About Us: The HCBS Team

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Boston College Graduate School of Social Work

Kevin J. Mahoney, PhD | Brenda Vitale, MSW | Buddy Rutzke, MSW

Kevin J. Mahoney, PhD

is a faculty member at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work where he serves as Associate Professor as well as National Program Director for the Cash and Counseling Demonstration and Evaluation, a policy-driven evaluation of one of the most unfettered forms of consumer direction of personal assistance services, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. During his 25 year career in gerontology and long-term care, Dr. Mahoney has served in a number of policy making and administrative positions in the state governments of Connecticut and California. Prior to coming to Boston College in 1999, he held academic appointments at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, the University of California- San Francisco and the University of Maryland. From 1978 to 1987, Dr. Mahoney served as Chief of Research and Program Development at the Connecticut Department on Aging where he was responsible for that state's home care programs for the frail elderly. From 1987 to 1995, Dr. Mahoney developed and implemented innovative partnerships between private insurance and Medicaid to finance long-term care -- first in the State of Connecticut and then in the State of California. An expert on state government and long-term care innovation, he speaks and writes extensively on consumer direction, the roles of the public and private sectors in financing long-term care, long-term care insurance and care management. Most recently, Kevin J. Mahoney became Deputy Director of the Home and Community-Based Services Resource Network established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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Brenda Vitale, MSW

is the Associate Project Director for the Clearinghouse for Home and Community Based Services. Ms. Vitale is responsible for the planning, development and management of www.hcbs.org. She provides training and technical support to contributors and will be responsible for disseminating electronic correspondence to all site subscribers. Before coming to Boston College Graduate School of Social Work, Ms. Vitale worked with the Alzheimer's Association, Massachusetts Chapter coordinating many of their technical needs namely developing a dynamic helpline caller database and referral center and implementing a friend to friend personalized fundraising page for the Memory Walk website. Ms. Vitale has worked in a variety of different home and community based settings where she designed and provided unique services to allow seniors to live independently. She has her Masters of Social Work from Boston College (1999) and a Bachelors of Social Work from the University of Southern Colorado (1994).

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Buddy Rutzke, MSW

is the Information and Program Specialist for the Clearinghouse for Home & Community Based Services. Mr. Rutzke works with Ms. Vitale to provide day-to-day content management, research and document review. Before coming to HCBS.org, he worked with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala (NISGUA), where he managed NISGUA's website and email communications and launched an online initiative to increase youth participation in the network. He has also performed research at the Center for Corporate Citizenship, coordinated the tenant council at an independent housing development for the elderly, and provided constituent services in the Boston and Cambridge city governments in Massachusetts. Mr. Rutzke earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology (2005) and a Masters of Social Work (2006) from Boston College.

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