CARS CPI TA Team

He has also developed synthetic estimator applications for social cost estimates, and has applied those in county and community studies (e.g., San Diego County, CA). In CARS' capacity as prime contractor for the California Prevention Institute (CPI), Mr. Phillips has facilitated and directed staff support of a variety of capacity building interagency task forces and planning efforts. For example, over the past four years he has facilitated the California Governor's Prevention Advisory Council (GPAC) Committee in a systematic planning effort under California's SIG to reduce binge drinking in the state. This planning effort has involved data analysis to identify those components of the population (e.g., residential college students, high-school binge drinkers) that are most in need of services, and those services that show the greatest evidence for effectively meeting those needs (e.g., high school SAPs). He has directed and facilitated other statewide and community strategic planning efforts, and capacity development efforts including development of various components of California's Prevention Data System. He is currently collaborating to build the capacity of California ADP's data warehousing and analysis capacity. In addition to his work in California, Mr. Phillips has consulted on capacity development projects in other states and on national efforts such as the development of CSAP's MDS. With respect to implementation, Mr. Phillips guided the development of a management-focused evaluation approach that was an early recognition of data-based decision making. Mr. Phillips and CARS recognized that performance monitoring and input to data-based decision making and program improvement were crucial ways in which local evaluation resources could improve prevention practice and outcomes. This perspective has now become a key theme within the SPF. With respect to evaluation, Mr. Phillips and his staff have conducted more than 200 local, state and national evaluation studies. He has directed numerous studies within the PPWI, HRY, Community Partnerships, mentoring CSAP initiatives, as well as numerous studies with funding from other federal agencies (the Department of Education, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the Department of Labor) and many studies for state and local jurisdictions.

Over the years, she has established a strong track record in managing the delivery of technical assistance to a broad array of prevention staff in the areas of program design, evidence-based practices and evaluation. Over the past 10 years, Ms. Scott-Nakai has had the opportunity to personally visit, work with, and establish professional connections with the majority of County AOD Offices throughout California. She has over 15 years of assisting federal, state, county, and school and community-based organizations with their prevention efforts.

Before joining CARS, Ms. Thorsen managed Federal and State grants at Sonoma State University for 7 years where the content included reducing children's exposure to violence, the Indian Child Welfare project, mandated child abuse reporter training, substance abuse, and domestic violence. Among the funders for these projects were the California Department of Social Services, The California Attorney General's Office, Crime and Violence Prevention Unit and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Additionally, Ms. Thorsen has extensive knowledge and skill in providing services to children and families through her experience as the director of various child development centers.

In her previous employment she served in a leadership capacity on multiple community coalitions and partnerships addressing the health and well being of children and families. Her expertise offered to these efforts includes the use of public policy, advocacy, community education, and community needs assessment to improve health. She has experienced success with the application of these approaches locally on an number of issues including, improving access to mental health services, expanding education to clinicians and influencing social norms around the issues of post partum depression and early childhood mental health, and using environmental prevention strategies to address the obesity epidemic with children. She played an integral role in the development and sustainability of the Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Program offered through Sonoma State University. She is a current Board of Supervisors appointed member of the Maternal, Child Adolescent Advisory Board for the County of Sonoma. She was honored as a Public Health Champion in 2008 for the County of Sonoma in the category of Ensuring the Quality and Accessibility of Health Services.

Before joining CARS, Ms. Oshel has worked for various government programs and non-profits as an Operations and Program Assistant. She has developed program curriculum and procedures, data collection and client tracking, budget management, reporting, and accounting, and facilitated trainings in the areas of career development.

In addition, she has worked in the field of education for eight years as a Program Manager, Teacher, and System Technology Coordinator. While working for a regional office of education in Illinois, she worked with at-risk high school students providing computer training to students in the Gear Up program, and assisted in the guidance of students in the WIA program. Joanne also worked in the areas of technology and teacher recertification where she provided technical assistance to teachers and administrators in seventeen school districts providing: guidance on incorporating technology into their classrooms, trained teachers in the use of technology and software, worked with data collection and analysis of school district statistics, and provided general technical assistance on various software and web based programs. She also designed and managed websites, computer labs and grant data collection and reporting through the 21st Century Learning Community grant, teacher recertification programs and training, and assisted in the management of all technology. While working for a private school system in Kentucky, Joanne worked as a technology teacher and System Technology Coordinator. She managed all technology for the school district, to include: website design and management, strategic planning and research for future technology, teacher training and alignment of technology standards in the classroom, federal technology grant management, writing technology plans, and teaching technology to students and teachers.

Ms. Oshel has also worked for private companies where she has provided assistance in the areas of marketing, technology, and general administrative assistance. She has worked in marketing for medical facilities and product distributors and sellers, to include: strategic planning, design of materials, writing and distribution of press releases, coordination of focus groups, e-commerce marketing, and coordination of various marketing programs. In addition, Joanne has worked with various companies in redesigning processes, forms, and reports to better enable businesses to run more efficiently.

Ms. Traylor brings the hands-on approach to the social service field. Her strong capacity to express and implement basic problem-solving techniques and interact productively with persons of all economic, ethnic and cultural backgrounds is key to working with the prevention field. Maria has the experience of working with professionals from a variety of culturally diverse disciplines including, educational, community-based, and business representatives.

Prior to joining the CARS team, Dr. March worked extensively with substance abusers. She was an interviewer and ethnographer on a multicity National Institute of Health project researching the effects of group dynamics on young people's alcohol and drug use in nightclubs. In addition, she provided program evaluation for several New York City facilities, researching the effectiveness of the rehabilitative policies and practices employed by court-mandated drug treatment facilities. Her dissertation explored how rehabilitation strategies differ for male and female substance abusers.

In her capacity as a research analyst for Broad Based Knowledge, Dr. March was in charge of developing assessment tools for grant recipients funded for program development at colleges and universities nationwide. She was further responsible for the analysis of the findings, the creation of executive summaries for the grantees, and the production of final reports for the funders.

In addition to her research experience, Dr. March also has substantial teaching experience, having taught numerous sociology courses at New York University and Napa Valley College. She has also been an active volunteer in the Patten College program which brings college accredited courses to prisoners at San Quentin Prison in California.