National

Steven Edelstein

Steven Edelstein
National Policy Director
SEdelstein@PHInational.org

Steven Edelstein is PHI’s National Policy Director. In that role, he directs PHI’s national policy agenda to improve the quality of long-term care by creating quality direct-care jobs and guides PHI’s state efforts in New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Northern New England. Through the Direct Service Workforce Resource Center, funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, he oversees PHI’s technical assistance activities supporting state-based efforts to improve recruitment and retention of direct-care workers. Previously, he managed PHI projects funded by the US Departments of Health and Human Services and Labor, as well as PHI’s role in the Better Jobs/Better Care National Demonstration program. At PHI, Steven has also been involved in analyzing state wage pass-through initiatives, developing a model to illustrate the economic and social implications of potential wage increases for home and community-based services workers, and examining the policy implications of current training requirements for direct-care workers.

Steven has over 20 years of health policy experience, including 8 years as a policy analyst and advisor in Washington, D.C., specializing in government health programs and long-term care and health access issues. Steven is a graduate of Duke University with a degree in public policy studies; additionally, he earned his law degree from the University of Southern California.

Dorie Seavey

Dorie Seavey
Director of Policy Research
DSeavey@PHInational.org

Dorie Seavey, Ph.D., PHI’s Director of Policy Research, leads PHI’s policy research and analysis on economic, financial, and policy issues affecting the direct-care workforce and the eldercare/disability services industry. Her recent work has addressed topics such as: the economic development role of direct-care jobs, the cost of frontline turnover, strategies for improving wages and benefits for direct-care workers, reforming Medicaid payment and procurement policies for home- and community-based services, and the intersection of family and paid caregiving.

Trained as a labor economist, Seavey received her Doctorate in Economics from Yale University in 1987. Over her career, she has specialized in workforce development and labor market problems for low-income individuals, including issues for frontline health care, social service, and childcare workers. Seavey has served as a senior member of several national evaluation and research teams investigating sectoral employment initiatives and employment brokering programs for low-income and disadvantaged job seekers. She is a former Senior Research Scientist at the Heller School at Brandeis University.

Abby Marquand

Abby Marquand
Policy Research Associate
(718) 928-2062
AMarquand@PHInational.org

Abby Marquand, M.P.H., is PHI’s Policy Research Associate. In that role, she is responsible for research and analysis on policy issues affecting the direct-care workforce as well as the eldercare/disability service industry. She also provides support to the Director of Policy Research.

Abby’s previous work experience and education are in the field of aging. Prior to joining PHI, Abby worked on reporting and analysis in New York City, first at the Jewish Association for Services for the Aged, and then at NYC’s Medicaid Homecare Services program. She also spent time at the Mental Health Association of NYC – Geriatric Mental Health Alliance supporting policy research and advocacy work on geriatric mental health issues. Abby earned a master’s in public health from Columbia University, specializing in aging.

Washington, D.C.

Carol Regan

Carol Regan
Government Affairs Director
202-223-8355
CRegan@PHInational.org

Carol Regan, M.P.H., has over 30 years experience with national and state-based labor and public policy and advocacy organizations. Her work has included policy research, analysis, and legislative advocacy primarily on health insurance coverage, programs and services for low-income children and families, long-term care, and workforce development.

Carol is currently the Director of Government Affairs for PHI (Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute) leading its federal policy work to improve the quality of care in the eldercare/disability services sector by improving the quality of jobs. Before opening PHI’s DC office, she was director of PHI’s Health Care for Health Care Workers campaign, advocating affordable health coverage for direct care workers. She has held policy positions at the Service Employees International Union, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees Union and the Children’s Defense Fund. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the National Labor College in Silver Spring, Maryland. Regan received her Master’s in Public Health from the University of Michigan.

Gail MacInnes

Gail MacInnes
National Policy Analyst
202-223-8355
GMacInnes@PHInational.org

Gail MacInnes is PHI’s National Policy Analyst. She is responsible for analysis, writing, and advocacy on issues affecting the direct-care workforce, with the goal of influencing national policies affecting the quality of direct-care jobs and the quality of care for long-term care consumers.

Gail has over 10 years of policy analysis and advocacy experience focused on aging and long-term care issues. Prior to joining PHI, she worked as a public policy consultant on health care, long-term care, and care coordination policy for the Social Work Leadership Institute of the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. For two years, she organized older adults to participate in public policy advocacy in Milwaukee with the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups. She also spent a number years working with the National Consumer Voice for Quality Long-Term Care to train family members of nursing home residents on how to advocate for improved quality of care within facilities. Gail holds a master’s degree in social work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore and a bachelor’s degree in International Studies from the University of Richmond.

Massachusetts

Amy Robins

Amy Robins
MA State Director
(617) 695-1662
ARobins@PHInational.org

Amy Robins is the Massachusetts State Director for PHI. She is responsible for developing and executing a state-wide strategy for advocacy, research, and policy analysis on behalf of both direct-care workers and their long-term care clients. She works closely with key state officials, advocates and stakeholder groups to promote PHI’s health care and employment initiatives.

Amy came to PHI from Jobs for the Future, where she researched and disseminated best-practice advancement strategies for low-wage workers. Following welfare reform efforts in the late 1990s, Amy helped develop, implement and manage a $15 million Welfare-to-Work program at the Seattle-King County Workforce Development Council. An assistant to the director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor during the Clinton administration, she also spent five years as a legislative aide for the U.S. Congress. Amy is a graduate of Wesleyan University and holds a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School at the University of Washington.

Midwest

Hollis Turnham

Hollis Turnham
Midwest Director
(517) 327-0331
HTurnham@PHInational.org

Hollis Turnham is the Midwest Director for PHI. She works to improve the quality of direct-care jobs for home health aides, certified nursing assistants, and other direct-care workers in Midwest states. She works with provider, consumer, and worker organizations across the long-term care continuum as well as public policy makers, governmental agencies, researchers, workforce agencies, and the foundation community to shape new quality care and workforce policy initiatives and improve workplace and caregiving practices. She is the author of Michigan’s Care Gap: Our Emerging Direct Care Workforce Crisis.

Hollis has over 30 years experience in poverty and aging issues, first as a legal services attorney in Adrian, Michigan and, then, as Michigan’s State Long Term Care Ombudsman for almost 16 years. Prior to joining PHI, Hollis was the 1999-2000 John Heinz Senate Fellow in Aging working on aging and long-term care issues for then-Chairman James Jeffords (R-VT) of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. She has a J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law.

Tameshia Bridges

Tameshia Bridges
MI Senior Workforce Advocate
(517) 372-8310
TBridges@PHInational.org

Tameshia Bridges, MSW, is the Michigan Senior Workforce Advocate for PHI. She is responsible for developing and promoting policy, advocacy, and outreach strategies to expand and maintain health care coverage and promote economic self-sufficiency for direct-care workers, and for supporting PHI’s Midwest Director. In this role, she coordinates PHI’s Earn, Keep, Save MORE outreach campaign to provide direct-workers information on free tax services; assists organizations with data collection and survey work on the direct-care workforce; and, monitors health care reform efforts in the state.

Tameshia has 10 years of health care and policy experience in various capacities, including state policy research and development, work with women who are HIV-positive, and public policy advocacy. As a health insurance specialist in the Region V office of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, she was an analyst for the home and community based services (HCBS) waiver program, where she was responsible for assisting states in the development and evaluation of their HCBS waiver programs. Tameshia has a master of social work degree with an emphasis in health policy and community development from the Washington University (St. Louis) Brown School of Social Work. She recently participated in the 2008 cohort for the National Women’s Law Center’s Progressive Leadership Advocacy Network for emerging leaders working to impact the lives of low-income women and their families.

Alexandra Olins

Alexandra Olins
Regional Policy Specialist
(612) 729-0915
AOlins@PHInational.org

Alexandra Olins is PHI’s Regional Policy Specialist. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, she works on a variety of special projects focused on improving direct-care worker training and employment. Prior to relocating to the Midwest, she managed PHI’s Northern New England LEADS Institute, including coordinating communication among the state partners and with funders, managing logistics, tracking lessons learned, providing consultation to the state partners and provider organizations as needed, and coordinating public education campaigns across the three northern New England states.

Alexandra has worked in the field of workforce development for several years. She came to PHI from the Boston Private Industry Council, Boston’s workforce investment board, where she managed a two-year, $1 million grant to provide skill upgrade training to entry-level financial services employees. She also provided technical assistance to long-term care career ladder projects and to the Boston Workforce Development Initiative, now SkillWorks, a $10 million public-private partnership to develop industry-driven job training partnerships in Boston. Alexandra also worked at Jobs for the Future, where she provided technical assistance and consulting services for national workforce development demonstration projects. Prior to her work in workforce development, Alexandra was an elementary school teacher in New Orleans and Los Angeles. Alexandra is a graduate of Wesleyan University and holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

New York

Carol Rodat

Carol Rodat
NY Policy Director
(718) 402-7226
CRodat@PHInational.org

Carol Rodat is the New York Policy Director for PHI. She is responsible for strategic advocacy, research, and analysis on behalf of the state’s direct-care workers and long-term care consumers, improving the health care delivery system by emphasizing the policy and practice learning derived from PHI and its affiliates. She works closely with a variety of stakeholders in New York’s health care system, including consumers, workers and their representatives, and providers.

Carol has over 20 years of policy experience, having worked first in the field of child welfare policy for the Child Welfare League of America in Washington, D. C., and then as executive director of Hospital Trustees of New York State, where she initiated one of the first quality improvement projects in the state’s hospitals. She was also a contributing editor to Health System Leader, which studied the development of integrated health systems. Most recently she served as president of the Home Care Association of New York State, a statewide not-for-profit organization active in state and federal home care policy. While there, she published reports and studies on the importance of the workforce in long-term care and testified frequently on the role of the direct-care worker. A founding board member of the Direct Care Alliance, she holds a master’s degree in English from the University of Oklahoma.

Meghan Shineman

Meghan Shineman
(718) 928-2061
MShineman@PHInational.org

Meghan is PHI’s New York Policy Analyst. In that role, she is responsible for the analysis and advocacy of policy issues and initiatives affecting the quality of the direct-care workforce in New York, and for supporting PHI’s New York policy director. She also participates in coalitions and works with stakeholder groups to further PHI’s policy goals and practice in long-term care.

Prior to joining PHI, Meghan spent three years analyzing New York’s Medicaid long-term care system at the United Hospital Fund, a health services research and philanthropic organization. She is a graduate of Boston College and holds a master’s degree in public administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at New York University.