FACULTY
ACADEMY
Academy for Justice-Informed Practice
Behavioral Health-Criminal Justice Certificate Program
Faculty List – 2014
The Academy faculty is comprised of professionals from across the criminal justice, legal and behavioral health fields who have expertise that is rooted in years of experience in the overlapping worlds of criminal justice and behavioral health. The following is a list of our distinguished faculty.
Mary Beth Anderson, LMSW, JD Director
Mental Health Project Urban Justice Center
Mary Beth Anderson is currently the Director of the Urban Justice Center’s Mental Health Project. Prior to this she was the Director of Social Work and Investigation Services at Brooklyn Defender Services. Before that, she had along career at the Legal Aid Society where she was the founding director of a city-wide project providing comprehensive social work and legal services to clients with mental illness and substance abuse issues. Ms. Anderson has extensive training experience, and has created and conducted training on mental health/criminal justice issues for a wide variety of organizations. She is a graduate of St. John’s University School of Law and Hunter College School of Social Work.
Nancy Andino
Community Corrections Representative II
New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Office of Probation and Correctional Alternatives
Nancy Andino has worked in the field of juvenile and criminal justice for more than 33 years. Ms. Andino began her career with the New York City Department of Probation where she worked for 20 years. Ms. Andino currently works for the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Office of Probation and Correctional Alternatives. She works with Probation Departments and community corrections programs across the state, providing consultation and monitoring services to funded programs. Nancy has most recently been involved in an effort to train alternative to incarceration program professionals in evidence based practices, including the Fundamentals for Community Corrections, Thinking for a Change and Interactive Journaling.
Virginia Barber-Rioja, PhD Clinical Director
EAC-Forensic Link Court Mental Health Diversion Program and Brooklyn TASC
Dr. Virginia Barber Rioja earned a Master’s degree in Forensic Psychology and a Ph.D. in Clinical Forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. From 2009 to 2011 Dr. Barber-Rioja was the clinical director of the Queens TASC Mental Health Diversion Program, which works in collaboration with the Queens Mental Health Court. She
subsequently worked as an attending psychologist in the Forensic Inpatient Unit at Bellevue Hospital Center. Dr. Barber Rioja has published several articles in peer-reviewed journals, co-authored a chapter on jail diversion models published by Springer and has presented at numerous national and international conferences. She is an adjunct professor at New York University and a Professor of Psychiatry at New York University Medical Center.
Justin Baron, MA Program Manager Recovery Connections Community Access
After relocating to New York City in 2012, Justin joined Community Access as the Program Manager of the new Recovery Connections initiative. Previously, Justin was the Assistant Director of a residential mental health crisis respite program in San Francisco, which offered a community based alternative to institutionalization for individuals experiencing periods of acute mental distress. His work at Community Access is focused on promoting the value of outside-the-system community involvement, and social network development in the recovery process. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Africana Studies from Detroit’s Wayne State University in 2005, and a Master of Arts in Sexuality Studies from San
Francisco State University in 2010. His research focused on occupation and anti-apartheid LGBTQ social movements in Palestine and Israel.
Susan Batkin, MSW Program Manager
Academy for Justice Informed Practice CUCS Institute
Ms. Batkin is the Project Manager for the Academy for Justice Informed Practice (The Academy), an educational initiative providing training and technical assistance to New York City’s workforce serving people with mental illness and criminal justice involvement. Ms. Batkin has over 20 years of experience developing, delivering and coordinating training programs targeting varied professional audiences. Prior joining CUCS, Ms. Batkin was the Director of Helpline Operations and Volunteer Management at the Medicare Rights Center. Prior to that, Ms. Batkin served as the Director of Social Work at the Urban Justice Center’s
Mental Health Project. She holds a Master’s Degree in Social Work from the Hunter College School of Social Work. She currently serves on the board of the Sky Light Center, a
psychosocial clubhouse on Staten Island.
Robert Blocker, MSW
Director of Forensic Services Project Renewal Inc.
Mr. Robert Blocker began his work in mental health as the Coordinator of MICA Services at the Bronx Psychiatric Center in the early 1990’s. In 1997 he moved into community mental health, where he worked with chronically homeless individuals with mental illness in the Times Square area, successfully engaging clients who were considered “treatment
resistant”. Applying the this same client-centered approach to all of his work, he now oversees programs at Project Renewal serving criminal justice-involved clients with mental illness, providing transitional housing and care coordination services to people reentering the community from prison. In addition, he coordinates reentry in-reach services at Sing Sing and Bedford Hills correctional facilities. He has done this work for the past 13 years.
Karen Dubin-McKnight, LCSW
Director, Manhattan Court-Based Intervention and Resource Team (CIRT) CASES
Karen Dubin-McKnight returned to CASES as the Director of the Manhattan Court-based Intervention and Resource Team (CIRT) in December 2013. The CIRT program will serve youth and adults with behavioral health needs in misdemeanor and felony alternative to detention (ATD) and alternative to incarceration (ATI) services.
Ms. Dubin-McKnight started at CASES in May 2000 as a staff member in the Nathaniel Project after she graduated from the Columbia University School of Social Work. In 2004, Karen left CASES and worked at MercyFirst’s residential treatment program providing direct services to boys with juvenile justice involvement for sexual offenses. For eight years following that, she worked at the Legal Aid Society advocating for persons with behavioral health needs charged with misdemeanor and felony offenses to help them access
community-based treatment over incarceration. Ms. Dubin-McKnight is also an adjunct professor at Adelphi University where she teaches social work courses and is currently completing her PhD in Social Work.
Alex Garcia-Mansilla, PhD Clinical Director
Queens TASC Mental Health Diversion EAC Network
Alexandra Garcia-Mansilla is a licensed Clinical Psychologist with over ten years experience working with people with serious mental disorders involved with the criminal justice
forensic specialization. Prior to earning her PhD, she was a licensed Clinical Social Worker, having received her Masters in Social Work from New York University, and she received her BA from Harvard University. She has trained in various forensic psychiatric settings
throughout the New York City metropolitan area. She has provided treatment in both inpatient and outpatient settings, and was a Research Associate in the Affective Disorders Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College. Since June 2011, Dr. Garcia-Mansilla has been the Clinical Director of the Queens TASC Mental Health Diversion Program, a mental health jail diversion program in Queens, NY. Dr. Garcia-Mansilla has specialized training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, trauma, as well as neuropsychological, forensic, and personality assessment. She has conducted research in the areas of violence risk assessment and treatment of clients with stalking related offenses.
James Hollywood, LCSW
Assistant Vice President, Residential Services Samaritan Village
James Hollywood provides clinical leadership and management to five residential substance abuse treatment programs serving over 700 clients. With more than 20 years of experience working in the fields of substance abuse, mental health and homeless services, Mr.
Hollywood is charged with developing and enhancing the agency’s use of evidence based practices in treatment.
Mr. Hollywood has worked to develop skills among the counseling staff in delivering
motivational interviewing and cognitive behavior based therapies. He is also working on the expansion of Samaritan’s use of medically assisted recovery and withdrawal management. Prior to joining Samaritan, Mr. Hollywood worked at Palladia, a New York City based social service agency, where he successfully implemented enhancements to address co-occurring mental health and substance use. Mr. Hollywood helped develop "Let's Get Organized," a program to help clients improve organization and time management skills to facilitate successful reentry into community life. This intervention was recognized by U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as an innovative practice.
Mr. Hollywood holds a BA in Sociology from St. John's University and graduated with an MSW from Hunter College School of Social Work.
Colleen King, Esq.
Specialized Mental Health Criminal Defense Attorney Brooklyn Defender Services
Colleen King joined Brooklyn Defender Services in 2013 as a Specialized Mental Health Criminal Defense Attorney. Colleen represents clients who are diverted into Brooklyn Mental Health Court and also represents clients in competency proceedings. Prior to joining Brooklyn Defender Services, Colleen had a long career at the Legal Aid Society – criminal defense division, first as a trial attorney and later as the MICA Project Attorney for
Kings County and then New York County. Ms. King, a career public defender, is a strong advocate on behalf of clients with mental illness and passionately advocates for their interests and rights. Ms. King has participated in numerous training programs on mental health and criminal justice issues. Ms. King received her J.D. with honors from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota and her undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota.
Alexandra LaMantia, MA Coordinator
Link H.O.M.E EAC Network
Alexandra LaMantia acquired her Masters in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is currently the Coordinator for Link H.O.M.E., an offender reentry program within the EAC network. Ms. LaMantia assists individuals that are transitioning into the community following an incarceration by linking them to behavioral health treatment programs and providing enhanced case management services such as interactive journaling. While at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, she completed an externship with Bronx TASC Mental Health Court Program, also within the EAC network. During this time, she played an integral part in structuring an effective research paradigm, as well as collecting data, for a Health Home grant. Not only was the grant successfully obtained, but Ms. LaMantia’s findings were also presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s Institute on Psychiatric Services conference in 2012.
Susanna Preziosi, PsyD
Bronx TASC Mental Health Court Program EAC Network
Susanna Preziosi, PsyD. is the clinical director of the Bronx TASC Mental Health Court Program, the service provider for the operations of the Bronx Mental Health Court. Dr. Preziosi holds a B.A. in Psychology from Middlebury College and an M.S. in Teaching from Pace University. Prior to her graduate studies, she was a Special Education teacher in the New York City public school system. She earned her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from Yeshiva University - Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, part of Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Preziosi has worked in a number of different community clinics and hospitals, including Bellevue Hospital Center, Jacobi Medical Center, and St. Luke’s – Roosevelt Hospitals, with experience in forensic, substance abuse, adult inpatient and emergency settings. She is active in training doctoral students in clinical psychology from various New York City programs and forensic psychiatry fellows from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In addition to her forensic work, Dr. Preziosi maintains a small psychotherapy practice.
Director of Forensic Services, Bronx Psychiatric Center
Medical Director, EAC TASC Mental Health Diversion Programs Associate Clinical Professor Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Dr. Merrill Rotter is a forensic psychiatrist working at Albert Einstein College of Medicine where he is Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Division of Law and Psychiatry for the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Rotter received his B.A. /M.D. from the Boston University Six-Year Combined Liberal Arts Medical Education Program. Trained in clinical psychiatry at Columbia University and in forensic psychiatry at Yale, Dr. Rotter leads a program of teaching, research and clinical service for Einstein as well as the New York State Office of Mental Health. In his OMH role, Dr. Rotter is Director of the Division of Forensic Services at Bronx Psychiatric Center and Senior Consultant to the Division of Forensic Services. In addition, Dr. Rotter is the Medical Director of the EAC and its NYC TASC Mental Health Programs. Dr. Rotter is Project Director of SPECTRM, a nationally-recognized research, training and treatment program aimed at helping to meet the needs individuals with mental illness who have a history of incarceration. Dr. Rotter has
presented and published in areas related to forensic training, risk assessment, treatment and management of mentally ill offenders, the insanity defense and mental health
diversion. In 2009, Dr. Rotter received the Award for Outstanding Teacher in a Forensic Fellowship Program from the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.
John Volpe, LCSW
Special Advisor on Criminal Justice and Mental Health NYC Department of Health & Mental Hygiene
A graduate of Georgetown University and Hunter College School of Social Work, John has worked with many diverse NYC populations in a human service career including the provision of case management within the NYC foster care system, developing a Bronx-based program for children with a serious emotional disturbance, leading a
specialized group residence for gay, bisexual and transgender adolescents in foster care and working with the highly marginalized HIV+, mentally-ill homeless population. Before joining NYC DOHMH, Mr. Volpe led efforts to better serve special populations within the criminal practice at the NYC Legal Aid Society. Since joining the City in 2011, John has worked on policy, system and programmatic issues to reduce the over-representation of individuals with mental illness in the criminal justice system.
