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.

Todd trains Motivational Interviewing across the USA and was the recipient of the 2005 Team Excellence Award (State of Iowa - Department of Corrections) and is also the recipient of the 2006 Outstanding Victim Assistance award from the Iowa Corrections Association. Todd serves on the Board of Directors for the Iowa Corrections Association.

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).

Shawn Smith - Trainer

Shawn Smith is based in Milwaukee, WI. Mr. Smith is a member of the Motivational Interview Network of Trainers (MINT, 2012), sits on the *MINT Trainer Certification Committee, MINT Diversity Workgroup, and serves as a Mentor to new MINTies. Shawn has trained for our TA Group for several years and is both a MINT Trainer and a MINT Coder for our Group (MITI coding metric).

Shawn has over 20 years of applied and practical experience as a direct service provider, program director, and agency leader in residential treatment, criminal justice, education, youth services, and workforce development settings. He has shared MI, Cultural Reverence, Trauma Informed Care, and Reflective Supervision with thousands of professionals, including those serving in education, health care, behavioral health, workforce development, education, addictions, and the criminal justice system.

He holds a certificate in Trauma Counseling from the University of Wisconsin Helen Bader School of Social Work and is a GAINS Center Certified Trauma Informed Care Trainer. Initially trained by the originator of Cultural Humility, Dr. Melanie Tervalon, Shawn initiated the first Cultural Humility trainer-of-trainers in Wisconsin.

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

* MITI: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity

Randall Estes, LMSW - Trainer

Randy is a licensed master social worker, certified advanced addiction counselor (CAAC) and certified clinical supervisor (CCC) currently providing mental health and substance abuse therapy at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services, Kalamazoo, MI.

Mr. Estes is a member of the MINT* community (2010, San Diego, CA). Randy has been providing Motivational Interviewing Training on a National, State, and local level since 2008. Randy has served as a trainer in Motivational Interviewing for the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan (CMHA) and the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI). Randy has delivered conference presentations for Motivational Interviewing in Indianapolis, IN; Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; and Lansing, MI. Mr. Estes is a provider of Assertive Community Treatment ,and has served as an Integrated Dual Diagnosis Treatment Supervisor, Community Network Services, Waterford, Michigan.

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

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Meet our Motivational Interviewing Coding Department

Margo Bristow, MA – Coding Administrator

Margo Bristow is a member of the MINT community (Chicago, 2007) and is an active member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers. Margo chairs the MINT Finance and Audit Comittee as well as the Nomination Committee. She was the co-developer of the MINT+ Mentorship program which has arranged over 100 mentorship partnerships since its inception. After she attended her second MITI coding training, she joined other MINT members to develop an online video Coding Lab. This lab focused on developing and enhancing each member’s Coding skills and assessed interrater reliability and fidelity to the MITI standards. Margo brings so much experience to our Coding group.

Ms. Bristow has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology and is the past President and Board Member for the Illinois Council on Problem Gambling. Margo is a counselor for Substance Abuse and Problem gambling issues.

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

* MITI: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (coding metric)

Rebecca DeCess, MSW, LCSW - Coding Manager

Rebecca has faciltated our Coding department for us since we started. Ms. DeCess works for our local Tri-County Office on Aging, serving as an Intake Specialist. Becca has been trained in MI and has worked with agencies, courts, State departments and Federal groups as our coding facilitator. She is highly organized and has developed a system that has handled more than one thousand audio tape submissions from over 30+ agencies and organizations.

Rebecca will act as the point-of-contact for (1) your agency, and (2) our group of coders. We ask that your ogranization designate only one person to be the point-of-contact for Ms. DeCess. This is a necessary requirement, as our Coding department--at any one time--can have tapes being submitted from multiple groups based in differening states across the country.

When you begin as a client, Becca will be happy to send information on our Tape submssion / Coding process.

Shawn Smith - Coding Associate

Shawn Smith serves us both as a MINT* trainer and a MITI* coder Mr. Smith is a member of the Motivational Interview Network of Trainers (MINT, 2012), sits on the *MINT Trainer Certification Committee, MINT Diversity Workgroup, and serves as a Mentor to new MINTies. Shawn has trained for our TA Group for several years and is both a MINT Trainer and a MINT Coder for our Group (MITI coding metric).

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

* MITI: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity

Susan B. Dopart, MS, - Coding Associate

Susan is a MITI* coding trainer and coding associate for our technical assistance group. She is a member of the MINT* international community and is a Certified Motivational Interviewing trainer who is a member of the MINT Trainer Certification Committee. Ms. Dopart has trained the MITI* metric to agencies who seek to enable candidates to check staff competencies for the MI approach. Susan holds a master’s degree in exercise physiology, a bachelor’s in nutrition and clinical dietetics and is a certified diabetes continuing education specialist.

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

* MITI: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity