AMSA Advisory Council 2024-2026
Moki Macias – Executive Director of the Policing Alternatives & Diversion Initiative, Atlanta
Moki has served as the Executive Director of PAD since its launch in 2017. Moki has spent the last 20 years engaged in community organizing, program development and advocacy related to criminal justice reform and community development. In 2008 she co-founded Building Locally to Organize for Community Safety (BLOCS), which won subpoena power for the Atlanta Citizen’s Review Board and contributed to the dismantling of the notorious REDDOG unit. Moki serves on the Advisory Board of the Alternative Mobile Services Association.
Tahir Duckett, JD – Center for Innovations in Community Safety, Georgetown Law School
Tahir Duckett is the Executive Director of the Center for Innovations in Community Safety. He was previously an attorney at Relman Colfax, a nationally renowned civil rights law firm specializing in discriminatory policing, housing, lending, employment, education, and public accommodation. He was also a founding executive committee member of Law For Black Lives-DC (L4BLDC), an organization providing legal and policy support to the Movement for Black Lives in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. As part of L4BLDC, Tahir has facilitated and participated in dozens of formal trainings, teach-ins, and conversations about community safety.
Amy C Watson, PhD – Wayne State University
Trained as a mental health services researcher, Amy has focused on people with serious mental illnesses that come in contact with the criminal legal system and interventions to prevent and reduce criminal legal involvement. She has conducted extensive research on police encounters with persons with mental illnesses and the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model. She has also examined mental health courts and prison reentry programs. Her current work is looking at models to reduce or eliminate the role of law enforcement in mental health crisis response. Earlier in her research career, she was the project director of a NIMH Center focused on mental illness stigma, and stigma reduction remains an important theme in her work. Other professional activities include serving on the CIT International Board of Directors from 2016-2021, (as President of the Board 2020-2021) and on the compliance team for the Department of Justice Settlement Agreement with the City of Portland, Oregon. Her direct practice experience includes working as a probation officer on a team serving clients with serious mental illnesses and as a Forensic Social Worker/Mitigation Specialist working on death penalty cases. She has a BA in Criminal Justice from Aurora University and an AM and PhD from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration.
Mariela Ruiz-Angel, MSW, MBA – Associate Chief Administrative Officer, City of Albuquerque
Mariela Ruiz-Angel brought her experience from both the mental and behavioral health industry and local government to the role of Director of the Albuquerque Community Safety Department. In 2024 she became the Associate Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Albuquerque. Ruiz-Angel has an extensive background in social work, program development, and corporate customer relations and management.
Ruiz-Angel’s has served two Albuquerque Mayors in multiple start up programs including AmeriCorps and youth workforce development. She spent five years creating and managing the Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs before becoming the founding Director of the Community Safety Department in June 2020. In her new role leading the third branch of public safety, Ruiz-Angel is working to ensure that the department follows through with its mission of advocating and promoting a citywide culture that values the voices of all residents.
Quinita Garrett LCPC, NCC – Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc.
Quinita Garrett LCPC, NCC is the Director of Call Center, Mobile Crisis and System Coordination at Baltimore Crisis Response, Inc (BCRI). Quinita has worked for BCRI over nine years in various roles; including as a mental health clinician on their Mobile Response Team.
Quinita is an outspoken community leader in Maryland for funding needed services, including the Maryland 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline network. She also works part time providing individual, family, and group therapy as a licensed clinical professional counselor.
Tiffany Patton-Burnside, LCSW – Chicago Public Health Department
Tiffany Patton-Burnside, LCSW is Senior Director of Crisis Services for the Chicago Public Health Department and has worked in the field for over 20 years, providing services and attending to those with social/emotional needs. She is the director of the CARE Chicago mobile team. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UIC, a Master’s degree in Social Work from Dominican University, and in 2009 became an LCSW. She has been in leadership for the last half of her career. Her ultimate goal is and has always been to be a change agent for those who live with social and emotional challenges.
Rabbi Ariel Stone – Congregation Shir Tikvah
Rabbi Ariel Stone serves the independent Congregation Shir Tikvah of Portland Oregon. She was ordained by Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion and earned a Doctoral degree from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. She is an active member of the Portland Interfaith Clergy Resistance and the Mental Health Alliance.
From Kiev, Ukraine, to Israel, and in various U.S. communities, Rabbi Ariel Stone has shared Torah study, Talmud, and Jewish mysticism with enthusiastic students from all walks of life for 20 years.
Jeff Donohoe, CPA – Mental Health Association of Portland
Jeff is a small business accountant, licensed in Oregon and Washington State. He has served as Treasurer of the Mental Health Association of Portland since 2003.
Felicia Spratt, LPC, Ed.d – Behavioral Health Response
Dr. Spratt is Vice President of Justice and Crisis Response at Behavioral Health Response in St. Louis. As a leader and champion for social services for nearly 15 years, she has devoted her career to serving vulnerable populations and communities. Her broad experience ranges from working with youth and families as a Licensed Professional Counselor and Social Worker nationally.
In February 2021, spearheaded the development of St. Louis’ first of its kind, Crisis Response Street & Triage Unit, the 911 Call Diversion, where calls are transferred from the St. Louis City’s 911 Dispatch Communication Center to Behavioral Health Response, an external entity and St. Louis CARES initiative. Her initiatives have significantly reduced incarceration and hospitalization rates due to improved awareness, interactions and proper diagnoses when serving individuals and communities suffering from mental crisis.
Ryan Smith – Director of Community Safety for the City of Durham
Bio forthcoming
CONTACT
Jason Renaud – AMSA Administrator
jason@us-amsa.org
503-367-6128
PO Box 3641, Portland, Oregon 97208
Tax Identification for the Mental Health Association of Portland – 20-0138570
The Alternative Mobile Services Association developed from months of talks between with members of the Mental Health Association of Portland, CAHOOTS in Eugene Oregon, and other cities and organizations operating mobile services. The Mental Health Association of Portland launched the AMSA in 2020 and offered AMSA’s national virtual conferences in 2022 and 2023. The organization is a 501 C 3 peer-led nonprofit organization with an education and advocacy agenda since 2003.