William R. Connors, MSW
Senior Vice President, Netsmart Technologies
Director of Continuing Education, Netsmart University

William Connors is a Senior Vice President and general manager of the Child and Family Services and Substance Abuse business unit at Netsmart Technologies.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degrees in Social Work from Rutgers University.

Mr. Connors has over 25 years of management experience with extensive operational and planning success. As Senior Vice President, he has executive responsibility for product and software design, market development and client relationships of the TIER® (Totally Integrated Electronic Record) line of clinical and practice management solutions. He continues his work started as the President/CEO for Sequest Technologies which joined the Netsmart Technologies family in October 2011.

Mr. Connors began his work in the health and human service field as an accomplished clinician.   His experiences included managing a clinical team providing therapeutic, crisis intervention, prevention and case management services for high-risk teens.  Combining his computer skills, clinical experience and a passion for research, he became the Director of Information Management for Care Plus NJ, Inc., a large recovery-focused mental health and substance abuse service provider.  Mr. Connors managed all aspects of the computer network and telecommunications for the organization covering 18 sites and supporting over 400 employees.

Areas of Expertise

• Project Management and Maintenance
• Policy and Practice Development
• Software Design
• Information Management
• Research and Development
• Outcomes/Evidence Based Practice

Barbara S. Alexander, Social Work Consultant and Clinical Advisory Board for Netsmart University

Barbara Alexander is the Founder and Program Director of ON GOOD AUTHORITY, Inc. Her duties there include development, management, production, promotion, and administration of training programs for use in the continuing education of mental health professionals nationally.

She has also maintained her own private practice since 1973. Her practice consists of evaluation and psychotherapy of children and adults, including individual and marital therapy. She is a consultant to private child welfare agencies, performs tutoring programs, and is involved in the State of Illinois Status Offenders Project. In addition, she performs custody evaluations, vocational assessments for Federal Disability Determination and forensic psychosocial evaluations and research.

Licenses and Certifications

State of Illinois Licensed Clinical Social Worker (#149-000439).

American Board of Examiners: Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work (#000177).

National Association of Social Workers, Academy of Certified Social Workers.

Genie Skypek, Ph.D.

Dr. Skypek is a licensed clinical psychologist in Tampa, Florida. She received her Master and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida.

Dr. Skypek established and directed several outpatient chemical dependency treatment programs, including methadone maintenance programs, early in her professional career. In the Tampa Bay area, she continued to work in chemical dependency, establishing and/or directing chemical dependency treatment programs for women. From there, she moved into a health psychology specialty in a private behavioral medicine/pain management practice. She has taught widely, both as an adjunct faculty for the Women's Studies department at the University of South Florida and as a training consultant to various federal, state and local agencies - specializing in women's programming, communication skills and conflict negotiation, and accreditation preparation. Other areas of work have included outcome evaluation for juvenile justice programs, software development for the behavioral health field and consultation with organizations preparing for accreditation. She is currently developing e-learning content for Netsmart University.

For the past 32 years, Dr. Skypek has been a Joint Commission surveyor, specializing in Behavioral Health Care Accreditation

Areas of Expertise

• Performance/quality improvement in mental health

• Outcome evaluation, “real-time”

• Health and Human Services automated clinical records, both paper and automated

• Assessment and treatment planning

• Communication skills, problem-solving

• Health psychology

Charles Klein ,Ph.D., Director of Clinical Services and InfoScriber Operations, Netsmart Technologies

Dr. Klein holds a master's degree in counseling psychology from the University of Kansas and a masters and doctorate degree in industrial/organizational psychology from USIU in San Diego. He also holds a certificate in organizational development. Dr. Klein currently works as the Director of Clinical Services and InfoScriber Operations for Netsmart Technologies, Inc. He has over 18 years experience in the behavioral health field directing inpatient and outpatient child, adolescent and adult programs, as well as consulting in areas such as clinical documentation, performance improvement, and organizational development. In addition, he has developed and implemented clinical outcomes measurement systems and has directed the start-up of many behavioral health day treatment programs for persons with serious and persistent mental illnesses.

Dr. Klein also teaches as an adjunct professor at Alliant International University, teaching courses in the College of Organizational Studies, including Human Resource Management, Performance Appraisal, Work Motivation and Productivity, Negotiation and Bargaining, Professional Development, and Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Dr. Klein works in the area of clinical services at Netsmart, participating in customer workflow issues, clinical gap analyses, and prescribing and medication management processes. Dr. Klein has also written courses for Netsmart University's catalogue. In addition, Dr. Klein presents at conferences and gatherings.

Dr. Klein manages Netsmart's e-prescribing operations, including being involved with sales, and research and development and managing all aspects of implementation, operations, and support for all e-prescribing customers.

Areas of Expertise

• Industries: Psychiatric Hospitals, Community Mental Health Centers, Substance Abuse Centers, and MRDD facilities.

• CProducts: Avatar's Clinician's Workstation, Avatar Order Entry, Avatar e-Prescribing, InfoScriber, and Netsmart University.

J. Scott Nelson ,MA NCC LCPC CRADC

J. Scott Nelson is currently a doctoral student at Northern Illinois University where he teaches the Chemical Dependency class for graduate counseling students. He earned a Master's Degree in Professional Counseling from Liberty University, is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, a Certified Reciprocal Alcohol and Drug Counselor—licensed in both Illinois and Wisconsin. Scott is also a Teaching Associate of Medicine at the University Of Illinois College Of Medicine in Rockford. Mr. Nelson has a limited private counseling practice in Rockford, IL, is an ordained minister, served as a police chaplain for five years, and a pastoral counselor specializing in sexual abuse for eight years in Indiana prior to moving to Rockford in 2005.

Scott is also the Staff Education Coordinator for Rosecrance Health Network where he develops and facilitates initiatives related to program development, career development, performance improvement, continuing education and talent management for Rosecrance. Scott presents training workshops on a variety of mental health topics both on site and in the community and served as a primary addictions counselor prior to accepting his current position with Rosecrance.