Ms. Bradley, who has a lifelong interest in public policy, has guided the Institute since its inception in 1976 to become a leading resource for public managers in human services across the country. After getting her Masters in Political Science at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, she began her work in the 1960s as a staffer to the California Assembly where she contributed to the development of landmark legislation in mental health and developmental disabilities. Her interest in reform has been manifest in her involvement in a number of important issues including quality improvement, family support, deinstitutionalization, and performance measurement. In the mid 1970s, Ms. Bradley authored a book on deinstitutionalization which began her decades long interest in the adoption of policies that would move people out of large custodial institutions. Most notably, Ms. Bradley was the co-director of the Pennhurst Longitudinal Study – a five year study of the ultimate closure of Pennhurst State Center in Pennsylvania. She has also been concerned with the quality of community services and supports, and that concern led to her explore best practices in quality improvement around the country, to work with individual states to enrich their quality assurance systems, to edit two volumes on quality assurance, and more recently – and for the past decade, to her work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a provider of technical assistance to state waiver managers.

In the 1980s, Ms Bradley and her colleagues worked to amplify the voices of families with children with disabilities in the formation of public policy. With support from the Administration on Developmental Disabilities and the U.S. Department of Education, Ms. Bradley led efforts to organize families in a number of states to initiate legislation that established flexible and family centered community supports. More recently, Ms. Bradley helped the Institute to forge important collaborations – the most important of which is with the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities. This partnership has resulted in the creation of National Core Indicators – a performance measurement system that facilitates state by state comparisons and that has generated perhaps the largest database of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in the country if not internationally.

Ms. Bradley has also made contributions beyond her work at the Institute including as the Chair of the President’s Committee on People with Intellectual Disabilities under President Clinton, and as President of the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. She has received numerous awards including the Compass Award from the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services.

Dr. Leff is a Senior Vice President at the Human Services Research Institute and an Associate Professor at the Harvard Medical School. His work has focused on mental health systems evaluation and planning.

Dr. Leff's interests include resource allocation and planning models for state and local mental health agencies, needs assessment, the measurement of cultural competency, fidelity, workforce development, and evidence-based practices.

Dr. Leff is Principal Investigator and Director of The Evaluation Center@HSRI, which provides technical assistance for the evaluation of mental health systems change. Dr. Leff has also been the Principal Investigator for several SAMHSA multi-site projects including the Managed Care for Vulnerable Populations Program and the National Employment Intervention Demonstration Programs. He has also been a Principal Investigator for several research grants funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Leff has authored a number of published articles and technical reports. He has also served as a reviewer of research grant proposals and state mental health plans for NIMH and SAMHSA.

Dr. Leff is a clinical psychologist and was formerly Assistant Commissioner of Information Systems, Evaluation and Planning in the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health. Dr. Leff was elected to full membership in the Harvard-Radcliff Chapter of Sigma Xi. He was a founding Associate Editor for adult mental health for the journal Mental Health Services Research.

Dr. Mulkern is a sociologist who has worked in the field of behavioral health services evaluation for almost thirty years and is Senior Vice President of HSRI. She has managed over 40 federal and state grants and contracts, most related to behavioral health services research. These include several national multi-site evaluations funded by the Center for Mental Health Services, The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the National Institute of Mental Health. She has served on a number of CMHS advisory boards and work groups, including several MHSIP initiatives.

Dr. Mulkern currently serves as: Project Director for the Data Analysis Coordination and Consolidation Center (DACCC) for SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention; Project Director for the CMHS evaluation of the Minority Fellowship Program; and Co-Project Director for the National Co-Occurring State Incentive Grant (COSIG) Evaluation. Recently completed projects include: Project Director of the CMHS Evaluation of the Protection and Advocacy Program for Individuals with Mental Illness; Associate Director of the Evaluation Center @ HSRI, funded by CMHS; Co-Project Director of the Technical Support Center for CSAT’s Practice Improvement Collaboratives Program; Co-Principal Investigator for CMHS' Employment Intervention Demonstration Project Coordinating Center; and, Principal Investigator for the SAMHSA Coordinating Center for the Managed Care and Vulnerable Populations Evaluation Project.

Dr. Mulkern has taught courses in evaluation methods and medical sociology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has been a reviewer on numerous CMHS and CSAT grant and contract review panels.

Dr. Agosta is a Vice President at the Human Services Research Institute and has worked with people with disabilities for over 30 years. Dr. Agosta completed his doctorate in Rehabilitation Research at the University of Oregon, specializing in research methods and community supports for people with disabilities. Additionally, he has extensive experience with community supports, having worked in direct services and administrative positions within agencies offering early intervention, residential, vocational, or family support services.

Employed at HSRI since 1983, Dr. Agosta has worked under contract with state and federal agencies on a variety of projects focusing on community integration for people with developmental disabilities. He has conducted analyses of state systems, and studied specific facets of the field (e.g., supported employment, family support, self-advocacy, Medicaid funding trends, self-directed supports). He helped found the national Self Advocate Leadership Network and The Riot!, a national e-newsletter designed with and for self-advocates.  Presently, he is involved with projects related to exploring innovative means for supporting individuals with disabilities and their families, evaluating what states may do to reform service systems to improve performance, and establishing resource allocation protocols to provide individualized budgets for service recipients while making systems more efficient and equitable.

Mr. Hughes has worked at HSRI for over 15 years on projects related to mental health services research, evidence-based practices, cost simulation models for planning mental health systems and the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems.  He has directed several SAMHSA multi-site studies including the SAMHSA Managed Care and Vulnerable Populations Study and the CSAT Adolescent Managed Care Study and was the Technical Assistance Provider to CMS Real Choice Systems Change Mental Health Transformation Grantees.  Mr. Hughes also served as the Project Director and Developer for the Mental Health / Jail Diversion Resource Allocation and Planning Model Project. This project was funded by SAMHSA to develop a computerized budget simulation and resource allocation model for projecting the costs and potential cost offsets of implementing jail or prison diversion programs for offenders with mental illness.  He currently co-directs the SAMHSA-funded Block Grant Evidence-based Practices Cost-Efficiency Study, Milwaukee County Mental Health Redesign project, Evaluation of the Permanent Supported Housing Program in Louisiana and directs HSRI’s CMS Technical Assistance Project to Mental Health States for the Money Follows the Person program. Mr. Hughes holds bachelor degrees in psychology and sociology, a Master’s in Applied Sociology and a Master’s in Social Policy from the Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University.

Mr. Nethaway is the Vice President in charge of technology at Human Services Research Institute.  He has more than 10 years of experience leading technology operations.  His work spans many of the projects at HSRI and includes the implementation of information systems and infrastructure, network engineering, data security, website development, and overseeing internet initiatives.

Mr. Nethaway has developed and manages several online communities and his interests include information aggregation, the democratization of data, and helping individuals and organizations leverage the power and benefits of new technologies. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY and is an industry certified networking professional.