Keynote Speaker Bios

Paul Gionfriddo

Paul Gionfriddo was named President and CEO of Mental Health America as of May, 2014.  He has worked in a variety of health and mental-health related positions during a career spanning over thirty years.  In 2013, he was appointed by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to a four-year term on the 12-member National Advisory Council to the SAMHSA Center for Mental Health Services.

Prior to joining MHA, he was a consultant, speaker, and writer, and author of a popular weekly health policy blog entitled Our Health Policy Matters.  His essay entitled How I Helped Create a Flawed Mental Health System That’s Failed Millions – And My Son, was published as the Narrative Matters essay (and was the most-read article) in the September 2012 issue of Health Affairs and was also published in the Washington Post in October 2012. The full-length version of the story was published as a book in October 2014, entitled Losing Tim: How Our Health and Education Systems Failed My Son with Schizophrenia, by Columbia University Press.

Paul has also led nonprofit organizations in three states.  He served as President of the Quantum Foundation, a private health foundation in Palm Beach County FL from 2007 to 2010 and as Executive Director of the Palm Beach County Community Health Alliance from 2005 to 2007.  He was Executive Director of the Indigent Care Collaboration in Austin TX from 2001 to 2005, and Executive Director of the Connecticut Association for Human Services in Hartford CT from 1995 to 2001. 

From 1991 to 1995, he ran his own consulting business, specializing in public health, children’s health, primary care, mental health, and long term care policy and practice.  He consulted for a number of Federal, State, and local agencies, private foundations, and nonprofits, including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the National Center for Health Statistics, the National Governors Association, and the National Conference of State Legislatures.

From 1978 through 1991, he served as a full-time elected official, the first eleven of those years in the Connecticut State Legislature, where he held several leadership positions, including Deputy Majority Leader and chair of the Public Health Committee and Health and Human Services Subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee.  For the final two years, he served as Mayor of Middletown CT.

In addition to his governmental, private, and nonprofit work, Mr. Gionfriddo has been a member of the Adjunct Faculty of both Wesleyan University and Trinity College, where he developed and taught graduate-level courses in public policy.  He was also a member of the faculty of the Applied Statistics Training Institute of the National Center for Health Statistics.  

Mr. Gionfriddo has served on many local, state, and national nonprofit Boards, for organizations serving people with mental illness, substance use disorders, and/or developmental disabilities, and for others engaged in child advocacy and clean energy advocacy.  He is currently a member of the Board of the Jerome Golden Center for Behavioral Health in West Palm Beach, FL, and the Golden Center Foundation.

He is a graduate of Wesleyan University.  He lives with his wife, Pam, who is CEO of the Mental Health Association of Palm Beach County, in Lake Worth FL.  They have five adult children and two grandchildren. 
 

Kimberly Johnson, PhD

Dr. Kimberly A. Johnson serves as the Director of Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In this role, Dr. Johnson is responsible for the leadership, management and operation of CSAT’s more than $2 billion budget and significant portfolio grants and contracts to states, tribes, territories, communities and non-profit organizations. The mission of CSAT is to promote community-based substance abuse treatment and recovery services for individuals and families in every community. CSAT provides national leadership to improve access, reduce barriers, and promote high quality, effective treatment and recovery services.

Previously, Dr. Johnson was the Deputy Director for Operations of CHESS/NIATx, a research center at the University of Wisconsin, Madison that focuses on systems improvement in behavioral health and the development of mobile applications for patient self-management.  Dr. Johnson was also co-director of the national coordinating office of the Addiction Technology Transfer Center. 

Prior to her move to Wisconsin, Dr. Johnson served for seven years as the Director of the Office of Substance Abuse in Maine. Previous to that she served as Executive Director of Crossroads for Women, a women’s addiction treatment agency. She also managed community-based intervention and prevention programs and provided counseling for individuals and families as a child and family therapist. 
 
 Dr. Johnson’s contributions to the behavioral health field have earned her numerous awards – including the Federal DHHS Commissioner’s Award for Child Welfare Efforts and the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors’ Recognition for Service to the field of Substance Abuse Treatment and Prevention. Dr. Johnson is a highly-regarded thought leader, who has authored a variety of publications on topics important to the addiction and recovery field, including e-health solutions for people with alcohol problems, using mobile phone technology to provide recovery support for women offenders,  and new practices to increase access to and retention in addiction treatment. She is co-author of a book on the NIATx Model. Dr. Johnson has a master’s degree in counselor education, an MBA and a PhD in population health.

Lisa Razzano, PhD, CPRP

Over the past 27 years, Dr. Razzano has conducted numerous mental health services research programs and led multiple research projects. Dr. Razzano holds academic appointments at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) as Associate Professor of Psychiatry for the UIC Center on Mental Health Services Research and Policy (CMHSRP) in the Department of Psychiatry and Director of Graduate Studies at the UIC College of Medicine. Dr. Razzano also is Deputy Director for the Department’s Center in Mental Health Services Research and Policy (CMHSRP), where she has served as PI, co-PI, or Evaluation Director on multiple externally-funded research, training, and program, evaluation projects and contracts, including other NIDRR/NIDILRR and federally funded projects for more than 20 years.. She also holds certification as a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Practitioner.

Gina Calhoun, BA, CPS, ALF

Gina Calhoun works at the Copeland Center for Wellness and Recovery as National Director for Wellness & Recovery Education.  Previously she worked for the Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. She is a certified peer support specialist and has had the opportunity to be part of 21 certified peer specialist trainings, 7 certified peer specialist supervisor trainings and over 100 WRAP® trainings.  Gina’s unique experience centers around Harrisburg State Hospital (HSH).  She used the services at Harrisburg State Hospital for several years before escaping to live on the streets. Gina came back to offer peer support during the closing of HSH and went to work on the former grounds of the hospital complex. She attributes her recovery journey to supportive relationships that choose to focus on ‘what’s strong’ instead of ‘what’s wrong’; and for the opportunity to work in a supportive environment where she is part of a team making an international difference.