Jody Levison-Johnson is a licensed clinical social worker with nearly 30 years of experience in the field of human services.  

Jody is a longstanding champion for systems change that results in the ability for individuals and communities to thrive. She is deeply committed to advancing policy that ensures equitable access to quality services and supports. Previously, Jody served as the Assistant Vice President of Practice Improvement at the National Council for Behavioral Health, where she oversaw the organization’s consulting portfolio and a large, privately funded adolescent mental health initiative.  

She has also served as the Chief Clinical Officer for a multi-state children’s care management organization, as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Behavioral Health, and as the Vice President of Coordinated Care Services, Inc. (CCSI), a non-profit management and consulting services organization where was responsible for all of CCSI’s service quality, system development, and evaluation activities including oversight of the county administered children’s mental health system. Her experiences leading system reform efforts across the country prompted her interest in the environmental contexts that surround deep change in social and public systems.  

Jody holds a Master of Social Work degree from Syracuse University and a Master of Arts and PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch University.

Jim Carr is the Chief Financial Officer at Social Current. Jim previously held Senior Financial Officer positions most recently at Cerami & Associates, Inc. and Crossborder Exchange Corporation. He has an extensive background in financial planning and control, accounting and reporting, treasury, financial analysis, and systems development. Jim graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University with a BS in Accounting and an MBA in Finance. 

Undraye Howard currently serves as vice president of equity, diversity, and inclusion at Social Current. In his roles over the years, he has provided invaluable consultation to community-based organizations. In his current role, he leads Social Current’s efforts in providing strategy, solutions, and support for the development of leaders in the social sector, with an emphasis on equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Through his strategic leadership and direction, he and a team of network leaders have co-created helpful resources, consultation, and workshops that uplift and disseminate best practices to help community-based organizations advance their EDI journeys.

In addition, Dr. Howard was instrumental in developing Social Current’s leadership development model, the rEvolutionary Model, which helps develop the skills of change leaders to drive toward system and population-level results. Dr. Howard also leads the annual Executive Leadership Institute, which is held in partnership with Loyola University’s Quinlan School of Business. This transformational experience equips leaders with the knowledge and skills to create greater systems change.

Dr. Howard also has a deep appreciation and connection to the greater Milwaukee community. He sits on the board of AD2LUV Senior Housing (2006-present), Father Hood Initiative (2012-present), and the board of Holy Cathedral (1999-present), where he also led as youth director and deacon. He also served as a member on the State of Wisconsin Strengthening Families and Children.

Dr. Howard holds a doctorate in business from Bellevue University. He received his master’s in communication and bachelor’s in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 

Arabella Pérez is a licensed clinical social worker of 30 years and holds an MSW and DSW from Tulane University.

Prior to joining Social Current, Dr. Pérez was the Vice President of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the National Association of Social Work, a social work professor at the University of New England, a system of care director from 2005-2015, leading three SAMHSA grants for the state of Maine and the founder and CEO of a non-profit, THRIVE, a technical assistance center for trauma and culturally informed care. Additionally, she is a graduate of the Hanley Leadership program and was named a teaching scholar on justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion creating curricula and toolkit guides for the Maine Educational System.

Dr. Pérez is a certified cultural competency educator and has consulted with states and communities on the development of behavioral health systems through federal site monitoring and coaching for SAMHSA. Her private consultation practice has focused on leadership and trauma informed organizational change management in the private and not for profit sectors.

She is a sought-out presenter and has published on the topic of trauma informed care and culturally empowering education. She is the proud daughter of Cuban and Puerto Rican parents, and in her spare time can be found salsa dancing with her husband.

Lenore Schell is the Senior Vice President of Organizational Growth & Network Engagement at Social Current. In this role, she leads the organization’s efforts to diversify its revenue streams and provides leadership to drive innovation and network engagement. 

Previously at the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities (Alliance), she was responsible for leading the Alliance network engagement, marketing, and information technology efforts, which included building a comprehensive account management framework. Schell implemented rigorous processes for applying data and predictive analytics to strategically grow the Alliance network, achieve higher member engagement levels, and industry-leading retention levels. 

Prior to joining the Alliance, Lenore spent the majority of her career in the for-profit sector in multiple business leadership roles. She successfully led and grew two different outsourcing business lines, one of which grew to a $12 million business in less than five years under her leadership.   

She also has extensive banking industry experience, which includes specific work in acquisition integration management, product management and marketing, human resources, information controls, branch automation, and outsourcing and support services management. 

A data-driven business development and marketing executive, Michael brings over two decades of experience to the table. Prior to joining Social Current, he held senior leadership roles at respected, award-winning global communications agencies, where he had the privilege of working with some of the world’s largest and most iconic companies and brands. He also has significant experience working as a senior administrator in academia and for global broadcast corporations. Michael holds his BA in European History and French, his MS in Information Science, and his MPhil in Information Studies. Currently, he is working on his PhD dissertation.  A true global citizen, he speaks seven languages and is an avid traveler. 

A native of the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, Michon S. Hicks currently serves as senior director for leadership development and organizational excellence for Social Current. As a chief leadership strategist, she designs and manages all aspects of Social Current’s leadership and workforce portfolio. In her previous local government role, she served as senior strategic initiatives program lead for the Department of Employment Services (DOES) in Washington, D.C. Hicks has extensive experience with organizational development, training, professional development, and project management with government, nonprofit, and corporate organizations.

Hicks holds a bachelor’s in speech communication and a master’s in intercultural communication from Howard University in Washington, D.C.  She is working toward her doctorate in organizational leadership from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. Hicks has over 25 years of education and experience in communications, project management, leadership development, strategic design, and organizational change.

Throughout her career, Hicks has positively contributed to her community and provided innovative leadership strategies for groups and organizations. She utilizes her passion for empowering teams and organizations by teaching agile tools and techniques needed for success. Hicks creates pathways to educational success, business engagement, and government partnerships. She prides herself on helping stakeholders identify and pool assets, garner/utilize institutional knowledge and human capital, and create clear pathways for actionable items that address strategic challenges.

Karen Johnson brings knowledge of the advancing science around resilience, brain development, adversity, toxic stress, equity, and trauma-informed approaches to the complex challenges we face. This expertise, coupled with her 27 years of experience in child welfare, behavioral health, and community services, enables her to successfully partner with leaders, staff, community members, and participants across numerous settings to promote individual and organizational resilience. 

Johnson leads the development of the Social Current Change in Mind Institute, leveraging the latest advances in neurosciences and trauma-informed approaches across sectors and at the practice, policy, and systems levels. She oversees the Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative, through which 10 organizations from multiple sectors across Southeast Texas are working to embed brain science principles with the goal of improving outcomes for children and families, as well as their organizational cultures and ability to collaborate with partners. 

During her five-and-a-half years on the National Council for Mental Wellbeing’s trauma-informed services team, and year-and-a-half as an independent consultant, Johnson trained and consulted with organizations, systems, and communities striving to advance trauma-informed, resilience-oriented approaches. She also led and developed community-based programs during her 19 years at SaintA in Milwaukee. Johnson combines the newest advances around adversity, relational health, and resilience to infuse hope and connection into our work. 

Johnson is a licensed clinical social worker certified in Dr. Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead and Daring Way and trained in Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics. 

Blair Kiser, Ph.D., joined Social Current in 2022 after working in health policy on Capitol Hill, the non-profit sector, and as a biomedical researcher. Most recently, Blair served as Director of Government Relations & Advocacy for NephCure Kidney International.

During their time in public service, they served as a Professional Staff Member of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. They led a corporate investigation regarding insider trading and financial improprieties, conflicts of interest associated with Operation Warp Speed’s leadership, and scientific information politicization. Prior to joining the Select Subcommittee, they worked for Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), where they served as a Health Policy Fellow. In Senator Brown’s office, they led a range of legislative and oversight efforts involving public health and healthcare. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they worked with several community hospice advocacy organizations and a Republican office to help craft the bipartisan COVID-19 Hospice Respite Care Relief Act of 2020.

Prior to public service, Blair spent several years as a medical research scientist on several industry and NIH-funded projects. Their work focused on developing research projects and clinical trials to improve the lives of African Americans with Sickle Cell Disease. They earned a doctorate in Biomedical Science from Morehouse School of Medicine in 2017 and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Kentucky in 2011.

As senior director of Network Growth for Social Current, Tim is responsible for bringing new leaders and organizations into the human services network to drive greater impact for client organizations in their respective communities and across the overall social sector.

Prior to Social Current, Tim led marketing and communities for the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities. He is a senior marketing leader with more than 30 years of experience delivering effective strategy and market planning, brand management and integration, sales demand generation, and agency direction and accountability.

He previously served as the Group Vice President, Membership and Marketing for the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee where he drove strategy and execution for all association marketing and communications efforts, which included a 13.5 percent increase in membership year over year.  He also assisted in developing and implementing Y rebranding trainings for approximately 1,800 Y staff to effectively communicate the first rebranding campaign for the Y in more than 40 years.

He also held the role of vice president of marketing for Fiserv, Inc., where he directed communications and marketing programs, including a cross-sales initiative that resulted in $200 million in revenue. Additionally, he was a corporate marketing manager for Metavante Corporation (now FIS) where he guided demand generation activities that resulted in more than $25 million in contract value and led brand integration efforts over three years to transition 17 acquired businesses into the Metavante brand.

Tim is an avid cyclist and owns two guitars along with aspirations of someday being referred to as a musician.

Stephanie is Senior Director of Strategy & Business Operations at Social Current.  She previously led the Standards Development department for our COA accreditation, focusing on best practices in behavioral health. Stephanie is responsible for collaborating with subject matter experts, monitoring trends in the human services, and overseeing all standards research and development initiatives. She has been instrumental in the design and implementation of best-practice standards for non-profit, for-profit and governmental agencies. Stephanie has a background in research, grant writing, and behavioral health services and a Master’s degree in Community Psychology from Marist College. 

Joseph is Senior Director of Network Retention & Relations at Social Current.  He previously led client relations for our COA accreditation service. Prior to joining Social Current, Joseph was a project coordinator at the Legal Action Center (LAC) in New York City, where he assisted in the development and coordination of legal conferences and trainings across the United States. LAC is the only non-profit law and policy organization in the U.S. whose sole mission is to fight discrimination against people with histories of addiction, HIV/AIDS, or criminal records, and to advocate for sound public policies in these areas. Joseph holds a BA in English from Fordham University.

Amy Templeman, a kinship and adoptive parent, is the senior director of child and family well-being at Social Current. In these roles, she works to support families and promote equity. Before joining Social Current, Amy served as executive director of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, leading the effort to produce a report to the president and Congress. Amy helped to establish the Office of Well Being at the District of Columbia’s child welfare agency, where she conducted strategic planning and oversaw programs to address substance use disorders, domestic violence, education, housing, and child care. She gained research experience while working first at The Urban Institute, contributing to a book and reports on the benefits of kinship care, and later at Johns Hopkins University, managing a community-based, participatory research grant through the CDC resulting in better adolescent mental health.