational grants for the state of Arizona: the Arizona Reynolds Program of Applied Geriatrics, a state-wide physician training program funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to improve the care of frail, older adults; and the Arizona Geriatric Education Center, a HRSA-funded geriatric program to train health professionals across the state, to promote excellence in the care of vulnerable seniors.

NAPSA Staff

Kathleen Quinn, Executive Director
Kathleen Quinn has been the Executive Director of the National Adult Protective Services Association since 2006. Previously she served as Policy Advisor on Senior Issues to the Illinois Attorney General, and as the Chief of the Bureau of Elder Rights for the Illinois Department on Aging, where she was responsible for administering the statewide Elder Abuse and Neglect (APS) Program, the Long Term Care Ombudsman Program, and for overseeing the state’s Legal Services Developer. Ms Quinn earlier worked with the Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence, where she was responsible for the first ever statewide training of law enforcement and prosecutors on domestic violence and the then newly enacted Illinois Domestic Violence Act (IDVA). Ms. Quinn is a past president of NAPSA, a former board member of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, the Illinois Family Violence Coordinating Council, the Illinois Center for Violence Prevention and numerous local community charitable boards, and the recipient of several awards for victim advocacy work.

Andrew Capehart, Assistant Director
Andrew Capehart has over twelve years of experience in the elder abuse field at the local, state and national levels. He has held investigatory, supervisory and administrative positions in Columbus, Ohio and Washington, DC and has had numerous appointments to aging related boards and commissions. Andrew has chaired both state and national elder abuse conferences. He is currently Assistant Director at the National Adult Protective Services Association which recently received a three year grant for the newly created National Adult Protective Services Resource Center through the US Administration on Aging.

Lucie Caron, Finance Manager
Lucie resides in Springfield, Illinois, and manages the NAPSA corporate office. Retiring in 2006, she was hired by Kathleen Quinn the following year to handle the accounting for NAPSA on a contractual basis. This became a regular part-time position in early 2008. She came to NAPSA with close to 40 years experience working for not-for-profit organizations. She has worked closely with outside auditing firms in the annual fiscal audits required by organizations receiving State and Federal funding, along with audits conducted by State and Federal agencies. These organizations include Women’s Health, Domestic Violence Shelter for Women, Children’s Health and Welfare, and Family and Children’s Services. In addition, she has volunteered at the local Overflow Shelter for the homeless and a runaway shelter for teens in Florida. Lucie is involved with the annual NAPSA conference committee, registration, funding, and billing and has attended all since 2008.

Bill Benson, National Policy Advisor
Bill Benson is Managing Principal in Health Benefits ABCs, an organization offering health and aging policy, educational and strategic planning consulting services. Benson has worked on health and aging issues for 38 years including in various leadership positions in the U.S. Congress. He served in senior appointee positions at the U.S. Administration on Aging including as Acting Assistant Secretary for Aging prior to starting a consulting practice in 1998. Earlier in his career he spent 10 years with the California Department of Aging including serving as California’s State Long-Term Care Ombudsman. For the past 10 years he has been a consultant to CDC’s Healthy Aging Program. He is also works closely on preventive services with SPARC and its Vote & Vax Initiative. HBABCs writes Critical Issue Briefs for CDC on a variety of public health and aging matters and produces podcasts on the same topics. HBABCs consults with AoA’s National Technical Resource Center for the nation’s Senior Medicare Patrol programs. HBABCs provides strategic planning, facilitation services, and technical writing and conducts evaluations for national, state and local organizations. For the past 12 years Benson has hosted First Person, a weekly series of conversations with Holocaust survivors before live audiences at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.