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More About CRC
Staff Member Listing
CONSULTANTS
About Our Staff
Toni Aleman
Toni is the Director of Administration for NCCD. She directs operations for the Midwest Office and is responsible for the office's human resources, coordinates its legal issues, directs infrastructure, and develops special events. Ms. Aleman also manages the JAIS and CAIS projects and development areas for the agency. Ms. Aleman has a BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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S. Christopher Baird
Christopher Baird is the Executive Vice President of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency/Children’s Research Center and has directed the Midwest Office in Madison, Wisconsin since 1985. He has designed risk assessment, classification and case management systems for child welfare, adult probation and parole, and juvenile justice systems. He developed and managed the National Institute of Corrections Model Probation and Parole program which was implemented in 31 state agencies and hundreds of county probation departments throughout the United States. Mr. Baird served as principal investigator on two grants from the National Institute of Justice, including a comprehensive evaluation of the Florida Community Control Program. From 1990-1997, he directed NCCD’s Children’s Research Center which developed risk assessment and decision making systems used in Child Protection Services for over 50 state and county agencies in the United States and Australia. He and colleagues wrote a comprehensive evaluation of the system in Michigan assessing its impact on subsequent abuse and neglect. He directed and authored a national study funded by the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect (OCAN) that compared CPS risk assessment systems in four jurisdictions. He is currently conducting research for the Casey Foundation’s workforce initiative.
Mr. Baird has authored numerous journal articles and other publications on research, program development and management issues in child welfare, juvenile justice, and corrections. In 1992, he received the University of Cincinnati Award from the American Probation and Parole Association for outstanding research contributions to the field. In 2001, he and his colleague Dennis Wagner received the Pro Humanitate Literacy Award for "The Relative Validity of Actuarial and Consensus-Based Risk Assessment Systems" from the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare. In 2004, he received the Grace B. Flandeau Aware for his contributions to child welfare. His educational background includes a Masters degree in Economics.
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Andrea Bogie
Andrea, a Research Associate with NCCD/CRC, is responsible for providing data analysis, data collection and technical support. Since joining NCCD/CRC, Andrea has worked on Structured Decision Making® (SDM) reports for several California counties, New Jersey and Virginia and has also assisted with a summative evaluation of short-term juvenile deliquency programs in Wisconsin. Prior to joining NCCD/CRC, she did direct service work as an AmeriCorps teacher and mental health case manager and also has extensive knowledge in the area of aging policy and programs. Andrea has a Master of Social Work degree with a concentration in community organization, policy and advocacy from Syracuse University and a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Rod Caskey
Rod, a Senior Program Specialist for the Children's Research Center (CRC), began his career as a social worker for the Alaska Division of Family and Youth Services as a generic worker responsible for CPS, Adult Protective Services, and Ongoing Services. As a supervisor, he was responsible for the development of treatment and placement resources for vulnerable children and adults on the Arctic Slope. As a regional manager, he directed CPS, Adoption, Adult Protective Services, and Licensing Staff in a region covering 100,000 square miles. He served on the management team which oversaw the development of NCCD's first CPS risk assessment research effort. With CRC, Mr. Caskey led the Michigan CPS process evaluation study, and was on-site manager for the Michigan CPS revalidation ad evaluation studies. Since 1996, he has served as Director of the Michigan Foster Care Structured Decision-making System. In addition, he has designed and conducted workload studies of CPS and delinquency services, and has done extensive training on CPS risk assessment and case management. Mr. Caskey has a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology and Psychology from Lake Superior State College.
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Tim Connell, Ph.D.
Tim is a consultant for CRC. Tim has primary responsibility for the design, development and support of numerous software applications created by NCCD and CRC. This includes multi-tier client-server and web-based applications that are integrated with large-scale state- or county-wide child welfare case management systems. Tim is also one of the developers of SafeMeasures®, a subscription data analysis and reporting service for child welfare and corrections agencies that uses Internet technologies to provide supervisors and managers with up-to-date information about workflow and key performance indicators.
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Joel Ehrlich, J.D.
Joel is a Director of Analytics at NCCD/CRC. He received his law degree, cum laude, in 1993 from the University of Wisconsin. Since joining NCCD/CRC, he has worked with information technology and on a variety of criminal and juvenile justice and child welfare studies, including risk and needs analyses, juvenile detention, and adult probation and parole. Joel currently oversees the retrieval and analysis of data from large relational database management systems. He assists project staff with all database related issues. He is also the data analyst and database programmer for SafeMeasures®, the quality assurance service developed by CRC. Joel practiced law in Wisconsin before joining NCCD in 1996.
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Janice Ereth, Ph.D.
For the last 30 years, Dr. Ereth has worked in administrative, research, and policy making capacities in child welfare, juvenile justice, and education fields. She has a Ph.D. in Urban Education with a minor in Criminal Justice. From 1997 to 2004, Dr. Ereth was the Director of the Children's Research Center of NCCD. Prior to joining NCCD/CRC in 1996, she served as the Juvenile Court Coordinator for the State of Wisconsin First Judicial District (Milwaukee). She worked with the Judiciary, County Board, public schools, and private providers to launch a comprehensive education program in the detention center, created 200 new day treatment slots for adjudicated delinquents, developed procedures to enable youth placed in residential treatment centers to be transitioned home by a re-integration team planning process, and designed a case management plan to expedite the adoption of abused children.
Dr. Ereth has been a founder and principal of an alternative school for delinquents in Milwaukee, and a Division Administrator of a research bureau that conducted national studies on a range of criminal, juvenile justice, and education topics. As a Policy Specialist at the Youth Policy and Law Center and subsequently at the Wisconsin Council on Criminal Justice, Dr. Ereth conducted studies on Violent Juvenile Offenders, formulated Children at Risk statutes, convened and headed a Coalition for Juvenile Justice and assisted in the implementation of various programs for adjudicated delinquents. She has also served as Vice President of Public Affairs at Family Service of Milwaukee. She has been appointed to numerous commissions by Wisconsin governors, Wisconsin legislators, Milwaukee's County Executive, the Superintendent of Milwaukee Public Schools, and the Greater Milwaukee Committee. She has also been recognized with awards from the Milwaukee Boys and Girls Club, Key Award, 1983; Alverno College, Telesis Award, 1988; and State of Wisconsin Senate, Citation of Accomplishments, 1992. Since joining NCCD/CRC, Dr. Ereth has served as Director of the Washington, D.C., Minnesota, New Mexico, and Wisconsin Urban Caucus CPS Structured Decision Making Systems, as Director of juvenile justice projects in Alaska, Illinois, and New Mexico, and as Director of monitoring charter schools for the City of Milwaukee.
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Shannon Flasch
Shannon Flasch joined the Children’s Research Center in August 2007 as a Program Associate. She works with Senior Program Associates on SDM projects in different states, currently focusing on case reading, technical assistance, and SDM training. She also works with senior staff to examine the existing research on emerging approaches to child protective services and their relevance to SDM. Shannon received her Master’s in Public Administration from the Wagner School at New York University, and worked for a private foundation supporting research on youth development prior to joining the CRC.
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Raelene Freitag MSW, Ph.D.
Raelene joined CRC in 1997. She has served as project manager for Structured Decision Making® (SDM) in California; Alaska; Norfolk, VA; and the State of Virginia. She has worked in all aspects of Structured Decision Making development and implementation. She provides advanced manager training in use of SafeMeasures® for quality improvement. Current projects also include the Orange County (CA) CalWORKS prevention project, and the foster care risk study replication study in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego and Fresno counties (CA). Prior to joining CRC, she worked in child protective services as a line worker and supervisor and in a child protection center. She has also worked in a dual diagnosis psychiatric hospital, a domestic violence program, and as a law enforcement officer.
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Susan M. Gramling, J.D.
Susan joined NCCD/CRC in 1998 as a Senior Program Specialist after serving as a Children's Research Center trainer for the Child Protective Services (CPS) Structured Decision Making model. Ms. Gramling received her law degree in May, 1996, from the University of Wisconsin. Ms. Gramling's legal practice has focused on work as a guardian ad litem, custody issues in family law, and school law. Prior to law school, Ms. Gramling worked for over 25 years with central city and rural children with special needs and their families. With a master's degree in speech pathology and audiology, Ms. Gramling facilitated communication, not only by providing therapy to her clients, but also by participating in and conducting focus groups within and among the systems that impacted on them. She has developed an expertise in working effectively with social service, educational, juvenile justice, and health care systems. As an agency executive director for six years, Ms. Gramling gained practical experience collecting data, writing and presenting research reports and proposals on agency programs to public and private funders as well as executive and legislative bodies. Acting as a fiscal manager, Ms. Gramling learned first-hand the need to demonstrate program efficiency and effectiveness in order to support the rationale for specific human and financial resource allocations. Ms. Gramling's experience in system design includes projects such as a state-wide telecommunication relay service, training programs on the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), and the restructuring of birth to three service in Milwaukee County.
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Theresa Healy
Theresa, a Senior Researcher at NCCD/CRC, has extensive experience with database applications, data analysis, project planning, and technical support. Ms. Healy is the manager of NCCD/CRC Data Services where she oversees database development, data entry and analysis, and routine report writing services for child protective service agencies in California, Connecticut, Virginia, and Queensland, AU. Since joining NCCD/CRC, she has worked on a variety of delinquency studies, including risk assessment research for the Nebraska Division of Juvenile Services and adjudicated female offenders under the jurisdiction of Cook County Juvenile Probation and Court Services. Ms. Healy has a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
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Kristen Johnson
Kristen, a Senior Researcher with NCCD/CRC, has extensive experience with data analysis, project management, data collection, and technical support. Since joining NCCD/CRC, she has worked on a variety of child protective services and juvenile justice studies, including risk assessment research for the New York Department of Social Services, New Mexico Children, Youth, and Families Department, California Department of Social Services, Colorado Department of Human Services, and the Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice. She is currently working on an ongoing evaluation of the State of Michigan's child protective services and foster care services. Prior to joining NCCD/CRC, Ms. Johnson was employed with the Center for Addiction Research and Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a program analyst for a clinical intervention trial. Ms. Johnson has an M.A. in Policy Analysis and a B.A. in Sociology with a concentration in analysis and research from the University of Wisconsin.
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Terry McHoskey
Terry McHoskey is a consultant for NCCD. Prior to semi-retirement, he was a Senior Project Manager at NCCD. He has been active in program and agency operations in the field of child welfare and juvenile justice for over 30 years. He has served at the caseworker, supervisor, and manager's level in children's services. He has line experience in children's protective services, foster care, adoption, and institutional services for neglected, abused, and/or delinquent youth in both a private non-profit and public agency.
Mr. McHoskey has had an active management role in Michigan's CPS, foster care, and delinquency services programs. He helped develop and implement Michigan's CPS policies under that State's CPS reporting law of 1975. He also helped frame the Michigan guidelines for developing multi agency/professional teams in CPS. These teams provided a broad based professional input to CPS workers as they formulated child abuse/neglect case treatment plans. Later, Mr. McHoskey helped Michigan counties develop Human Service Coordinating Councils; as well as community collaborative/strategic plans for prioritizing and funding needed child welfare services. He managed the implementation of "Michigan Expeditions" within the Michigan Department of Social Services. Michigan Expeditions, an adaptation of the Colorado Outward Bound Program, was successfully implemented in Michigan during the early 1970s to help divert youth from more serious offenses. From 1988 through 1997, Mr. McHoskey, as a state manager, worked with NCCD to help develop and implement the CPS and delinquency services Structured Decision Making Models in Michigan. He served on the original core team for CPS structured decision making in Michigan (1988); was manager of Macomb County DSS, a pilot site that implemented the Michigan Structured Decision Making® (SDM) model (1991); and was Outstate Operations Director (responsible for operations in 82 of 83 Michigan counties) when SDM® was implemented statewide in December 1995.
From 1997 to the present time he has represented NCCD in helping the states of California, Georgia, and Michigan develop and/or strengthen their structured decision making models in CPS, foster care, and delinquency services. Terry McHoskey has a Masters of Social Work degree from Michigan State University and he is a member of the National Academy of Certified Social Workers.
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Deirdre O'Connor
Deirdre, MSW, LCSW, joined NCCD in 2004, as a senior program specialist. Deirdre brings with her more than 15 years child welfare experience, from direct case management to deputy director of Alaska’s public child welfare agency, monitoring and managing workload across numerous urban, rural and remote field offices. As a past child welfare administrator, she has an extensive understanding of federal child welfare regulations and oversight, including the Child and Family Service Review. She was responsible for implementing and monitoring major practice changes, and program development initiatives. Since joining NCCD, Deirdre has worked with public child welfare agencies in the District of Columbia, Louisiana, New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington to develop, implement and improve the utilization of the SDM case management model.
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Kathleen Oremus
Kathleen, a Research Associate with NCCD/CRC, has extensive experience with data analysis, data collection, and technical support. Recently hired, she has been working on Structured Decision Making® reports for counties in California and is assisting in the development of a foster care assessment for the State of Michigan. Prior to joining NCCD/CRC, Ms. Oremus was employed as a Data Manager with the Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Projects included evaluations of the Milwaukee AODA TANF system, an alternative to foster care initiative, and AODA treatment for female offenders. Ms. Oremus has an MSW with a concentration in children and families from the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse. She also has experience working with adults with chronic mental illnesses, developmentally disabled adolescents, adjudicated youth, and victims of domestic violence.
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Katherine Park, M.A.
Katherine is Assistant Director of the Children’s Research Center, working with state and local child welfare jurisdictions on the development and training of Structured Decision Making® (SDM) case assessment systems in child protective services (CPS). Katherine has helped develop and implement SDM® systems in New Hampshire, Missouri, Vermont, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Queensland, Australia. She has also provided technical assistance to jurisdictions in California, Minnesota, and Michigan. She has also worked with Riverside County, California to develop a SDM system for adult protective services.
Katherine has several years of field and administrative experience in both public and private social service settings in the state of Georgia. Her field experience in public social services spans the continuum from child protective service investigation and ongoing case management to supervision of both child and adult protective services at the county level. Additionally, she worked at the State of Georgia Division of Family and Children Services as a CPS policy consultant, managing the state’s family preservation budget and programs, and providing training and technical assistance to county CPS staff throughout the state. Within the private sector, Katherine was the Administrative Director of Pathways Transition Programs, Inc. in Atlanta, GA specializing in the development and provision of model programs for abused, neglected, and delinquent youth and their families.
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Debra S. Paulus
Debra has been employed by CRC since 1993 and is currently the Office Manager. She is responsible for developing project budgets and providing financial oversight for projects administered by CRC She manages all client contracts and ensures that projects operate in accordance with contract specifications. She has been involved in numerous CPS projects including Wisconsin, Georgia, Minnesota, California, New Jersey, and New Mexico. Debra has a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville.
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Peter Quigley
Mr. Quigley serves as a Vice President of Information Services with the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. For the past 28 years, Mr. Quigley has worked in research and policy making capacities in the fields of juvenile justice, adult corrections, and child welfare. He has a Bachelors degree in Political Science with a minor in Sociology from Northern Illinois University. Since joining NCCD in 1986, he has been responsible for a broad variety of projects and tasks, including risk and needs assessment, workload analysis, and information technology.
Mr. Quigley has extensive knowledge of the juvenile justice and child welfare systems. He built the database used by Cook County, Illinois to track and evaluate the effectiveness of the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative (JDAI). He is currently involved with the California Department of Social Services, New Jersey Department of Children and Families being responsible for the design and development of database applications to support Structured Decision Making® (SDM) in those states. Using relational database systems like Oracle and SQL Server with a Dot Net interface, Mr. Quigley and his staff have built statewide, 24/7 applications and modules that support SDM® procedures with seamless integration of SDM and other enterprise databases.
Most recently, he has directed the SafeMeasures® system for performance and outcome measurement in child welfare to a place of national distinction and prominence. This innovative analytical and reporting system takes data complex relational database systems and, using Internet technology, presents meaningful graphical displays for various case outcome and performance measures on the desktop of supervisors and caseworkers. More importantly, users can point to any portion of a chart and "drill down" to the list of cases underlying it.
Mr. Quigley has also consulted internationally. Most recently, he assisted the State of South Australia design and implement a case management process and information system modeled upon work done in the United States.
Apart from information systems design, he has made a significant contribution to workload analysis for social services. He has directed and participated in several workload studies involving statewide agencies. Mr. Quigley has extensive experience in the design, implementation, and analysis of workload studies. He has been responsible for a number of projects in both child welfare and criminal justice agencies which have estimated overall staffing requirements, as well as regional staffing allocations. Project activities have included, presentation of project goals and methodology, design sessions with managers, development of forms and instructions, training of staff, data entry and analysis programs, and the authoring of final reports. Some recent workload studies: California Child Welfare Structured Decision Making (SDM) (present); Nevada Department of Probation and Parole (1998); Colorado Department of Corrections (1994); Alabama Department of Pardons and Paroles (1992); Sacramento County Probation Department (1991); and Ventura County Probation Department (1990).
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Chris Scharenbroch
Chris Scharenbroch joined NCCD/CRC as a Research Associate in 2001. As a member of the NCCD/CRC data services team, he specializes in database applications, analysis, and reporting. Since joining NCCD/CRC, Chris has analyzed child protective services data and produced Structured Decision Making® management reports for agencies in California, Minnesota, New Jersey, Alaska, New Mexico, and Virginia. Chris has primary responsibility for meeting the routine and ad hoc data services requirements for San Diego, California. Chris has a Bachelor of Science in Sociology and graduated with honors from the CAR (Concentration in Analysis in Research) program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001.
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Dennis Wagner, Ph.D.
Dennis Wagner, Director of Research, has served as research director or project manager for numerous NCCD and CRC research studies in more than 20 states including the Michigan Foster Care Case Management Study; the New Mexico Child Protective Services Risk Assessment Study; the Rhode Island Department of Children Youth and Families Child Juvenile Risk Assessment Study; Nebraska Board of Parole Risk Assessment Study; and the National Institute of Justice's Evaluation of the Florida Community Control Program. Before joining NCCD/CRC in 1988, he was the evaluation officer for the Wisconsin Department of Health and Social Services where he was responsible for planning and evaluating a variety of correctional and social service programs for adults and children. Dr. Wagner has BA and MA degrees from the University of Iowa and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
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Rick Wiebush
Rick Wiebush is a Senior Program Specialist with NCCD/CRC. He has worked with NCCD since 1990. Mr. Wiebush's primary interests are in: 1) the design and implementation of risk-based case management systems for juvenile justice and child welfare agencies; 2) the assessment of youth and family characteristics and their relationship to juvenile/child welfare system decision making; and 3) program evaluation.
Mr Wiebush specializes in helping local and state agencies design and implement Structured Decision Making® (SDM) systems. SDM® includes research-based risk assessment tools, needs assessments, detention assessment instruments; dispositional guidelines and reassessments of risk and needs. While most of his SDM-related work is in the field of juvenile justice, he has also worked with several different child welfare agencies to design and implement more effective assessment and classification systems.
Rick also provides technical assistance and training on the development of graduated sanctions systems. He is currently working with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges delivering training and TA on graduated sanctions to ten sites across the country. As part of that project, he served as the editor of the recently completed "Planning Guide for Graduated Sanctions."
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