S23 Homecoming: Advocating for the Profession and the Professional (In-person)

Anthony Estreet, CEO, NASW Related Seminars and Products

Anthony Estreet

Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

He has been a professor and chair of the Master of Social Work Program at Morgan State University since 2013. Estreet is also founder and chief executive officer of Next Step Treatment Center in Baltimore, which provides substance use treatment and mental health services. He was vice president of the NASW Board of Directors but stepped down from that role after being considered a candidate in the search process. Estreet also served as president of the NASW Maryland Chapter and is an active member of the Council on Social Work Education and the National Association of Black Social Workers.

While at Morgan, Estreet was awarded more than $6 million in extramural grant funding for social work workforce development, research, and training. He also led the development and expansion of the first MSW program in the United States, and at a historically Black college or university, to have an area of specialized practice focused on addressing substance use disorders.

Lori James-Townes, MSW Related Seminars and Products

Lori James-Townes, LCSW-C, MSW ’91 
Executive Director at National Association for Public Defense/President, Expand-Now 

Lori James-Townes is President & CEO of Expand-Now. She also serves as an Assistant Training Director for National Association of Public Defense. Lori’s passion is adding value to others. Lori has over 25 years of teaching, clinical practice, leadership, and management experience in juvenile justice, mental health, and public defender settings. Her most recent public defender position was Director of Social Work, Leadership and Program Development, with Maryland Office of Public Defender. With over more than 800 employees, she served as one of the first Directors of Leadership in a public defender setting. While in this position, she demonstrated her ability to help others grow in the areas of teamwork, leadership, and management. She also led the agency’s social work staff, consultants, and interns. 

Lori is certified John Maxwell Trainer, Coach and Speaker. She has developed programs that are now national models for other agencies. In 2015, The Daily Record Newspaper named her as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women. As a speaker, she is requested both nationally and internationally. 

Lori has held various leadership positions on national organizations and Boards of Directors. Her commitment to growth has been recognized as organizations have appointed her to serve as Conference Chair for several national conferences and training programs. Lori also serves as a faculty member for national and regional leadership development, trials skills, training, and programs, including but not limited to: National Alliance of Sentencing Advocates and Mitigation Specialist Gideon’s Promise, National Legal Aide and Defender Association, Administrative Offices of the Courts (Training Branch), MD Department of Human Services, and other private and non-profit entities. 

Mike Allen, MSW Related Seminars and Products

Michael Allen, MSW ’03 
CEO, Therapeutic Solutions, LLC 

 Michael Allen is the Chief Executive Officer of Therapeutic Connections, where is responsible for the day-to-day operations. He manages all intakes, markets and networks with referral sources, and manages all the billing and fiscal responsibilities. 

Mr. Allen came to Baltimore in 1998 after graduating to start his career in the social work field. He initially worked at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the Community Psychiatry Department as a Case Manager servicing homeless adults with behavioral health diagnosis. While at Johns Hopkins he applied for and was accepted into the University of Maryland School of Social Work (MACRO) where he completed his field placement at the University of Maryland Hospital, Shock Trauma Center. Mr. Allen became the Lead Social Worker at Shock Trauma Center in the Violence Intervention Program working with victims of interpersonal violence.  

Seeking a different social work experience, Mr. Allen ventured into an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) where he worked as an Account Manager providing training, support and consultation services to small businesses, local, state and federal agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Mr. Allen was recruited to then work at the US Department of Health and Human Services as a consultant with Federal Occupational Health administration providing workplace health and wellness services for federal agencies. 

Wanting independence and the opportunity for unlimited experiences, Mr. Allen created MAZCAN Enterprises, LLC, a training and consulting business that provides clinical, workplace, health and wellness, and continuing education training. Mr. Allen was been able to build a customer base of corporations, universities and human service organizations locally and nationally. He later established Therapeutic Connections LLC to provide behavioral health services for adults and children in Howard County in 2016. 

Shanda Brown, LMSW Related Seminars and Products

Shanda Brown, LMSW ’13 
Mid Atlantic Director, The Community Builders 

Shanda is a licensed Social Worker who is committed to advancing vulnerable and oppressed communities. She currently works as a Regional Director for The Community Builders -- a nationally recognized non - profit developer that owns, develops, and manages affordable housing communities.  

In this role, Shanda works to ensure the communities within her region thrive by using housing as a foundation for upward mobility. She works intentionally to ensure individuals and families have access to opportunities that support economic mobility, create community cohesion, and offer access to behavioral health services.  

Shanda also has an extensive history working in permanent supportive housing, with homeless youth, foster care youth, and coordinating services that allow Seniors to age in place.  

S.Colby Peters, PhD, MSW Related Seminars and Products

Dr. Peters started Human Systems (HS) in 2016 with the mission of empowering organizations with research-based tools and processes that prevent burnout, reduce turnover, and improve well-being. She creates all her tools and services based on the leadership model she developed and validated while completing her PhD at University of Maryland School of Social Work, personal and professional experience, and mindfulness research. Dr. Peters’s work is not only the first to assess organizational change on the individual, relational, and systems levels, but also one of the first to conceptualize leadership in a way that invites all employees to participate in positive change-making practices.  

Since Dr. Peters started Human Systems, she has conducted close to 100 workshops with participants worldwide, and her website receives over 10,000 visitors a month, particularly for her research-based HS Emotion Wheels and Needs Wheels. Her tools are used in 22 countries and territories, and plans are underway to translate the Wheels in Spanish, Korean, and Hawaiian languages. Dr. Peters is currently in partnership with multiple consulting companies and beta-testers to launch her Mindful Leadership|Mindful Growth Model (ML|MG) and Assessment Series for organizations in the U.S., Canada, and India.   

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