Technical Assistance
Curriculum Vitae

Our Technical Assistance work spans many industries, projects, and organizations. We have comprehensive experience in health care equity with extensive, often first hand knowledge on DSNIPS, Medicare, and Medicaid. We have partnered with ACOs, providers, and health plans. We are also experts in program and policy development, stakeholder engagement, participatory action research, health equity analysis, accessibility, and community engagement.

Previous Partners

Consulting

Foresight Project, Ripple Foundation 

The Foresight Project was a joint effort by a number of foundations to forecast the future of health policy in the United States. Across the two year span on the project, DPC advised project leadership on the healthcare issues impacting people with disabilities, reviewed project materials for accessibility, and convened focus groups with people with disabilities in Massachusetts, led by disabled facilitators, to gauge the perspectives of people with disabilities on the future of health in the U.S.

ICI, UMass Boston

DPC is partnering with the Institute for Community Inclusion at UMass Boston to study the application of Progressive Employment models for people with disabilities in an Independent Living context. DPC’s work will include outreach to key disability community stakeholders, convening and overseeing an advisory board, developing survey materials, and overseeing the recruitment and training of Lived Experience experts, individuals from the community who will help conduct the project, with an eye towards creating a genuine path to careers in research.   

CSHE 

As a TA partner for the RWJF-funded Community Support for Health Equity program, DPC advises and trains a national network of grassroots health advocacy and service provision organizations, the majority of which are led by multiply-marginalized community members. Trainings have covered subjects including disability history and culture, health policy issues impacting people with disabilities, and effective advocacy campaigns, while one on one advising has been provided on a variety of topics including how to engage young people with disabilities and their families in self advocacy to attain educational accommodations

Partnership for Health Equity 

DPC serves as a National Advisory Council member for this RWJF-funded project that brings together academics, policymakers, advocates, and corporate leaders for discussions on key health policy issues. DPC works to ensure that these conversations are fully informed by disability perspectives and the issues discussed are of relevance to our community.  

City of Boston - Disabilities Commission

Worked with Disabilities Commission and other City staff to develop and lead culturally sensitive focus groups with constituents on disability data collected by the City. Additionally advised on recruitment strategies and accommodations, as well as the resulting Disability Data Guidelines and Standards.

Arnold Ventures 

Primary work funded DPC to engage with advocates in Massachusetts as well as other stakeholders to advance best practices for Dual Eligible Special Needs Plans (D-SNPs). Key emphasis has been on MassHealth’s One Care Demonstration transition from a Medicare - Medicaid Plan (MMP) to a D-SNP with the goal of strengthening consumer voice.

Public Health Communications Collaborative

Collaborated on the creation of a resource, Accessible Social Media for Public Health advising on content, copy, presentation, and design. Participated in a webinar to publicize and launch the resource to the public health community.

Advisory Board/Commissions

Commonwealth Care Alliance 

DPC has worked for years with CCA to provide feedback on how they can better meet the needs of their 20,000+ members with complex physical, sensory, and mental health disabilities.  

Centene National Disability Advisory Council 

DPC has two representatives on this council, which advises Centene (the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care provider) on both how to better serve its members with disabilities across the country and how to use its Government Relations capacity to advocate for policies that will benefit people with disabilities.  

Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Health Equity Advisory Group 

This group was convened at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to advise the state on how to make its pandemic response more equitable. For over a year, DPC, advised DPH on a wide variety of critical and often life-threatening issues impacting people with disabilities. Among the direct results of our participation in this committee were the prioritization of certain individuals with disabilities for vaccination before the general public, the creation of in-home vaccination programs and the provision of ASL interpreters at mass vaccination sites, and the improvement of data collection practices in both the community and congregate settings.  

Massachusetts Health Policy Commission Advisory Board 

DPC’s Executive Director Colin Killick serves on this board, which advises HPC on its efforts to control the cot of healthcare in Massachusetts. Subjects on which DPC’s advice has significantly shifted HPC policy include pharmaceutical pricing and cost effectiveness analysis, the use of AI in prior authorization decisions, and the importance of investing in peer supports.  

MA Governor’s Housing Advisory Council 

DPC is the sole representative of the disability community on this new body, created by Governor Healey to advise on the creation of the state’s first Housing Plan. DPC’s particular area of focus in this process is on promoting the development of more affordable, accessible, integrated housing and on the expansion of housing vouchers for individuals with disabilities.  

MA COIVD-19 Crisis Standards of Care Committee 

After leading successful efforts to overturn Massachusetts first two COVID-19 Crisis Standards of Care policies because they deprioritized individuals with disabilities, DPC joined the committee which wrote the third and final version of the Crisis Standards, which both removed discriminatory rationing criteria and built in critical civil rights protections for disabled patients.  

Federal Office of Rural Health Policy Delphi Panel

Advised this group on particular issues impacting rural people with disabilities, such as lack of access to medical providers and accessible public transportation.

National Advisory Board – National Center for Social and Complex Medical Needs/Camden Coalition 

This groups supports strategy and planning for the National Center for Social and Complex Medical Needs/Camden Coalition as well as support in planning their annual conference, reviewing materials, and providing input on strategic direction.

MassHealth

DPC representatives participate in a number of MassHealth boards including Quality Measure Integration which looks a integrating quality measures for Medicaid and commercial plans and the DSRIP – ACO advisory committee.    

Advancing Health Equity Advisory Committee

This group brings state teams (Medicaid, managed care organizations, health plans, health care delivery organizations, and community-based organizations) together to develop and implement payment reform that supports and incentivizes care transformation that addresses medical and social needs to advance health equity, within an anti-racist culture of equity.

National Committee for Quality Assurance

Serves on committees relevant to assessing and advancing health care quality for people with disabilities.

Areas of Engagement

  • Housing

    Crowded city neighborhood

  • Healthcare

    Gloved hands place a small bandage on an outstretched arm.

  • Healthcare Education

    A group of medical professionals in scrubs walk down a hallway.

  • Medicaid

    A stethoscope

  • Research

    Two people working with charts

  • Arts & Culture

    A person standing in a gallery