Meet the Staff

Bill Betts, PhD, is a Senior Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. He serves as program evaluator on a number of grants that serve at risk youth. In addition, Dr. Betts consults on research design, database development and program design.  Dr. Betts has more than 10 years of experience in evaluating community based services. His experience ranges from small single site evaluations to evaluations for large managed care companies serving millions of members in multiple states. He has extensive experience designing data collection systems and databases. Prior to working as a program evaluator, Dr Betts was director of intake and community based crisis services for a community mental health center in Chicago, IL.  Dr. Betts has worked extensively with children and Adults diagnosed with severe mental illness. Dr. Betts was awarded his BA in Psychology and Criminal Justice from Indiana University.  He received his MA and PhD in Clinical Psychology with a specialty in children from DePaul University.  Dr. Betts completed his internship at the University of Illinois at Chicago and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Program Evaluation and Administration at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Edie Bridge is a Professional Research Assistant for Colorado WIN Partners in the Department of Pediatrics with the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. Ms. Bridge provides research and evaluation data entry and transcription across all Colorado WIN Partners projects. She coordinates the logistics for trainings provided by Colorado WIN Partners and arranges for travel and reimbursements for staff. She manages the website and assists with finance and other research projects as necessary. Prior to coming to Colorado WIN Partners she worked for JFK Partners supporting their grants, contracts and other projects. She strives to support all projects for Colorado WIN Partners and contributes in many ways.

Lisa Rieks is a Professional Research Assistant for Colorado WIN Partners in the Department of Pediatrics with the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She supports the Colorado Youth WINS project by assisting in field research, maintaining data and preparing data for analysis; and maintaining and reporting from databases.  She graduated from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania in 2006 with a B.S. in Psychology with a Research and Application Concentration and moved to Denver in July 2007.

Judith Emery, M.A. is a faculty member at the University of Colorado Denver and the Director for "Colorado WIN Partners", an initiative through JFK Partners to expand employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities through innovation and collaboration. She is currently the Director for the federal initiative entitled "Colorado Youth Work Incentive Network of Supports (WINS)", a Social Security Administration youth demonstration project which is looking at ways to maximize economic self-sufficiency for youth with disabilities aged 14-25. She has been contracted by Colorado's Office of Workforce Development/Workforce Development Council to provide technical assistance and training and to support the implementation of two federal initiatives: 1) the "Disability Program Navigator Project" which ensures universal access with Colorado's Workforce Development Centers, and 2) The "WIRED Initiative through a Disability Perspective" which ensures access to education and training for underrepresented populations through Colorado's Metro Denver WIRED Initiative. Both of these were awarded through a cooperative agreement through the US Department of Labor. Ms. Emery is also the Principal Investigator (PI) for a Demonstration Project in partnership with Assistive Technology Partners and their Rehabilitation Engineering and Research Center and PI for a "Developmental Disabilities Demonstration Project" to determine what types of training and accommodations need to be made by Colorado's Workforce Centers to serve this population.

Ms. Emery has been contracted by the University of Iowa Law, Health, Policy and Research Center to participate on the national evaluation and technical assistance team for the Disability Program Navigator Initiative and has also been contracted to partner with the Lewin Group and Johns Hopkins University in completing a statewide evaluation of the Colorado Works/DHS program. She is the PI on the national evaluation with Mathmatica Policy Research, Inc. for the SSA Youth Demonstration Project. She is the PI on an evaluation with the Department of Human Services/Division of Vocational Rehabilitation to conduct a statewide needs assessment. In her previous work, she was the Project Director for "Colorado Project WIN", a systems change Rehabilitation Services Administration Project and also the Project Coordinator for the "Consortium for the Employment of People With Disabilities", a project targeted to work with the Workforce Centers within Colorado in designing and implementing Centers that are universally accessible to all populations seeking services. Prior to her work at the UCHSC, she was the Associate Director of the Rocky Mountain Resource and Training Institute (RMRTI) and also served as the Training Coordinator on the Colorado Assistive Technology Project and the Training Consultant on Colorado's Systems Change Supported Employment Project.

Ms. Emery has been a leader in the field of disabilities for over 25 years. She is recognized nationally and within Colorado in the areas of systems change and collaboration, community integrated employment/supported employment, transition from school to work, strategic planning and organizational development.

Nancy Koester, M.S. is a Research Instructor for Colorado WIN Partners in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center. She is a program evaluator with a background in both quantitative and qualitative approaches to social science research. She provides community-based program evaluation consultation, design and implementation both internally for Colorado WIN Partners and externally for partner organizations. Current projects include: evaluation of the Disability Program Navigator project; internal evaluation of the Colorado Youth WINS project, a Social Security Administration Youth Transition Process Demonstration Grant; external evaluation of a NIDRR funded demonstration project conducted by Assistive Technology Partners for the development of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Research Center for the Advancement of Cognitive Technologies; and is developing a resource guide of data sources for research and evaluation of programs providing services for individuals with disabilities seeking employment. Ms. Koester comes to Colorado WIN Partners from the Colorado Department of Public Heath and Environment where she was a program director for the Sexual Assault Prevention Program. She has been developing and evaluating community based programs for more than 12 years. Her prior research experience focused on assessing the climate for creativity in organizations and evaluation of University-Industry Cooperative Research Centers. She completed graduate work in organizational and community psychology, and statistics at North Carolina State University with training in both qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Patrick Loeber, B.S. is the Disability Program Navigator Coordinator providing technical assistance and training to Disability Program Navigators throughout the "Disability Program Navigator Initiative" awarded through a cooperative agreement through Social Security Administration and the US Department of Labor which ensures universal access within Colorado's Workforce Development Centers. Mr. Loeber has been assisting persons with disabilities for more than 20 years. Some of his activities include Social Security Benefits Planner for Colorado Youth WINS where he received his Social Security Benefits Planner Certification, Consumer Navigator for Project WIN, Cancer Control and Patient Services Director for the El Paso County American Cancer Society, Training  and Volunteer Coordinator for the El Paso/Teller County Domestic Violence, Prevention Center and Court Appointed Special Advocates Program, Housing  Program Director, Financial Case-Manager, and Client rights Advocate for Jefferson Center for Mental Health, Financial Case-Manager for Mental Health Corporation of Denver, Mental Health Clinician at St. Luke’s Hospital, Correctional Officer for the Colorado Department of Corrections, Mental Health Clinician at Spanish Peaks Mental Health Center, and has been a Small Business Owner. He received a Bachelors of Science in Psychology at the University of Southern Colorado.

Mr. Loeber believes that all persons should have the opportunity to create a prosperous life for themselves and has spent his career trying to assist persons who need help achieving this goal.  His personal experience led him to the belief that the best programs are those programs that enable individuals needing assistance to be able to learn how to assist themselves.

Peter J. Pike, Associate Director of Colorado WIN Partners/UCDHSC, is a faculty member at JFK Partners, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCDHSC).  Currently, Mr. Pike is the Project Coordinator for Colorado Youth WINS, an SSA federally funded national demonstration project researching how youth on SSA benefits may be as independent as possible.    Mr. Pike’s experience includes coordinating of day-to-day grant activities, working closely with staff who deliver the interventions, delivering training and technical assistance activities, and coordinating federal, state and local organization partners.  In addition to these duties, Mr. Pike also worked as the Project Coordinator for Project WIN; a U.S. Department of Education systems change grant to increase employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities who receive public support that originally tested the feasibility of the Consumer Navigator (Disability Program Navigator). Through Project WIN, Mr. Pike reviewed local, state and federal policy through a statewide Stakeholders Policy Forum and facilitated a statewide Consumer Advisory Committee, coordinated and provided technical assistance regarding the data collection and provided ongoing training and technical assistance to the pilot sites. Prior to working for JFK Partners/UCHSC, Mr. Pike was employed at Adams Community Mental Health Center (ACMHC), where he established employment programs such as School to Work Alliance Program, Mental Health Initiative, ACMHC Summer Youth Employment Program and a psychosocial rehabilitation clubhouse program. Additionally, for six years, he managed the Supported Employment Program for persons with mental illness. Mr. Pike developed and provided presentations on mental health issues related to employment, school and general awareness.

Robyn Mobbs, M.B.A. is an Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (UCDHSC) and Financial Manager for Colorado WIN Partners, a unit within JFK Partners at UCDHSC. 

Robyn oversees grants and contracts administration, fiscal and policy analyses, in addition to assisting in grant funded research.  She works with the Colorado WIN Partners team to coordinate, analyze, devise or implement activities on a number of initiatives to achieve project objectives within the financial limitations and policy regulations of the grant awards.

Prior to joining the unit of Colorado WIN Partners, Robyn was the Acting Administrator and Health Administration Discipline Director for JFK Partners, where she managed financial, administrative, personnel, and operational strategies and activities.  Robyn also worked at the University of Wollongong in Australia as a Policy Officer, where she worked with the Pro-Vice Chancellor (Academic) to coordinate early preparations for the university-wide quality assurance audit and drafted educational policies to strengthen the University’s academic outcomes.  Robyn is currently working toward her Ph.D. in Public Affairs at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center downtown campus.  She has a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Southern Queensland in Australia and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Dr. Yvonne Kellar-Guenther is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center.  She completed her Master’s and Doctoral work in Interpersonal Communication. During her studies, Dr. Kellar-Guenther was trained to do both quantitative and qualitative analyses.  Currently, Dr. Kellar-Guenther is the lead internal evaluator on Colorado Youth WINS, a Social Security Administration Youth Transition Demonstration Grant, and she is currently responsible for collection and analysis of statewide Part C data (of IDEA).  Dr. Kellar-Guenther also has a University of Colorado Diversity Grant.  With this grant she has designed and is teaching a course for writing recruitment and consent at the 4th and 7th grade reading level.  Finally, Dr. Kellar-Guenther is currently serving as the communication consultant for the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board. Dr. Kellar-Guenther has also served as the lead internal evaluator on the Innovative State Alignment Grants for Improving Transition Outcomes for Youth with Disabilities; the evaluator on the American Academy of Pediatrics CATCH Planning Grant:  Improving Transitions for Youth with Special Health Care Needs; the quantitative internal evaluator on a Rehabilitation Service Administration model demonstration project, Project WIN; an external evaluator on the University of Iowa Law, Health Policy, & Disability Center National Evaluation of Disability Program Navigator Model; the project coordinator on an NIDRR-funded study looking at the impact of flexible funding on early intervention services; and as the Survey Director NIH grant funded to look at adolescent drug use. Prior to working for JFK Partners, her research focused on the role of interpersonal relationships in drug resistance and condom use.