Alumni Relations - Alumni Council 2007 - 2008
President
R. Kevin Grigsby, CRT’84, DSW’90, is Vice Dean for Faculty and Administrative Affairs and Professor in the Department of Neural and Behavioral Sciences at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Dr. Grigsby has an extensive history of program planning, implementation, and evaluation in the area of innovative home and community based health and mental health services. His practice experience has been primarily in underserved rural and inner city areas. Areas of practice expertise include children at imminent risk of out-of-home placement, perinatal intervention with substance abusing women, children and adolescents in shelter care, home-based services to parents and children with HIV related illnesses, and the use of advanced telecommunications technology in health services delivery.
During the past five years, the focus of Dr. Grigsby’s work has shifted to organizational development in academic health centers. The use of teams and other nontraditional organizational models in higher education settings is an area of active study. Developing a future-oriented perspective in academic leaders and the alignment of resources with missions are other areas of inquiry. Dr. Grigsby remains active in promoting effective interpersonal communication within academic health centers and in implementing alternative dispute resolution and conflict resolution/management strategies at the department and institutional levels.
Past President
Phillip Beltz, MSW’93
Members-at-Large
David C. Dunbeck, MSW’99, is the Director of Homeless Services at Horizon House, Inc. in Philadelphia. In this position, Mr. Dunbeck oversees 80 staff and over $6.7 million in annual funding for nine programs providing street outreach, case management, and supported transitional and permanent housing to homeless adults and families with behavioral health needs.
Mr. Dunbeck began his employment at Horizon House in 1998, serving as a Housing Specialist and completing his 2nd year MSW field placement requirements. David was promoted to Project Director/Assistant to Director in 1999, to Associate Director of Homeless Services in 2000, and to Director in 2002. Since 2003, Mr. Dunbeck has directed the implementation of Philadelphia’s first two housing-first programs. These programs serve Philadelphia’s most service-resistant, chronically homeless adults by providing immediate access to subsidized housing and intensive clinical case management services using an Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model of service.
Prior to joining the social work profession, Mr. Dunbeck spent over 18 years as an engineer and project manager.
Mr. Dunbeck also serves on the Mayor’s Taskforce on Homeless Services, and the Advisory Boards of Philadelphia’s Healthcare for the Homeless and the Blueprint to End Homelessness.
Sara M. Gallagher, MSW’95, is Assistant Vice President and Executive Assistant to the President at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia (USP). As Assistant Vice President, Ms. Gallagher oversees the Human Resources Department and the Affirmative Action Office. As Executive Assistant, Ms. Gallagher serves as a member of the President’s executive management team, and represents the President’s Office on a variety of strategic and operational initiatives throughout the institution.
An alumna of McDaniel College, Ms. Gallagher also received her master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. Ms. Gallagher has over 15 years of higher education experience, and recently came to University of the Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania, having first served as a Senior Majors Gifts Officer for the School of Engineering and Applied Science, and later, as the Director of Operations in the Office of the Executive Vice President.
William J. Johnston-Walsh, MSW’89, is Deputy Secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of Aging (PDA), providing direct support to the Press Secretary, Executive Director of the PA Council on Aging, Director of the Bureau of Program Integrity, and Director of the Bureau of Administrative Services.
Deputy Johnston-Walsh has a wide-ranging experience with issues that affect older Pennsylvanians. Prior to joining PDA he served as: the National Legislative Representative for Pennsylvania AARP, the Director of the Public Education and Information Unit within the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Executive Director of the Older Americans Caucus and as professional staff on the Select Committee on Aging with the United States House of Representatives.
The Deputy Secretary of Aging reports directly to the Secretary of Aging and is responsible for the Department’s day-to-day management, particularly as it relates to general government operations, administration, and program integrity. Additionally, this manager maintains a close connection with the Pennsylvania Council on Aging to ensure coordination and integration of their issues and activities with the Department of Aging. This position also oversees public information functions for the Department and activities designed to assess the quality of services provided to Pennsylvania ’s older citizens. Responsibilities are carried out through staff in the Bureau of Administrative Services, Press Office, and the Bureau of Program Integrity.
Chad Dion Lassiter, MSW’01, has worked with racially, ethnically, socio-economically, and academically diverse populations of urban adolescents as they experience normal developmental transitions in challenging environments. Published in the area of violence prevention among African American males, Chad Lassiter’s research interests attempts to contribute to a more informed analysis of the diverse ways that adolescents and families, especially people of color, cope with socioeconomic challenges and institutional racism.
Presently, he works as a researcher at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, with the TODAY (Treatment Options for Type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents & Youth) Study, which is a national research study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and serves as a research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Schools of Nursing and Medicine. He is the founder of B.O.Y.S/ (Bright Outstanding Young Scholars), a nonprofit mentoring program of professional African American men working with at-risk African-American males in elementary schools around racial socialization, identity, and academic achievement.
Robert Spena, MSW’76, DSW’80, is Product Manager for Siemens Medical Solutions. Dr. Spena has worked in the field of medical informatics as clinical systems designer and educator for the past fifteen years. He has specialized in developing information systems that deeply integrate information and knowledge into clinical practice workflow and educating clinicians in the use of computer-based application to facilitate their practices.
Currently, he is a product/project manager with Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc. where he is part of a research and development team that explores new technologies and how they may be used to facilitate clinical practice. His responsibilities as part of the R&D team are working with clinicians to design clinical support systems, user interface design, medical terminologies, knowledge modeling, quality control, and outcomes evaluation. His current research interests are computational grammar and natural language processing. His goal is to develop a formal grammatical structure of clinical language to support the international exchange of clinical information and knowledge.
Prior, to joining Siemens Medical Solutions, he was the Director Medical Informatics at the American College of Physicians (ACP), which is the nation’s largest medical specialty society. There he was responsible for the development and implementation of Medical Informatics and Clinical Information Management programs and services at the College.
Dr. Spena has been actively involved with several professional associations, e.g., a former board member for the Philadelphia-based Community Women’s Education Project, St. Peter’s of Great Valley Community Outreach Committee, and ad-hoc community projects.