Day 2: 2021 Virtual National Forum on Overdose Fatality Review

Moderator: Lindsey Kato, M.P.H., C.H.E.S.®

Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator
Overdose Response Strategy

Ms. Lindsey Kato is a highly skilled public health professional who specializes in multidisciplinary work to strategically address complex issues at the intersection of health and safety.  She currently serves as the training and technical assistance coordinator for the Overdose Response Strategy, a national initiative funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Center for Disease Control, where she supports the ongoing education and collaboration of public health and safety teams across the country.

In the past, she has consulted with criminal justice systems and law enforcement agencies across the country to minimize overdose risk by working with public/behavioral health partners to implement sustainable solutions based on meaningful partnerships.  In 2016, Ms. Kato worked within the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program to enhance complex relationships across the state.  She successfully facilitated law enforcement/treatment/public health focus groups and guided the development of a relationship building tool for organizations to cross-educate, work past differences, and set common goals around a shared vision.

In 2017, Ms. Kato worked with the Utah U.S. Attorney’s Office to plan and coordinate the first multisector opioid conference in the state—including treatment, enforcement, prevention, education, and criminal justice sectors—and as a result, was awarded the U.S. Attorney’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cooperative Law Enforcement.

She holds a master of public health in epidemiology from the Colorado School of Public Health and a bachelor of science in public health, focused on health promotion and behavior, from Oregon State University.  In addition, Ms. Kato is a certified health education specialist credentialed by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.

Additional Biographical Information:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseykato/

Tammy Brown

Senior Policy Advisor
Bureau of Justice Assistance

Tammy Brown brings 20 years of experience in the criminal justice system to the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) as a Senior Policy Advisor.  She oversees several projects related to law enforcement and prosecution including the Crime Gun Intelligence Centers, the National Resource and Technical Assistance Center for Improving Law Enforcement Investigations, developing best practices in prosecution, and improving homicide clearance rates.  Before coming to BJA, she served as the Chief of External Affairs for the Baltimore City, Maryland, State’s Attorney’s Office, where she was responsible for community affairs, victim services, prevention programming, communication, grants, legislation, and policy for the office.  In that capacity, she served as the front line to the community and spearheaded criminal justice reform.  Prior, she served as Governor Martin O’Malley’s Executive Director for the Governor’s Office of Crime Control and Prevention, where she advised the Governor on criminal justice issues and oversaw the administration of more than $100 million in federal and state grant funds.  She was also responsible for coordination and collaboration with public safety agencies at the local, state, and federal levels to develop and implement effective strategies and tactics that helped lead to historic lows in violent crime in Maryland.  In this position, she led criminal justice reform in the areas of pretrial, gun laws, death penalty, reentry, human trafficking, domestic violence, diversion, and juvenile justice.

Jessica Wolff, M.P.H.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Ms. Jessica Wolff is a lead health scientist in the Division of Overdose Prevention and oversees the public health arm of the Overdose Response Strategy, a collaboration between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.

Special Agent Christopher Jakim

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

Special Agent Christopher Jakim has served with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for more than 29 years.  He has served in both domestic and foreign posts, including New York City, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Newark, New Jersey; and Colombia, South America.  While assigned to DEA Headquarters, Special Agent Jakim served as the Deputy Chief of the Congressional and Public Affairs Unit.  He currently serves as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge in the DEA New Jersey Division and is also the Commander of the New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area for the state of New Jersey.

Mallory O’Brien, M.S., Ph.D.

Senior Research Advisor, IPA
Centers for Disease Control
National Institute of Justice

Dr. Mallory O’Brien is trained as an epidemiologist and is currently serving as a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the overdose fatality review (OFR) subject-matter expert and as a senior research advisor to the U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice.  She has extensive experience developing, leading, and training on incident reviews.  Dr. O’Brien developed and piloted the Wisconsin OFR process and data collection tool.  During her time with the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Abuse Program, she led the OFR efforts.  Dr. O’Brien is an assistant professor at the Medical College of Wisconsin. 

Additional Biography Information:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallory-o-brien-26701a10/

Moderator: Nava Bastola, M.P.H.

Public Health Analyst
CDC Foundation

Ms. Nava Bastola is a public health professional with the CDC Foundation.  Since 2017, Ms. Bastola has been working as a public health analyst for the Overdose Response Strategy (ORS).  The ORS is a unique public health and public safety partnership between the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that is designed to help communities reduce overdoses.  As a public health analyst, she helps agencies and organizations in New York and New Jersey build partnerships and develop data sharing and response efforts.  Prior to her current role, she worked at the Institutional Review Board of Rutgers University dedicating her work to the protection of human subjects engaged in research.  In addition to her professional responsibilities, Ms. Bastola has volunteered at various local and global maternal and child health agencies, working to reduce health disparities.  She earned a master’s of public health in health education and behavioral health sciences.

Moderator: Lindsey Kato, M.P.H., C.H.E.S.®

Training and Technical Assistance Coordinator
Overdose Response Strategy

Ms. Lindsey Kato is a highly skilled public health professional who specializes in multidisciplinary work to strategically address complex issues at the intersection of health and safety.  She currently serves as the training and technical assistance coordinator for the Overdose Response Strategy, a national initiative funded by the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Center for Disease Control, where she supports the ongoing education and collaboration of public health and safety teams across the country.

In the past, she has consulted with criminal justice systems and law enforcement agencies across the country to minimize overdose risk by working with public/behavioral health partners to implement sustainable solutions based on meaningful partnerships.  In 2016, Ms. Kato worked within the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program to enhance complex relationships across the state.  She successfully facilitated law enforcement/treatment/public health focus groups and guided the development of a relationship building tool for organizations to cross-educate, work past differences, and set common goals around a shared vision.

In 2017, Ms. Kato worked with the Utah U.S. Attorney’s Office to plan and coordinate the first multisector opioid conference in the state—including treatment, enforcement, prevention, education, and criminal justice sectors—and as a result, was awarded the U.S. Attorney’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cooperative Law Enforcement.

She holds a master of public health in epidemiology from the Colorado School of Public Health and a bachelor of science in public health, focused on health promotion and behavior, from Oregon State University.  In addition, Ms. Kato is a certified health education specialist credentialed by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc.

Additional Biographical Information:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindseykato/

Bill Newell

Drug Intelligence Officer
Rocky Mountain HIDTA and Utah Department of Public Safety

Mr. Bill Newell retired in December 2018 after a 32-year career as a special agent/criminal investigator in the U.S. Department of Justice.  He has worked all over the world and, as a result, experienced a wide range of approaches to combatting violent crime; drug abuse; and varying degrees of public health/public safety partnerships to address drug addiction.  In May 2020, Mr. Newell became the Utah Drug Intelligence Officer as part of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Overdose Response Strategy.  Utah offers a unique ability to partner public health and public safety due to a clear understanding by public and private entities within the state that a new approach is needed to address the serious issues surrounding overdoses by opioids, stimulants, and other substances.

Paige Andrews, M.S.

Public Health Analyst
CDC Foundation

Ms. Paige Andrews has been a part of the Overdose Response Strategy as a public health analyst for Wisconsin since April 2020.  She has a master of science degree in epidemiology and has worked at the national, territorial, state, academic, and nonprofit levels.

Additional biography information: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paigenandrews/

Stephen Barnes

Public Health Analyst
CDC Foundation

Mr. Steve Barnes joined the Overdose Response Strategy as Utah’s public health analyst in January 2020 and brings a background in epidemiology, biotechnology research, and academic research.  His experience in the field includes positions as an epidemiologist with the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Arizona Department of Health Services.

Additional Biography Information:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenrbarnes/

Tiffany Hicks, E.M.P.A., C.P.S.

Drug Intelligence Officer
Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area

Ms. Tiffany Hicks is an experienced criminal justice professional with expertise in illicit drug trends and trafficking.  She specializes in convening diverse partners and facilitating collaboration to plan and implement innovative strategies addressing community threats.

Additional Biography Information:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffany-hicks-59bb0950/

Moderator: Sarisa Roe, M.P.H.

Center for Disease Control Foundation

Ms. Sarisa Roe is an evaluation specialist with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Foundation assigned to the CDC’s Division of Overdose Prevention, where she supports the evaluation of the Public Health and Safety Team (PHAST) toolkit.  Prior to her role at the CDC Foundation, Ms. Roe worked for Public Health–Seattle and King County as a performance metrics analyst and the King County Department of Community and Human Services a housing and homelessness evaluator.

Lee B. Smith, M.D., J.D.

Executive Director and County Health Officer
Monongalia County Health Department

Dr. Lee Smith serves as CEO and County Health Officer.  His career in emergency medicine at West Virginia University has helped the school be recognized as an Academic Health Department and he has brought a morbidity and mortality conference to the Monongalia County Quick Response Team as a quality improvement tool.

Lieutenant Matthew Barter

Chief of Staff
Manchester, New Hampshire, Police Department

Lieutenant Matthew Barter has been with the Manchester, New Hampshire, Police Department for 12 years and is the Chief of Staff for the agency.  He was previously the unit supervisor for a violent crime reduction unit and a task force officer with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.  Lieutenant Barter has implemented numerous evidence-based policing practices within the agency, to include a data-driven hotspot policing concept and violent crime reduction initiatives.  His current work surrounds use of social network analysis for harm reduction and crime prevention activities.  He holds a master’s degree and bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and pursues research regarding violent crime and place-based crime strategy.  Lieutenant Barter is a member of the 2018 National Institute of Justice Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science Scholar Program.

Additional Biography Information:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-barter-6096581a/

Jon Dower, ICADC, SAP, CIP, CTP

Executive Director
West Virginia Sober Living

Mr. Jon Dower has served in an operational and supervisory role for the Quick Response Team (QRT) peer recovery support specialist (PRSS) implementation team.  He is the Executive Director of West Virginia Sober Living and is an adjunct professor at West Virginia University in the Department of Counseling and Learning Sciences.  He has nearly a decade of experience utilizing PRSS personnel as an intervention team from a community-based perspective.  His role on the QRT includes assisting with community stakeholder capacity building, supervision and training of PRSS staff, implementation of a standard operating procedure that follows best practices in PRSS service delivery, collating data tracking and collection requirements, and implementing quality improvement strategies to prioritize engagement outcomes for those we serve.

Jaime Hoebeke, M.P.H., MCHES

Chief Strategy Officer
City of Manchester, New Hampshire, Health Department

Ms. Jaime Hoebeke has been employed by the City of Manchester Health Department in New Hampshire for 18 years and is currently serving as the Chief Strategy Officer.