MISSION

Alexis Balkey, MPA, RAS

Ms. Balkey serves as Program Director of the National Family Treatment Court (FTC) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program providing mentoring and direct supervision to program associates and program specialists. She assists with project management and reporting tasks to compile and synthesize information on lessons, results and policy, and practice innovations. She has also managed the delivery of over 4,000 TTA responses—personally responding to over 1,200 TTA requests—including nearly 300 in-person or virtual events over the last 11 years.

Ms. Balkey has served as a Change Leader or lead consultant for multiple grant initiatives, including the National FTC TTA Program for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Prevention and Family Recovery (Doris Duke Charitable Foundation), Statewide System Improvement Program (OJJDP), and Children Affected by Methamphetamine (SAMHSA). She has led cross-system collaborative teams in development and execution of systems change to implement statewide and regional reform of child welfare, treatment, and court policy and practices for over 20 states, large counties, and regions.

Prior to her role at CCFF, Ms. Balkey served as the Program Manager for Riverside County (CA) Family Preservation Court in Indio, where she successfully managed an FTC with multiple funding streams. She’s an addictive disorder counselor certified by the Breining Institute, College for the Advanced Study of Addictive Disorders, with robust knowledge of alcohol and other drug treatment programs.

Ms. Balkey holds an M.P.A from California State University, San Bernardino. She also received a B.A. in both Psychology and Criminal Justice from Temple University.

Jane Pfeifer, MPA 

Ms. Pfeifer currently serves as Program Director of the Regional Partnership Grant Technical Assistance program through the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare. In this role she oversees the management of the RPG programmatic technical assistance program supporting 31 grantees. She also leads the Family Treatment Court Best Practice Standards development.  Past assignments include providing training and technical assistance to family drug courts, leading the Family Drug Court Peer Learning Court Project, the Family Drug Court Guidelines Project.

Prior to her employment at CCFF she worked in the justice system, focusing on systems improvement and collaborative justice.  As a consultant, Ms. Pfeifer has worked with public and private organizations providing training and technical assistance, grant writing and community resource development with an emphasis on case management, cultural proficiency and effective collaboration.  Ms. Pfeifer has served as faculty to several national organizations and her teaching and training experience includes in-person as well as remote/virtual events and distance learning settings.  She was also an adjunct professor at California State University—Chico in the Department of Political Science and Department of Sociology.  Ms. Pfeifer holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

Jonathan Mithers

Mr. Mithers has over 20 years of experience in Information Technology, Enterprise Software Implementation and Software Development in both for and non-profit sectors. He currently serves as the Director of Technology for the Center for Children and Family Futures working closely with the CFO. He is primarily responsible for leadership in directing and planning the implementation, integration, and ongoing evolution of information systems hardware, software, and voice data networks for a variety of management reporting functions and user groups at our exciting, dynamic, growing and nationally well-known non-profit organization. Mr. Mithers is continuously leading information system technology advances companywide. He performs essential professional analytical planning to drive the success of the company and organizational activities and goals. Mr. Mithers works closely with the Program Staff on technology-based contract deliverables and the Operations Staff on developing internal business applications and enriching internal collaboration.  

Prior to his role at CCFF, Mr. Mithers managed large scale healthcare information system implementations for the top rated RIS/HIS vendor in North America. 

Katherine Findley-Bhatta, MSW, PhD 

Dr. Bhatta is a macro-level social work researcher with a comprehensive background and experience in measurement, quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, data collection, and statistical analysis. She has over 12 years of experience in directing program evaluations, managing large-scale domestic and international research projects, and reporting of project deliverables to inform practice and policy change.

Prior to joining CFF, Dr. Bhatta served as a Researcher for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services (NJ DHS-DMHAS) where she managed data collection and reporting efforts for a variety of statewide programs funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA). These projects aimed to reduce opioid overdose in the state, educate at-risk populations, and provide treatment and recovery support services. Dr. Bhatta managed the research portion of cross-collaborative initiatives with key treatment, prevention, and recovery support providers, along with child welfare agencies, and other state departments. She also evaluated programs that sought to reduce infant prenatal substance exposure and improve outcomes for pregnant and postpartum women with an opioid use disorder—as well as their children.

Dr. Bhatta has also contributed to project management and research on various federally and state funded research projects and evaluations, including the NJ Child Support Institute (NJCSI), the NJ Department of Children and Families Child Welfare Leadership Training Grant, and the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Trafficking in Persons (UNVTF) grant.

Dr. Bhatta served on the board of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) New Jersey and continues to serve on their Continuing Education Committee. She also has 7 years of experience as an adjunct instructor at the Rutgers University School of Social Work where she teaches research methods to MSW students. Dr. Bhatta holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Tennessee and a PhD in Social Work from Rutgers University.

Kim Coe, BSW

Ms. Coe currently serves as the In-Depth Technical Assistance Program Director for the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare. In this capacity, she leads and manages the team working to support Tribes, states, and local jurisdictions to improve outcomes for pregnant and postpartum women, their infants and family members affected by prenatal substance exposure.

Ms. Coe has over 33 years of both SUD and child welfare experience. She began her career as a social worker with Vermont’s child welfare department handling abuse and neglect investigations. Ms. Coe spent 22 years as the Director of Residential and Community Treatment services at a nonprofit agency where she supervised all aspects of programming. Services ranged from a SUD and mental health residential treatment program for mothers and their children, to outpatient services, early childhood programs, workforce development, transitional housing, education programs, home visiting, and prevention programs.

Ms. Coe has worked extensively on collaborative projects with local and state partners, including Family Treatment Court, Citizens Advisory Board for Child Welfare, Parent Child Center Board, and Building Bright Futures State Council. She has extensive experience managing trauma-informed, family-centered services collaboratively

Ms. Coe, a licensed foster parent for over 20 years, also served as President of the Vermont Foster and Adoptive Family Association for more than five years.

Nancy Hansen, MSW

Ms. Hansen has over 35 years of professional experience working at the intersection of substance use treatment and child welfare at both the practice and policy level. Currently serves as CCFF’s Operations Director and the NCSACW Project Manager ensuring high quality products, efficiency in workflow, and excellence in performance. Professional project management experience on large scale initiatives and projects, monitoring workflow and ensuring contract compliance and delivery schedules, ensures high quality services and applying a continuous quality improvement approach. Extensive experience providing technical assistance, coaching, and evidence-based practice implementation expertise to build capacity for states, communities, and grantees to improve policies and direct services that improve family outcomes. Consistently draws upon knowledge of substance use and mental health prevention and treatment methods and services; child welfare strategies and service models; and prior experience with program and resource development, selection, and implementation of evidence-based models. Extensive experience working on legislative and statewide change initiatives in the child welfare arena, and large-scale program development, implementation, and management of substance use disorder (SUD) treatment programs for families involved in the child welfare system. Experience certifying, evaluating, and monitoring community-based SUD and child welfare provider agencies. Highly organized and proficient in the use of a computer-based technologies for project management, communication, and resource development. Ms. Hansen holds both a Bachelor of Science degree and Master of Social Work from Arizona State University.

Tina Willauer, MPA

Ms. Willauer currently serves as the Program Director for the National Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program at Children and Family Futures (CFF). In this capacity, she leads and manages the growth and expansion of the National START Model.

With 30 years of experience in the child welfare field, Ms. Willauer is dedicated to identifying and spreading strategies that work for families affected by parental substance use, trauma, and child maltreatment.  As the purveyor of the START model, she has worked in numerous jurisdictions to implement START and other child welfare system improvements. Before joining CFF in 2017, she spent a decade serving as the Director of the Kentucky START Program at the Department for Community Based Services, overseeing the expansion and rigorous evaluation of the model. Ms. Willauer has achieved high standards of practice and a change catalyst perspective in her every role from a front-line social worker, supervisor, senior manager, program director and consultant within the public child welfare system. She has maintained her focus on transforming and strengthening the system of care within and between child welfare agencies, substance use and mental health treatment providers, the judicial system, and other family-serving entities.  She has multiple peer reviewed publications and a lengthy list of dynamic national presentations.

Ms. Willauer received her Masters in Public Administration from Cleveland State University and her Bachelors in Criminal Justice from Bowling Green State University.