Mark B. Durgin

Director, PA Care Partnership

Contact Mark at durginm@upmc.edu

Mark B. Durgin joined OMHSAS on October 31, 2016, as the new Director of Pennsylvania Care Partnership.  Mark holds a B.S. in Criminal Justice from York College of Pennsylvania, with a focus on parole and probation.  Mark has over 21 years of professional experience in Pennsylvania’s child-serving systems, working with youth and families at a county level.  He has held direct care and coordination roles in County Juvenile Probation Services (school-based probation, specialty treatment courts, and residential care) and supervisory positions in Behavioral HealthChoices (program and Managed Care quality oversight, system partner liaison and coordination, and behavioral health and substance use network development). In addition to his work with Behavioral HealthChoices, Mark has been involved with the York County System of Care, Communities That Care, and oversight boards working with Children, Youth, and Families.  Mark has presented at the county, state, and national conferences on a variety of topics related to Managed Care, Behavioral Health Access, System of Care, and High Fidelity Wraparound.  Finally, he has played an active role in York County’s High Fidelity Wraparound team’s implementation, program funding, and oversight. 

 Mark believes that system partners must first place themselves in the shoes of the youth and family members with whom they work, so that they may more fully understand their unique needs and connect them with the most appropriate and least restrictive services and/or supports to meet those needs.  As System of Care's Director, Mark enjoys engaging with and seeking input from youth, family, and system partners, so that they may help inform and guide the future of Pennsylvania's System of Care Partnership. 

Dianna Brocious
Family Involvement Specialist
Contact Dianna at pasocdianna@gmail.com

Dianna and her husband are the parents of two children.  Their children were adopted in 1986 from a different culture, difficult circumstances, and unstable living environments.  As the understanding and knowledge of trauma, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Reactive Attachment Disorder, and Traumatic Brain Injury were little known Dianna spent much time researching the fields in the United States and Canada to comprehend the depth of damage to her children and to share that information to the clinical team that worked with her family. Dianna’s experience in the field of children’s mental health includes working for PA Families, Inc. for approximately ten years, volunteering as a parent advocate in the education system, in managed care meetings, and other child-serving systems.  She has served on many committees in the fields of child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health, early childhood mental health, pediatric medical home, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder as well as others.  Dianna’s personal experience raising children with special needs has given her the knowledge to bring an authentic family voice to both county and state boards such as the  Armstrong Indiana Behavioral Health and  Developmental Program Advisory Board (formerly MH/MR) and the Family Resource Network in Armstrong County a former Collaborative Board and the former State Collaborative Board.  She has also been a facilitator for Family Group Decision Making (FGDM).  Dianna currently serves on the Executive Committee for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, the PA Medical Home Initiative, the Value Behavioral Health Family Advisory Committee, the OMHSAS Planning Council Children's Committee, and the CCBHC Steering Committee.  Dianna is a certified trainer for Team Up for Families curriculum.  Now, as a grandparent, she and her husband are raising their oldest granddaughter who has special needs. They enjoy living in a county rich with rural, Appalachian, and Amish cultures.

Crystal Karenchak

Family Policy and Engagement Consultant and Family Lead Contact

Contact Crystal at karenchakcm@upmc.edu

Crystal and her family have a long history of multi-system involvement including Mental Health, Juvenile Justice, adult criminal justice, education and Drug, and Alcohol. She began her advocacy work for her own family and then for others in the 1980s. Crystal has worked with youth and adults in group home settings, as a counselor advocate for sexual assault domestic violence, and other serious crime victims. She retained her credentialing as a Victim Advocate through the Coalition of PA Crime Victims Organizations (COPCVO) until 2008. She partnered with the founding youth leaders of Rallying Youth Organized Together (RYOT) Against Rape helping to create the training manual for this youth-adult partnership. Crystal graduated from the PA Victim Assistance Academy through Scranton University where she won the George Award, provided the voice of victims for the Project Point of Light team, a sex offender treatment program. Her training talent includes NAMI’s Family to Family training, being a STOP Grant trainer to provide training to advocates, police, other systems, and the community on Rape Trauma and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Family Group Decision Making, Family Involvement in PA Juvenile Justice System, and is a certified trainer for Team Up for Families Roadmap since 2014. Crystal’s professional and community affiliations include NAMI, Roadmap National Collaborative, National Family Dialogue, National Family Council, 302 delegates for Elk and Cameron Counties. She has served in a multitude of leadership roles including on the: PA Coalition Against Rape, PA Coalition Against Domestic Violence Statewide Board, Elk County Systems of Care, a key leader in Elk County Communities that Care, Elk County Family Resource Network, Elk and McKean counties Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Board of Directors, Elk and Cameron County Child Death Review, Children and Youth MDT Multi-Disciplinary team, Elk County Integrated, Children’s Service Review, Child Welfare Resource Center Diversity Task Force, Family Committee for Juvenile Justice, OMHSAS Children’s Advisory Committee, and Youth and Family Training Institute Advisory Board.

Kelsey T. Leonard, J.D.
Cultural and Linguistic Competence Coordinator
Contact Kelsey at leonardkt@upmc.edu

An enrolled citizen of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Kelsey received her undergraduate degree in Anthropology and Sociology from Harvard University, her Master of Science from the University of Oxford, and received her J.D. from Duquesne University. Previously, Kelsey served as a Legislative Fellow for the National Congress of American Indians and worked for the international NGO, Cultural Survival, on Indigenous youth issues worldwide. As CLC coordinator she strives to ensure services sought, obtained, and provided are culturally balanced, attainable, and available for all youth and families in the statewide implementation of PA Care Partnership. She is responsible for assisting leadership, management staff, partner counties, families, youth, and all other system partners in assuring their provision of culturally and linguistically competent (CLC) services, standards, and practices in Pennsylvania.

Jamal Ford
Assistant Program Manager
Contact Jamal at jford10@upmc.edu

Jamal was hired in September 2018 as our first Youth Resource Coordinator. Jamal’s goals are to collaborate with the youth organizations across the state and collect information on what those organizations do so that he can effectively guide counties contracted with the PA Care Partnership SOC grant in the right direction for technical assistance.

Jamal had spent the last seventeen years at a residential treatment facility. In his time there, he acquired a wealth of experience in the various positions he worked, including direct care, ropes course coordinator, Assistant Director and Director of Therapeutic Activities, and One-to-One care, giving him a desire to deepen his understanding and further his advocacy for the youth voice. He helped to implement the Sanctuary Model at the RTF and doing that led him to an opportunity to learn about Trauma-Informed Care from Lakeside Global Institute through Philadelphia University and The United Way.

With his extensive experience working with and for youth, and his knowledge of trauma-informed principles, Jamal can be a great help to counties during the implementation of the System of Care Philosophy.