Collaboration to strengthen healthcare quality & outcomes
The depth of our leadership talent encompasses a broad range of disciplines and expertise. We excel because of our capacity to offer highly customized solutions which precisely meet the cultural, geographic, and economic needs of our customers. Through exceptional skills, experience and integrated leadership, our capabilities are unrivalled in the industry.
Our leadership team is recognized nationwide for their expertise in the healthcare industry. We are the single source solution to ensure that our customers meet their program and business objectives.
Mr. Rousos has a diverse background in business and legal affairs including significant experience in leadership positions with publicly-traded corporations, start-up companies, non-profit entities, and professional and trade organizations. With over 25 years of experience in public and private sector industries, he has wide-ranging business and legal expertise in matters relating to corporate, taxation, employment, labor, transactional (including a $1.55 billion corporate spin-off), securities and intellectual property issues. As the chief human resources officer and senior legal counsel for a publicly-traded company, he was responsible for the administration of the company’s health and welfare benefit plans. He has also acted as counsel to a number of corporate health and welfare benefit program administrators by providing legal advice and support. In addition, Mr. Rousos has served on and worked with several public, charitable and advisory boards including the American Red Cross. He received his Doctor of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Pittsburgh.
Ms. Stokes has successfully coordinated large-scale statewide projects in over 14 states, designing operational responsibilities and reporting protocols. She has developed managed care models, customized IT solutions, and reporting structures that continue to be used nationally for managed healthcare projects. Ms. Stokes has over 15 years of national multi-state project management and contract oversight experience.
She was formerly the Director of Operations for a major healthcare management corporation, where she was responsible for their multi-million dollar, multi-state Managed Care Division. Ms. Stokes founded DDM Ascend’s Healthcare Management Division in 2000, and she has been integrally responsible for the direction, growth, and success of our business lines.
Ms. Raby has over 23 years in the behavioral healthcare industry providing national consulting, multi-level policy design, and oversight of managed care, treatment, and Quality Management plans. She is the former Clinical Director of a national managed care company and participated in developing and implementing the landmark $185 million MH/SA Massachusetts’ contract, the first capitated full-risk Medicaid program of its kind and scope in the country. Ms. Raby developed treatment and managed care assessment tools and procedures that continue to be used in several states and performed extensive national training on assessments and evidence based practices. She has managed or provided PASRR and UR consultation for 14 different state systems and was invited by CMS to participate in an expert panel on PASRR. She participated in Tennessee’s Steering Committee for the successful Real Choice application, has leveraged more than $19 million in federal grants over the past five years for state government agencies, and has designed healthcare management methodologies for state health care systems across the country.
Ms. Shanley offers broad-based behavioral health experience that includes participation in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual [DSM] task force for development of criteria for Autism and Autism Spectrum disorders. She also managed implementation and oversight of large-scale assessment projects, website development projects, as well as oversight of national PASRR contracts. In addition to offering insights in state government strategies for managing MR and behavioral health services, Ms. Shanley has extensive experience testing and evaluating individuals with psychiatric and developmental disabilities and is versed in regulatory and management requirements for Long Term Care and HCB waiver programs. She was selected to participate in Governor Bredesen’s Task Force for Developmental Disabilities and was invited to join Tennessee’s Steering Committee for Money Follows the Person. Ms. Shanley is an expert in mental retardation service systems and has provided extensive consultation to states regarding de-institutionalization model practices.
Mr. Lepley has over 14 years of experience providing information technology services in the behavioral healthcare industry. He specializes in designing, programming, and testing of web-based applications and data systems. In his role as IS Vice President, Mr. Lepley utilizes his in-depth informatics expertise and behavioral healthcare knowledge to create strategic vision for DDM Ascend. He integrates best practices with technological solutions, and leverages new technology to develop, customize, and maintain state-of-the-art information systems to exactly meet our customer’s needs. His primary focus and expertise is the development of innovative and cost-effective advancements in information systems that affect improvements in clinical processes and outcomes. Mr. Lepley leads DDM Ascend’s team of web developers, data programmers and analysts in the development of customized IS infrastructure, including hardware and software resources to capture service data, manage performance tracking, create web-based processes, and provide quality data outcomes.
Ms. Rousos is the Vice President of Marketing and Development. She works closely with states to identify needs and gaps to create potential synergies. Ms. Rousos establishes business relationships with prospective customers and tracks future opportunities for the company. As an expert in implementation and project design, Ms. Rousos oversees our recruitment division and chairs our Credentialing Review Committee.
A Quality Management team oversees quality standards for each of our projects. These teams are responsible for monitoring and reporting about virtually all aspects of our projects, including our performance, indicators about provider compliance, and quality measures related to our field clinician network. Our QM teams use structured data collection and reporting protocols and conduct data analysis to help our customers make important decisions about the programs they manage.
We have recruited, credentialed, and trained a broad network of hundreds of clinicians across the country to conduct highly specialized assessments for the programs we manage.
These clinicians reside within our customer’s states, are experienced serving the people we assess, and are familiar with service systems and resources.
All national clinicians are required to participate in structured training modules and are supervised closely by our QM teams.