Workforce Solutions Jam | Reducing Barriers to Licensure to Expand and Diversify the Behavioral Health Workforce (December 2024)

Amy Conway, MPH is Director of Community Health for Kaiser Permanente. She oversees the management and execution of programs including Housing for Health, Economic Opportunity, and Food & Nutrition Security. Amy has worked at Kaiser Permanente (KP) for two decades in several different roles. After receiving her Master’s in Public Health from Tulane University in the nineties, she began her career as a health educator at the KP clinic in Hayward, California. She then led regionwide tobacco dependence prevention and cessation initiatives and smoking cessation counselor trainings throughout Northern California. Mid-career she left KP to become the executive director of a nonprofit organization whose mission was to teach people mindfulness meditation. She then returned to KP as a senior managerial consultant working closely with Primary Care Chiefs and Managers to lead performance improvement and strategic projects. Amy served as Regional Director of KP’s perinatal substance abuse program for eight years. Outside of work, Amy enjoys playing tennis, hiking, and snowboarding in Colorado where she lives with her partner Michael, her dog Eddie, and two quirky cats. 

Dr. Karen E. Goodenough, PhD, MSW, LGSW, is Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers – Minnesota Chapter. Dr. KG has worked in direct practice, non-profit program management, has been a consultant in evaluation, data utilization, and strategic planning, and has served as adjunct faculty in numerous BSW and MSW programs throughout Minnesota. Her dissertation research focused on exemptions from licensure, and she is a member of the MN Board of Social Work Advisory Committee and Legislation and Rules Committee. Dr. KG chairs the NASW Licensure Task Force, was on the document writing team for the Social Work Interstate Compact, and is the NASW representative to the Compact Commission. 

Andrea S. Meyer Stinson, Ph.D., LMFT is the Director of Workforce Strategy & Initiatives for Resilient Georgia.

As Director of Workforce Strategy & Initiatives, Dr. Andrea Meyer Stinson leads the National Mental Health Workforce Acceleration Collaborative Program. She is dedicated to growing and strengthening Georgia’s workforce of trauma informed professionals, while simultaneously identifying barriers, facilitators and solutions related to Georgia’s mental health workforce shortages. She was co-founder of Resilient Middle Georgia where she helped to build awareness about positive and adverse childhood experiences (PACEs), resilience, and trauma informed care across an 11-county area.

Dr. Meyer Stinson has worked therapeutically with children, couples, families, and communities since 2001. She has trained extensively in Parent Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs), and Child Parent Psychotherapy (CPP). She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Approved Supervisor. With more than two decades of experience working in academia, she has taught undergraduate, graduate, and medical students as a professor in Mercer University’s School of Medicine in the Master of Family Therapy program. She is past president for the Georgia Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (GAMFT) and a former board member for Resilient Georgia. She earned her doctoral degree from The Florida State University, master’s degree from Purdue University, and two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Georgia.

Julia Pavon Rojas M.S, NCC, is a pre-licensed, bilingual mental health counselor whose primary focus is providing individual and group counseling to adults, adolescents and children. Julia works for Ser Familia, a non-profit organization with offices all across the metro-atlanta area. Ser Familia provides mental health and prevention services for Latino families in Spanish. Julia graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.S in Psychology and criminal justice studies, and completed her M.S in mental health counseling at Oklahoma State University. 

Emmaly Perks, MA, CCRP, is an experienced leader in mental health and education, with over a decade of expertise leading workforce and leadership programs. She holds a Bachelor of Science in psychology and a master’s degree in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. As the current Director of the National Mental Health Workforce Acceleration Collaborative for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, she oversees a $15MM national program aimed at addressing the mental health workforce crisis through recruitment, training, and retention of mental health clinicians from diverse backgrounds. Previously, Ms. Perks was Director of the Office of Education and Training for the University of Colorado’s Department of Psychiatry, where she led programs in workforce and organizational development. 

Amy René, LCSW has over 30 years of social work experience in the Metro Atlanta area. She graduated from The University of Georgia in 1993 with a Bachelor of Social Work degree and began her career in child welfare with DFCS. She has worked at DFCS until 2004 when she went to work for Hillside, Inc., one of the oldest non-profits in Atlanta. Amy obtained her MSW in 2004 from the University of Georgia.

Amy has worked at Hillside for 20 years and has served in multiple roles including the Vice President of Community Operations and Clinical Services. She was intensively trained in Dialectical Behavior Therapy by Dr. Tom Lynch and Dr. Adam Payne in 2006 with the original cohort of therapists and staff at Hillside. She has also participated in advanced DBT trainings with Dr. Shari Manning and Dr. Marsha Linehan. She has participated in intensive continuing education training in the areas of Family Preservation, Foster Care, Kinship, Wraparound, Family Finding, Trauma, and Child Welfare.

Amy lives in North Atlanta with her husband of 15 years and 13 year old daughter.