CQI is staffed primarily by consumers and family members of consumers. We also have a pool of consultants who work with us on a regular basis.
Jonathan Delman, JD, MPH, DSc (cand.) Executive Director
jdelman@cqi-mass.org Jonathan Delman is the founding executive director of CQI. Mr. Delman is widely considered a national expert on behavioral health participatory action research, consumer directed survey research and quality management. He consults with SAMHSA, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, M-POWER, and several universities on these topics, and is a featured speaker on these topics at national conferences. Of note, he has been co-chair of the President’s New Freedom Commission work group on quality measures and information technology for acute care. In addition, he is a co-investigator for the newly funded grant from NIMH to Boston University School of Public Health to develop the Boston Mental Health Community-Academic Partnership.
Mr. Delman, who lives with bipolar disorder, received a BA in economics from Tufts University, a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Masters of Science in Public Health from Boston University. He is currently a Doctoral candidate in Health Services Research at the Boston University School of Public Health. He has received several awards from Mass. DMH, most recently (2006) for “Longstanding and deep commitment to mental health consumers, especially young people who transition to the adult system of care.” He has also received the Isaiah Ullis Public Advocacy from the Massachusetts Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association.
Melissa Goodman, BA Director of Operations
mgoodman@cqi-mass.org
Melissa Goodman is the Director of Operations for Consumer Quality Initiatives, Inc. Ms. Goodman has had extensive personal and professional experience with the mental health system, both as a family member of a mental health consumer and in her work as a mental health counselor with children and adults. Ms. Goodman worked as a mental health counselor for adolescents at the Massasoit School in Quincy as well as working at the Center for Health and Development with adults in their residential and supported housing programs. She then spent several years as a Mentor Supervisor at Dare Family Services, working with children of all ages who were in need of specialized foster care services. Prior to joining CQI, Ms. Goodman spent four years working in Human Resources/Operations for various companies in Massachusetts and New York.
Ms. Goodman joined CQI in 2002 as Director of Operations and has been involved with various projects in the organization. She was the Project Coordinator for the FST and CFFC program evaluations which CQI conducted for MBHP. These programs provide services/supports for families who have children with severe emotional disturbances, in an attempt to keep the child in the community. Ms. Goodman is also leading the qualitative evaluation of children who are “stuck” in acute residential treatment programs or hospitals, due to the lack of suitable placements for them. In addition, Ms. Goodman contributes to CQI’s work conducting consumer satisfaction surveys for MBHP and DMH.
Ms. Goodman graduated with her BA in psychology from Lehigh University.
Chris Busby, JD Senior Research Associate
Christopher J. Busby is a senior research associate for CQI. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. Mr. Busby is a consumer of mental health services and has been in recovery from a severe mental illness for several years. He is also the child of a parent with a severe mental illness. He is a trained speaker in NAMI’s In Own Our Voice program and also serves on its steering committee. In May 2005, Mr. Busby was awarded a Partnering for Recovery Award by the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership for his contribution to the In Our Own Voice program. Mr. Busby is an active member of several consumer-run advocacy and support organizations, including M-POWER and Manic Depressive and Depressive Association (MDDA) of Boston. As a research associate for CQI, Mr. Busby has extensive experience interviewing people about their mental health and substance services and has contributed to the writing of numerous reports based on these interviews.
Kirstin Lindeman, MPH Sr. Qualitative Analyst
Kirstin Lindeman holds a Master of Public Health degree from Boston University’s School of Public Health (BUSPH). While at BUSPH she completed an internship at a local women’s health clinic assisting staff with a retrospective quantitative evaluation of breastfeeding outcomes. She currently is conducting IRB approved research to explore cultural issues of breastfeeding in the local Hispanic population. Additionally she has worked with Dr. Lee Strunin of BUSPH to analyze and report results from a large qualitative study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
She has worked with CQI, Inc. since November, 2006 conducting qualitative interviews and analysis for multiple projects. Her most recent project has been to conduct and report on two case studies of successful peer specialists working in programs in Massachusetts. Her prior work experience includes working as an elementary and special education teacher in Washington State, a trainer and project coordinator for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and managing grant related projects for the geriatrics section of BU School of Medicine.
Kirstin has family members with mental health issues and an abiding interest in health and health service disparities.
Eric Mello, MBA, Financial Manager
Eric Mello has been the Fiscal Manager for Consumer Quality Initiatives Inc since its founding in 1999. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and later received his Masters in Business Administration from Western New England College. Mr. Mello has over sixteen years of financial management experience in helping Non- Profit Corporations develop and implement effective accounting and financial management systems. Mr. Mello is a registered consultant with Boston Management Consulting Services and the Boston Capacity Tanks faith based initiative.
Melissa Alford, MPH, Research Administrative Coordinator
Melissa Alford is the Research Administrative Coordinator for CQI. She earned her bachelor's degree from Haverford College, ten taught ESL in Tainan, Taiwan. Upon returning to the US, she worked as an adult literacy instructor and eventually won a scholarship to study Health Emergencies in Large Populations in Hawaii. That experience awoke her interest in public health, and she enrolled in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for her master's degree, concentrating in Health Systems. For her internship, she has worked at the Boston Consortium for Gender, Security, and Human Rights, researching the needs and rights of women in wartime.
Consultants
Sara Plachta-Elliott, MA
Splachta-elliot@cqi-mass.org
Sara Plachta-Elliott holds a Master of Arts in Applied Sociology from Loyola University Chicago. At Loyola, she held a graduate fellowship at the Center for Urban Research and Learning, one of the leading community-based participatory research centers in the country. As a graduate fellow, she coordinated data collection for a study of innovative service models for South Asian immigrant women experiencing domestic violence. Sara was also a Social Science Trainer Intern at the Institute for Community Research, facilitating a group of 40 urban youth in Hartford, Connecticut, to conduct a participatory action research project on teen hustling.
In addition to her experience with community-based research, Sara has an expertise in qualitative evaluation. At CQI, she led a qualitative evaluation of a low demand transitional shelter for chronically homeless, dually diagnosed adults and
In addition, Sara has contributed to CQI’s work conducting consumer satisfaction surveys for MBHP and DMH. She co-wrote the Inpatient Aggregate Report 2004-2005 with Jon Delman, and is coordinating a co-written article on predictors of consumer satisfaction at inpatient psychiatric units. She also provided technical assistance to two participatory action research projects with youth in transition, the M-Power/Youth Development Committees’ Northeast Area Young Adult Survey and CQI’s PhotoVoice Project with Western Mass Area DMH.
Sara was the Research Coordinator at CQI from 2005-2007. She is currently a doctoral candidate at Brandeis University and continues to consult for CQI.
Sara has personal experience with mental health services and has family members who have struggled with mental health issues.
Marcia Webster, MA
mwebster@cqi-mass.org
Marcia Webster was the Western MA Coordinator for CQI, Inc. from 2002-2007 and continues to consult for CQI. Marcia has developed and run CQI’s Photovoice project with young adults. She earned her MA in Expressive Arts Therapy from Lesley University. Marcia has over 15 years experience as a provider of mental health and substance abuse services, working primarily in the Massachusetts DMH service system. Her professional experience includes coalition-building to better serve people with both mental health and substance abuse issues. Ms. Webster has used mental health services for many years. The arts and photography have been at the foundation of her ongoing professional and personal recovery work. Marcia looks forward to using PhotoVoice and other participatory action tools to honor and include every voice in system’s evaluation and design.