Our Staff
The Faces Behind the National Federation
Our staff encompasses nearly two dozen talented individuals who all bring their varying experience and skill sets to the organization. Many are family members and youth who have lived experience.
Interested in learning what inspires the staff here at the National Federation? Check out this video that was presented during the 22nd Annual (2011) National Federation Conference in Washington, D.C.
Sandra Spencer, Executive Director, Email: sspencer@ffcmh.org [16], Phone: 240-403-1901
Sandra Spencer, Executive Director, of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, has commanded respect from national policy and program leaders, family members, youth, and children for almost twenty years. Sandra has navigated a highly visible career path through local family organizing and state and national advocacy on behalf of children and youth with mental, behavioral and emotional challenges and their families.
Sandra has become a much sought after public speaker on the subject of children’s mental health from a national as well as a parent’s perspective. Her combination of passion and experience validates her message. Sandra’s leadership has advanced the family advocacy movement and forged new relationships with national and international organizations. Sandra has also been a mentor and protégé for the newly emerging and soon to be independent national youth organization, Youth M.O.V.E. (Motivating Others through Voices of Experience) National.
Lynda Richard, Director of Organizational Development, Email: lrichard@ffcmh.org [17], Phone: 240-406-1490
Lynda Richard, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Organizational Development for the National Federation. In her role, Dr. Richard has coordinated the development of the Federation’s Strategic Plan, is responsible for the development of fundraising and sustainability activities, oversees the direction of the PSP Certification initiative, and is extensively involved in the successful transition of Youth M.O.V.E. as it launches as an independent 501(c)3.
Prior to joining the Federation, Dr. Richard served in the executive leadership role for a variety of youth and family support organizations, including Vice President for an agency specializing in Intensive In-Home Family Therapy services. Dr. Richard also served in both the 4th and 5th District Federal Courts of Appeals as a part of class action lawsuits in Louisiana and North Carolina. She has also served as an expert witness in class action lawsuits in multiple Districts.
Dr. Richard has served in a variety of volunteer roles, including her current appointment to the Mayor’s Human Services Advisory Commission in Rockville, MD.
Lizzette Albright, HR/Finance Director, Email: lalbright@ffcmh.org [18], Phone: 240-406-1488
Lizzette Albright serves as the Director for Human Resources and Finance at the National Federation of Families. She oversees the overall administration of the internal accounting and budgeting at the Federation, as well as managing financial and human resource matters. Prior to joining the Federation, Lizzette served as the E-Commerce Director for a non-profit organization, where she successfully implemented the new e-commerce program for the organization, with limited resources and staff, achieving exceptional results.
Lizzette holds a B.A. in Business Administration – Acquisition and Contracts Management and a minor in Marketing. She has an extensive background in accounting, business entrepreneurship and management.
Marion Mealing, Administrative Assistant, Email: mmealing@ffcmh.org [19], Phone: 240-406-1487
Marion L. Mealing is a parent of three young adults who have been diagnosed with mental health disorders, including Clinical Depression, Bi-polar Disorder, Anxiety, and ADHD. Marion came into this work as a parent seeking adequate mental health treatment for her children in the city of Alexandra, Virginia. Alexandra, Virginia was the recipient of a Statewide Family Network Grant (SNFG) and established the ACCESS Program.
As a parent identified in helping ACCESS, Marion participated in national meetings and developed a deeper understanding of family involvement and family guided. Her involvement with the National Federation office came when she filled the receptionist vacancy within the National office. Marion has been a National Federation employee for 17 years. Her work with the National Federation has allowed her to develop successful advocacy skills that benefited her children and children across the country.
As a result of Marion's advocacy, her children were able to receive the support that they needed to develop into healthy adults. Marion is a grandmother of 7. She went from being the National Federation of Families receptionist to the only full-time administrative assistant.
Nicole Marshall, Logistics and Project Manager, Email: nmarshall@ffcmh.org [20], Phone: 240-406-1492
Nicole Marshall joins the Federation as the Project & Logistics Manager. She plans and manages the annual conference, coordinates the events involved in the annual National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week initiative, coordinates travel logistics for small and large events, and works on other special projects.
Nicole has many years experience planning events and conferences for other large organizations.
Frances Purdy, Director of Parent Support Provider Certification, Email: fpurdy@ffcmh.org [21], Phone: 240-406-1472
Frances Purdy, MEd. JD is the Director of the Certification Program with the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. She is the parent of a child who experienced behavioral health challenges and is now a successful college student.
She came to the National Federation after eight years as the Executive Director of the Alaska Youth and Family Network where she instituted the use of Peer Navigators in schools, pediatrician offices, behavioral health centers, residential treatment and in the community. Her previous experience in certification was as Executive Director of the Alaska Commission for Chemical Dependency Professionals Certification and with the development of the registration process for the American Art Therapy Association.
She has managed child/adolescent residential treatment and youth-transition programs, battered women shelters and comprehensive domestic violence intervention programs. Additionally, she provided clinical services in family therapy, art therapy and taught middle school special education. She has authored over 15 articles and technical assistance manuals and presents regularly at national and international conferences on the subject of children’s mental health, domestic violence and certification.
Joy Spencer, Policy and Research Assistant, Youth MOVE National Assistant, Email: jspencer@ffcmh.org [22], Phone: 240-406-1489
Joy Spencer is a Policy and Research Assistant for the National Federation. She also serves as the Administrative Assistant for Youth MOVE National, a youth-driven organization dedicated to motivating others through voices of experience. Her experience as a family member of individuals with behavioral, emotional, and mental health challenges has shaped her passion in this field. She is committed to improving the lives of all children and youth, and their families. Joy has always taken any and every opportunity to work with youth and be mentor and positive role model. She is determined to be the change she would like to see in the world.
Marie Niarhos, Family Resource Specialist/Training Coordinator, Email: mniarhos@ffcmh.org [23], Phone: 240-406-1471
Marie's experience as an advocate and educator goes back more than 30 years, beginning as a teacher, as a parent, as a community member, as a supervisor and a national family involvement content specialist. Throughout the years she has edited newsletters, written articles and pamphlets, advocated and supervised advocates, worked directly with providers at local and state levels, developed and presented trainings, organized meetings and served on boards of child and family serving organizations. Marie also has years of experience working with Asian and other diverse populations.
As director of a family organization, she was responsible to supervision of 7 staff members, setting and implementation of the program goals, sharing the family voice with state and private providers. Marie also has expertise in training and writing about the adoption process and its implications for both parents and child.
Kim Williams, Family Resource Specialist, Email: kwilliams@ffcmh.org [24], Phone: 317-228-9155
Kim Williams comes to the National Federation of Families with varied experience working in her local and state communities. She began working in the system of care environment as a consumer and a parent, when her son received services from The Dawn Project. Through that experience, she became involved as a participant in Families Reaching for Rainbows, Inc.
As a program support specialist for the Choices Technical Assistance Center, Kim became a family trainer, conducting training on family involvement in systems of care to funded system of care communities in Indiana. As the former lead family contact for Dawn, she represented her community at local, state, and federal functions. As the executive director of Rainbows, Inc. from 2003-2006, Kim was involved in its rebirth in the community through reorganization. During this period, Rainbows obtained 501(c)3 charitable status and gained three contracts in its quest to become a sustained organization.
Kim, a native of Indianapolis, attended DePauw University and is currently majoring in psychology at Ashford University. She is the proud mother of two. Some of Kim's past and present statewide and local memberships include:
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Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA) Transformation Workgroup (Member); Family/Consumer Subcommittee (Chairman)
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Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services (Member); Mental Illness Advisory Council (Chairman)
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Indiana Interagency Workforce, NAMI and the Marion County Mental Health Association (Member)
Teresa King, Family Resource Specialist, Email: tking@ffcmh.org [25], Phone: 202-687-5016
Teresa King, is the Training & TA Family Resource Specialist for the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health and the Georgetown University National Technical Assistance Center for Children’s Mental Health. She is a native Clevelander.
Teresa holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Kent State University. Prior to joining the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health she served as the Family Involvement Lead for Cuyahoga Tapestry SOC. Her present role as a child and family Advocate is an outgrowth of her own efforts to find critical systems supports and resources for her own child.
As the Training & TA Family Resource Specialist, Teresa is committed to educating others about parent/caregivers rights, choices and points of access to a range of developmental and supportive services. Through these supports she is confident that professionals can help parents/caregivers of children with emotional disabilities or substance abuse disorders not feel alone; and they can be supported in making the very best decisions for their child’s welfare and long-term growth.
James Sawyer, MS, NCC, Youth Involvement Content Specialist, Email: jsawyer@ffcmh.org [26], Phone: 240-403-1906
James Sawyer serves as a Youth Involvement Content Specialist for the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health. He supports system of care grantee communities funded by the Center for Mental Health Services by sharing strategies and resources for involving children and youth with multi-system experience in systems of care. James worked as the youth coordinator for an early childhood system of care community in Sarasota, Florida. Prior to Sarasota, James served as a youth coordinator for an adolescent-focused statewide system of care initiative in Idaho, where he was instrumental in developing a multifaceted and sustained youth initiative. James capitalizes on his lived experience as an at-risk youth to assist him in connecting with young people and identifying with their needs.
Cindy Juarez, Youth M.O.V.E. National Director, Email: cjuarez@ffcmh.org [27], Phone: 202-679-0452
Cindy Juarez, MBA has been working with youth and families for over 10 years now, since she was a youth herself. The majority of her experience has been with emotional, behavioral, and mental health afflicted youth and families. Her personal interest originally stemmed from having a sister with bipolar disorder, another sister with depression and anxiety, and a brother with ADHD; all of whom diagnosed in their teenage years and faced with obstacles as a result.
Cindy faced her own struggles to overcome depression and anxiety from juvenile justice involvement, as a young victim of domestic violence, and as a youth fighting with obesity and health problems. She also faced other barriers as a first-generation youth to divorced immigrant parents. Despite the odds and finding motivation in her desire to better her own future and those of other youth like herself and her siblings, she overcame her juvenile justice issues, sought mental health services, lost over 100 pounds, and attained a Bachelor of Science in Family Studies from the University of Maryland in 2006 as well as a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Non-Profit Management in 2009, the first in her family to do so, and she did it all on her own.
Currently, Cindy serves as the Director of Youth MOVE National, a subsidiary of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. She has led positive development groups, served as a mentor, developed trainings, workshops, keynote speeches, and taught leadership skills directly to youth, families, and professionals. She credits her evolving passion and desire to work for youth on the vast training and learning she has received from family, youth, and advocacy organizations nationwide. The different lessons she has learned, and now assists others in learning, range from cultural competence, child and adolescent needs and strengths, training on youth engagement and empowerment, managing school violence, immigration, youth and gangs, social activism, developing youth groups, prevention and intervention, and much more. Cindy looks forward to continuing learning from youth, families, and professionals; while doing her part to educate and empower our youth and families who desire to use their voices for positive personal and systematic change.
Barbara Huff, Social Marketing TA Provider, Email: bhuff2837@sbcglobal.net [28], Phone: 316-315-0432
Barbara Huff is the parent of a daughter who grew up with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse challenges. Her struggle to get appropriate services, supports and treatment for her daughter led her to advocating on a larger scale. It eventually drove her away from her career in interior design to developing a statewide family-run advocacy organization in Kansas. As founder of Keys for Networking, she became involved in a national movement to involve families in their children’s care, in systems change, and in the evaluation of services and supports. She became one of the founders and the first president of the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. She served thirteen years as the Federation’s Executive Director. Barbara’s appointment in 2001 to the Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Advisory Council raises the family voice to a new level of influence on policy and systems change.
In addition to the development of over 130 family-run advocacy and support organizations across the country; families are at important decision making tables; new family leadership is emerging; and important policy changes are resulting from the family movement.
Corey Brown, Social Marketing TA Provider, Content Development Specialist, Webmaster, Email: cbrown@ffcmh.org [29], Phone: 240-403-1907
Corey currently serves on the "Caring for Every Child's Mental Health" Campaign Team as a Social Marketing TA Provider where he brings the knowledge and experience he has attained over the years to help SOC communities grow and succeed in their social marketing efforts. Corey currently holds a B.A. in English Communications and Technology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; he believes that this background in communication and his specialty in social media and content development will bring a unique perspective to communities looking to expand upon this in their social marketing plan.
Corey Brown also currently serves as the technical support person to Youth M.O.V.E. National. In this role, Corey serves as a webmaster for their website. In previous years, he has served as the official administrative assistant, providing outreach and support to Youth M.O.V.E. Chapters through various means such as product development (e.g. chapter toolkit guides), website development, and administrative tasks. He began working with Youth M.O.V.E. National in 2009 due to his interest in wanting to help youth and youth groups grow and utilize their voice to the fullest potential.
Finally, Corey serves as the Webmaster and Content Development Specialist for the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health, designing and maintaining their website, as well as the quarterly newsletter. In a previous role as a Research Assistant for the National Federation, Corey provided outreach and support to chapters, family members, and youth through the development of resources and guides.
Technical Assistance Coordinators (TA)
Nadia Cayce, Technical Assistance Coordinator, Email: ncayce@ffcmh.org [30], Phone: 609-625-2711
Nadia Cayce-Gibson currently works with system of care communities across the country that are contracted with the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration. Her role is to assist in the development, implementation, and sustainability of children’s behavioral health services and supports. Raising children with behavioral health needs motivated her to dedicate her life to empowering youth and families. As a caregiver of children involved in public systems, she was presented with challenges related to service provision and cultural competence. Nadia can attest to her personal experience in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and the stigma associated with them.
Previously, she was appointed by the Governor to work within New Jersey’s Department of Human Services, in the Office of the Commissioner. She played a pivotal role in the federally mandated child welfare reform efforts. In addition to leading public policy efforts, she ensured that all underrepresented constituent groups, such as the faith community, African Americans, and Hispanics/Latinos, and family/consumer groups were directly involved in the decision-making activities of the Department. Her other tasks included state-wide and interdivisional initiatives, organizational development, and strategic planning.
Notably, Nadia’s broad professional and personal experience has led to many prestigious honors and experiences. She has trained with renowned national system of care experts, including Sheila Pires and Mary Jo Myers, in addition to being invited to testify at state and federal Congressional hearings and advising political leaders such as Senator Hillary Clinton on issues related to children and families. Most recently, she was accepted into the Who’s Who of Executive and Professional Women and received national recognition as an appointee to the Cultural Competence Action Team. She also received a 5-year appointment to the National Expert Oversight Panel, which oversees financing strategies for systems of care across the country.
Nadia looks forward to finishing a Ph.D. in psychology and continuing to support government and non-profit entities in addressing disparities and empowering youth, families, and communities across the country.
Rebecca Ornelas, Technical Assistance Coordinator, Email: bornelas@ffcmh.org [31], Phone: 626-241-1800
Bio and Picture Coming Soon
Mery Amalia Mendoza, Technical Assistance Coordinator, Email: mmendoza@ffcmh.org [32], Phone: 502-632-2679
Amalia is a technical assistance coordinator for the Technical Assistance Partnership for Child and Family Mental Health (TAP), a partnership between the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health and the American Institutes for Research. Her work with TAP includes providing technical assistance to the grantees of the Children’s Mental Health Initiative (CMHI) grant, which is expanding the systems of care philosophy to different states around the nation. Amalia is a lawyer and a policy analyst, with a Law Degree from the Catholic University of Lima, Peru and a Master’s Degree in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota. She has many years of experience working in government and international organizations to improve services to children and youth at risk of negative outcomes. Prior to joining the Federation, Amalia worked for over ten years for the State Government of Minnesota at the Minnesota Department of Human Services in the area of children’s mental health. She worked at the state level coordinating services for children with serious emotional disturbances among the state departments of Human Services, Education, Health and Corrections. She also oversaw the implementation of the system of care approach through Minnesota’s local Children’s Mental Health and Family Services Collaboratives.
Through her work as a labor lawyer in Latin America, she advocated for children’s rights. She worked as a national consultant for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and as a grants and contracts specialist for the International Potato Center (CIP), a research-for-development organization dedicated to promoting sustainable solutions to the pressing world problems of hunger, poverty, and the degradation of natural resources. Of Bolivian origin, Amalia also has training, experience and a strong commitment towards advancing cultural and linguistic competency through the systems of care approach. She currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky.
Sheryl Schrepf, Technical Assistance Coordinator, Email: sschrepf@ffcmh.org [33], Phone: 402-770-2980
Sheryl Schrepf, M.S.W., is the Senior Evaluator/Trainer for the National Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health. In addition, she serves as a Technical Assistance Coach for two states that are funded for system of care expansion. Sheryl was previously the project director of two systems of care communities: The Sarasota Partnership for Children’s Mental Health in Sarasota, FL, a system of care serving children ages 0-8; and the Families First and Foremost (F3) system of care serving youth who had serious emotional challenges and were in or at risk of entry into the juvenile justice system.
From 2005-2007 Sheryl served as one of the first five Regional Technical Assistance Coordinators for the TA Partnership working with 10 systems of care communities. Previous to that position she served as a peer mentor and provided training and consultation to many systems of care communities.
Sheryl is a certified mediator and facilitator and has completed advanced training in these areas as well as conflict resolution, collaboration, and public policy facilitation.
Bruce Strahl, Organizational Development and Implementation Specialist, Email: bstrahl@ffcmh.org [34], Phone: 813-383-2472
Bio and Picture Coming Soon