Where Does North Carolina Stand? A comparison of Medicaid-funded Residential Service Trends, Nationally and in North Carolina for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
John Agosta
Vice President
John M. Agosta, Ph.D., 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.
Kerri Melda
Policy Associate
Ms. Melda has been employed with HSRI since 1992, and her primary responsibilities include project leadership, policy and statistical analyses, program evaluation, and provision of training and technical assistance. Specifically, her work focuses on projects related to family support policy and practice, person-centered funding, performance gap analyses, and studies assessing the impact of change on service recipients. Ms. Melda currently serves as Director of HSRI's Juntos Podemos (Together We Can) Family Center, connecting Latino families who have children with disabilities to community services and supports. She oversees the family support related activities of the National Core Indicators project, which analyzes family support satisfaction data across 30 states. She recently completed a study of the impact of service reductions on Florida's service population, and has worked on reimbursement projects in Colorado, Rhode Island, and Virginia. Ms. Melda holds a Master's Degree in Public Policy and Administration (University of Oregon) and a Bachelor's Degree in Special Education (Indiana University).
Drew Smith
Policy Analyst
Mr. Smith works on several projects related to developing person-centered funding strategies, assessing the impacts of service changes and reductions, and supporting self-advocacy. While at HSRI, Mr. Smith has worked on resource allocation projects in Colorado, Florida, Oregon, Rhode Island, North Dakota and Virginia, as well as strategic planning projects in Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and North Carolina. Mr. Smith currently also works with the University of Minnesota on the Residential Information Systems Project (RISP). He is a graduate of Portland State University in Business Administration.
