Staff Directory

The NASDDDS team is unique among national associations. Most of our colleagues have 25 or more years of experience within publicly funded intellectual and developmental disabilities service systems. We have worked for federal, state, and local governments; public and private service providers; along with universities and foundations. We know publicly financed services from many different vantage points — as payer, provider, and as researchers.

Our working relationships with national leaders and researchers in the field of I/DD; our collaboration with universities; and our ongoing dialogue with federal officials at CMS, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor, and other federal agencies enables us to stay ahead of policy trends and keep our members aware of opportunities.

We are committed to building and maintaining service systems that are well managed, are sustainable and ultimately enable people with disabilities and their families to have good everyday lives in their communities.

NASDDDS Team

Mary P. Sowers

Executive Director

Dan Berland

Director of Federal Policy

Barbara Brent

Director of State Policy

Rie Kennedy-Lizotte

Director of Employment Policy

Carrie M. McGraw

Director of Communications

Nicole Orellana

Office Associate

Megan Rose Sierra

Director of Financial Services

Katherine karol snyder

Director of Administrative Services

Teja S. Stokes

Director of Contracts and Strategic Partnerships

Laura Vegas

Director of National Core Indicators

Jeanine Zlockie

Director of Special Projects

Executive Director

Mary P. Sowers

Mary joined NASDDDS in 2014 and became the NASDDDS Executive Director on July 1, 2019. Before joining NASDDDS, Mary was with Mercer Government Human Services Consulting where she provided consultation and technical assistance to state governments on a wide array of Medicaid-related issues, with a focus on integrated care, home and community-based services, and managed long-term services and supports.

Prior to joining Mercer in 2011, Mary held senior positions with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Disabled and Elderly Health Programs Group within the Center for Medicaid, and CHIP Services (CMCS). During her tenure at CMS, Mary specialized in Medicaid home and community-based services, managed long-term services and supports (including strategies for reducing institutional reliance), self-direction, and strategies to design person-centered systems of care.

Mary also has extensive experience within state government and non-profit organizations serving individuals with I/DD. Like many others in our field, Mary has also served as a direct support professional.

Director of Federal Policy

Dan Berland

In his position as director of federal policy, Dan Berland crafts the federal policy strategy of the association and pursues the interests of state developmental disabilities agencies on Capitol Hill and to the executive branch of the federal government. Dan engages with federal legislators and executive branch policy-makers, represents the association within the federal policy arena, publishes reports and analyses of federal statutory and regulatory changes, and prepares both the weekly Federal News Briefs bulletin and the periodic Federal Perspectives newsletter. In his tenure with the association, Dan has played a key role in NASDDDS activities around Medicaid HCBS policy, and new laws and programs such as Money Follows the Person and Community First Choice.

Dan received a B.A. from Northwestern University. Before joining NASDDDS, he held positions as a campaign director for an arm of the State Public Interest Research Groups, a national environmental and consumer watchdog organization; managing a SCORE! Educational Center; and as assistant director of leadership Howard County, a private nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting civic leadership and volunteerism among adults and youth in Howard County, Maryland. Dan currently serves on the board of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities. In his spare time, Dan enjoys reading, playing tennis, and spending time with his family in Howard County, Maryland.

Director of State Policy

Barbara Brent

As the director of state policy and the director of the Community of Practice for Supporting Families on behalf of NASDDDS, Barbara Brent has more than 36 years of experience in publicly funded systems for children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. She has worked in state and county government, as well as in the private sector.

Before joining NASDDDS in 2012, Barbara spent six years as the state director for the Arizona Division of Developmental Disabilities Services, supporting more than 30,000 children and adults with developmental disabilities, along with their families. She oversaw the state’s acute/medical and long-term care service and support systems designed to help people live successful lives in their Arizona communities through a unique managed care system. She oversaw the administration of over 500 home and community-based service providers, the fiscal intermediary system, acute care contractors, fiscal operations, rate setting, and community partnership initiatives. With a continuous focus on developing and enhancing in-home and community supports and services, Barb worked to ensure more than 87 percent of all people with I/DD live in the family home or homes of their own.

Barbara also served as the deputy director of the Arizona Division of Developmental Disabilities from 2001-2006, overseeing all community operations, support coordination and provider systems. She focused on community capacity building, the design and implementation of quality improvement, autism guidelines, and stakeholder engagement initiatives.

Barbara also served for five years in Tennessee. First, as the state’s education coordinator for the Division of Developmental Disabilities and then finally into the state director position. During her tenure in the state of Tennessee, she presided over both community and ICF services across the state and oversaw systems redesign, waiver development, and implementation to come into compliance with DOJ lawsuits.

Early in her career, Barbara worked in both the public and private sectors in a variety of roles, including director of supported employment and training director for the state of Oregon, community services director for the city and county of Denver, UCEDD instructor, director of a provider agency, and a support coordinator.

Barbara received her master’s degree in special education with a specialty in community services for individuals with severe disabilities from Portland State University.

Director of Employment Policy

Rie Kennedy-Lizotte

Currently, Rie serves as Director of Employment Policy for the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS). In this position, she co-manages the State Employment Leadership Network in partnership with the Institute for Community Inclusion UMASS Boston to oversee a consortium of state I/DD agencies collaborating to improve employment opportunities and outcomes for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Previously, she was Director for Provider Development in the Georgia Office of Developmental Disabilities. She has worked as the service director for a county developmental disability system in Pennsylvania and as Executive Vice President of Via of the Lehigh Valley, a community based organization that provided an array of supports/services.

Dedicated to advocacy and influencing public policy in support of the civil rights of people with disabilities, she is actively involved in a number of local, state, and national organizations. Rie co-founded Person to Person: Valley Citizen Advocacy, an organization connecting people without disabilities to people with disabilities in Pennsylvania. Rie also played a significant role in launching one of Pennsylvania’s first projects to support self-determination principles through individual self-directed budgets. Rie holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin Madison.

Director of Communications

Carrie M. McGraw

Prior to joining NASDDDS in 2019, Carrie served as Executive Director at V-LINC, an agency which builds custom assistive technology for people with disabilities. Carrie negotiated a merger with another NPO to provide greater stability for V-LINC services and began at SEEC as Director of Communications and Development in January, 2019. Before her work at V-LINC, Carrie was appointed by the Governor to work as Communications Director at the Maryland Department of Disabilities. In this role, Carrie oversaw Executive Branch messaging as it pertained to disability services and disability policy issues to include social media, web presence, direct email, print releases, television appearances, and radio engagements. Carrie composed speeches and public appearance briefings for members of the Governor’s Cabinet, Lieutenant Governor, and Governor when addressing issues of concern to Maryland’s disability community.

Additionally, Carrie led initiatives to engage and educate the community on topics affecting those with disabilities and their families in Maryland. Carrie was responsible for planning and implementing large scale events which advanced the department’s mission and strengthened community partnerships. Finally, Carrie provided technical assistance to the Governor’s office and other state agencies on communication accessibility and preferred language related to the various segments of the disability community.

Prior to her work at MDOD, Carrie was employed as Director of Community Living at Compass, Inc.; a DDA funded nonprofit located in Beltsville. Carrie has also served as Assistant Director of Residential Services at The Arc Howard County and as a Direct Support Professional at the Arc Baltimore.

Office Associate

Nicole Orellana

Nicole Orellana joined the association in January 2014 bringing 12 years of administrative experience to her position as office associate.

Director of Financial Services

Megan Rose Sierra

Megan Rose Sierra, NASDDDS Director of Financial Services, has been with the association since 2008. Her key responsibilities are, but not limited, bookkeeping, contract management, and assisting with meetings and conferences.

In her spare time, Megan loves spending time with her children, reading, and traveling when possible.

Director of Administrative Services

Katherine karol snyder

As the NASDDDS Director of Administrative Services, karol has responsibilities in: human resources administration; association membership and board of directors management; and publications, ListServ, information technology, website, and conferences support. Ms. Snyder began working at the association as office manager in September 1999. Prior to working at NASDDDS, she worked for 12 years in advertising and exhibits marketing at the American Geophysical Union in Washington, D.C., proceeded by an additional 8 years in advertising at the Northern Virginia Sun and Manassas Journal Messenger newspapers. karol received a bachelor of science degree from Madison College in her hometown of Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Director of Contracts and Strategic Partnerships

Teja S. Stokes

Teja is the Director of Contracts & Strategic Partnerships for the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS). In this role, she provides a broad range of technical assistance (TA) to states on issues related to Medicaid structure and quality, organizational success strategies, and effective service modalities.

Before joining NASDDDS, Ms. Stokes served as a Director in the Government Health and Human Services division at IBM Watson Health. Ms. Stokes has more than 25 years of experience in home and community-based services (HCBS) program development, implementation, quality, and policy. At IBM Watson Health, she was the Project Director for the Health and Welfare Special Reviews Team and the Preadmission Screening and Resident Review (PASRR) TA Center – both CMS-funded contracts to provide direct TA to states. Ms. Stokes was involved in numerous projects at IBM Watson Health focused on beneficiary engagement and quality of care, including individual dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare.

She has held various positions within Virginia state government, where she supported Medicaid policy development, community-based behavioral health services, and provision of developmental disabilities services.

She has more than 25 years of experience in change management, including quality improvement, process mapping, strategic planning, process improvement, and group facilitation. Ms. Stokes holds a Master’s Degree in Business Leadership/Quality Management from Upper Iowa University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Mary Washington College.

Director of National Core Indicators

Laura Vegas

Laura joined NASDDDS in 2016. Prior to NASDDDS, Ms. Vegas was with Blue Cross/Blue Shield TN where she served as the Director of Employment and Community First CHOICES. While there, Ms. Vegas lead the development and start-up of Tennessee’s first Managed Long Term Supports and Services program for people with IDD. The start-up included assembling and training the Employment and Community First CHOICES team including care coordination, intake and eligibility experts, provider development specialists, and other specialty team members.

Prior to joining Blue Cross/Blue Shield Tennessee, Ms. Vegas was the Assistant Commissioner for Policy and Innovation for the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. During her 17 years of state service Laura specialized in policy development and implementation, Medicaid home and community-based services, strategies to design person centered systems, quality improvement and lead initiative to support department to become a person centered organization. Ms. Vegas also worked as a Quality Enhancement Specialist with the Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) from 2013-2017, leading and participating in teams working with organizations to obtain Person Centered Accreditation.

Ms. Vegas also as extensive experience within organizations serving individuals with I/DD. Ms. Vegas began her career serving as a direct support professional for residential services. She hold a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Middle Tennessee State University and a Master’s of Professional Studies, Strategic Leadership from the same.

Director of Special Projects

Jeanine Zlockie

Jeanine Zlockie is the Director of Special Projects for the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS). Ms. Zlockie has been working in the field of developmental disabilities (DD) for nearly thirty years which provides her with a strong foundation and understanding of Medicaid policy, structure and DD systems. Jeanine uses her background in Medicaid policy and system’s transformation to provide technical assistance to states to modify their Medicaid-financed home and community-based services waivers, and other Medicaid authorities, build Support Coordination change strategies and further employment initiatives. Jeanine also serves as Faculty for the National Leadership Institute on Developmental Disabilities at the University of Delaware.

Prior to joining NASDDDS, Ms. Zlockie managed the Pennsylvania Office of Developmental Programs policy office. In this capacity, she was responsible for the development of Medicaid waiver applications, policy bulletins, regulations, legislative bill analysis, and training curriculum that impacted the Pennsylvania 1915(c) Medicaid waivers. She was the primary contact to negotiate and resolve issues with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and to provide waiver policy technical assistance to staff from Pennsylvania’s four regional offices. Jeanine is a graduate of Kutztown University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology.

Staff Directory

NASDDDS Team

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