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Cash & Counseling – Supporting Independent Living

About the Presenters

Lee Bezanson, Associate Research Professor at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, is the Director of the Community Living Exchange Collaborative Clearinghouse that manages the HCBS.org website and she is a member of the management team for the ILRU Technical Exchange for Community Living. She provides support to Cash & Counseling states as a part of the National Program Office at Boston College.

She was formerly the National Project Director of the HCBS Resource Network and served as Co-Chair of the HCBS Resource Network Board. She was a faculty member for the national Olmstead trainings sponsored by ILRU. Ms. Bezanson is a former Medicaid Director for the State of New Hampshire.

Both a psychiatric nurse and an attorney by training, Ms. Bezanson has a broad and eclectic background in the human services field. She has been the Director of a Senior Citizens Law Project, an Assistant Attorney General for the state of Connecticut, a member of the Ethics Committee for the federal Bar in Connecticut, a Charge Nurse in a chemical dependency unit for adults with dual diagnoses, and the Legal Coordinator for the state of New Hampshire Division of Human Services.

She served on the Executive Committee for the National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NASMD) and as Chair of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Long Term Care Technical Advisory Group. She was a founder of the New England States Consortium Systems Organization (NESCSO) and served on its Board of Directors. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of Granite State Independent Living.

Contact Information:
Lee Bezanson
leebezanson@metrocast.net
(603)279-4701

Kevin Mahoney, Ph.D. is a faculty member at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work where he serves as Professor as well as National Program Director for the Cash & Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation, a policy-driven evaluation of one of the most unfettered forms of consumer direction of personal assistance services, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. During his 30 year career in gerontology and long-term care, Dr. Mahoney has served in a number of policy making and administrative positions in the state governments of Connecticut and California. Prior to coming to Boston College in 1999, he held academic appointments at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, the University of California- San Francisco and the University of Maryland. From 1978 to 1987, Dr. Mahoney served as Chief of Research and Program Development at the Connecticut Department on Aging where he was responsible for that state’s home care programs for the frail elderly. From 1987 to 1995, Dr. Mahoney developed and implemented innovative partnerships between private insurance and Medicaid to finance long-term care -- first in the State of Connecticut and then in the State of California. An expert on state government and long-term care innovation, he speaks and writes extensively on consumer direction, the roles of the public and private sectors in financing long-term care, long-term care insurance and care management. Most recently, Kevin J. Mahoney became Director of the Center for the Study of Home and Community Life.

Erin McGaffigan previously directed the Massachusetts 2001 Real Choice Grant, 2003 Independence Plus Grant, and 2005 Systems Transformation Grant (all funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services). Through these grants, Ms. McGaffigan was an active participant in designing systems of effective stakeholder involvement in systems change, addressing the institutional bias in Medicaid. In collaboration with state policy makers and people with disabilities, she created a collaborative process to decision making, a process adopted in many initiatives across the Commonwealth. Ms. McGaffigan is working with the National Program Office for Cash and Counseling, building effective strategies for the involvement of recipients of services in the design and advocacy of programs.

Ms. McGaffigan received a Master’s in Social Work with a concentration in Community Organization, Public Policy and Administration from Boston College. She is currently enrolled in the PhD Public Policy program at UMASS Boston. Prior to her focus on policy, Ms. McGaffigan provided support to people with disabilities in day and group settings. She also published her personal experience with barriers to nursing home transition of a family member within the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (March 2006).

Contact Information:
Erin McGaffigan, MSW LSW
erin.mcgaffigan@umassmed.edu (781)944-1853

Tim Fuchs has been coordinating training and technical assistance for CILs and SILCs since 2004. This responsibility requires staying in frequent contact with Executive Directors and other key staff of CILs & SILCs to research and discuss best practices and successes that can be shared with others as well as training and TA needs to address challenges.

Contact Information:
Tim Fuchs
tim@ncil.org
(202) 207-0334