Meet the Technical Assistance Group

Michael D. Clark, MSW - Director

Michael's interests lie in the application of strength-based and motivational practices for hard-to-serve, court-mandated populations.  Michael served for 16 years as a probation officer and a court magistrate as well as in various positions for mental health, child wefare and addictions work.  He has recently served as a secretariat for an international expert group (Building International Standards of Treatment of Drug Use Disorders) for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna, Austria (2014-2015).

Mr. Clark is a member of the MINT* community (Charlottesville, VA, 2003) and has presented at MINT Forums (San Diego / Fort Wayne) as well as the International Conference on Motivatonal Interviewing - ICMI (Interlaken, Switzerland). Michael has trained over 1,000 agencies and has provided over 30+  implementation initiatives (training-for-trainers) for MI to varous agencies across the USA. 

* MINT: Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, an international professional organization.

Teresa Chandler, BA  - Assistant Director

Teresa Chandler is the Assistant Director for our Michigan-based technical assistance and training group. Teresa is a member of the MINT* and has trained multiple agencies and court groups across the USA. She has delivered multiple MI Training-of-Trainer (TOT) initiatives and is our lead trainer for these TOT projects. Ms. Chandler is also a MITI* coder and has trained Motivational Interviewing Coaching to multiple groups. Teresa has been part of a national faculty for a large training initiative focusing on substance-dependency treatment providers for the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP), the National Drug Court Institute (NDCI) and the American Society for Addiction Medicine (ASAM). Ms. Chandler is a 25 year veteran of the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC), and currently serves as a MDOC Reentry Training Specialist, content expert and Master Trainer for a variety of curriculums.

* MINT: Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, an international professional organization.

* MITI: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity

Todd A. Roberts, MA - Trainer

Todd is a Training Officer for the Iowa Department of Corrections (Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services State of Iowa). Mr. Roberts has worked for both the Fifth and Sixth Judicial Districts as a Probation/Parole Officer II. He has worked probation/parole case loads of intensive pretrial, low risk, standard case load and with sex offenders in a residential program.  Todd is a member of the MINT* community (2006, Miami, FL) and is also a MI coder, having been trained in the MITI* Coding System in 2008.

Mr. Roberts has had the opportunity to train health care, mental health and corrections (juvenile and adult) groups across the United States. Among many former clients for our Center, Todd has provided contractual training for the American Probation & Parole Association, the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections, Idaho Department of Corrections, Benchmarks Mental Health Services North Carolina, and ASO Health Care Professionals.  In 2016, Mr. Roberts was invited to be a contributor for the Guilford Press book, "Motivational Interviewing with Offenders" recently published in 2017.  He is a certified Victim Impact Facilitator trainer and has earned his Sex Offender Professional Certification. 

* MINT: Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, an international professional organization.

* MITI: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (coding metric).

Nancy James, MA - Consultant

Meet Nancy L. James, MA, CADCIII (certified alcohol & drug counselor, 3^rd level). Nancy is our assistant manager who handles issues related to web support and our extensive offering of web courses. We’re grateful to have Nancy in this position as she was an early adopter (2000-2001) in online education and has served as a program manager in the substance use dependency field. Ms. James also doubles as a consultant for us, having worked as a Clinical Director, where she trained and monitored across the full treatment spectrum, from detox, residential, intensive outpatient and community mental health, including mobile crisis response. Nancy is currently consulting on treatment court initiatives for our group, including the development of Rapid Response model for the opioid and fentanyl crisis. She has developed and trained treatment staff, practicum students and peer mentors since 1995.

Lora Hodges  - Trainer

Lora Hodges is associate trainer for our Michigan-based technical assistance group and has trained multiple agencies and court groups across the USA.  She specializes in the training the combination of Motivational Interviewing and Trauma-informed Care for client’s challenged by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Lora also trains in  SAMSHA’s Trauma Informed Systems.

Lora is a member of the MINT* (2019) and is also a MITI* coder. She has trained multiple professional disciplines, including provider agencies who treat substance use disorders (SUD) having served as a faculty member for the National Association of Drug Professionals (NADCP).   She is an expert trainer for applying Motivational Interviewing to adult and juvenile justice departments—having served for 30 years with the Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC). Lora is a statewide Master Trainer for MDOC and is known for her mix of the practice of Motivational Interviewing and Cognitive-based interventions. Ms. Hodges training resume also includes Batterers Intervention Programming and Adverse Childhood Studies and Resilience (N.E.A.R.).

* MINT: Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, an international professional organization.

* MITI: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity