About
Our Mission
The Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium is comprised of Massachusetts school districts committed to improving the mental health services and supports available to students across the Commonwealth and beyond. MASMHC member districts recognize the growing needs of our student populations relative to mental illness and substance use and seek creative solutions to enhance prevention efforts, reduce wait time for therapeutic services, and increase the quality and sustainability of school mental health services and supports. Through shared learning, collaboration, and consultation, member districts will actively engage in efforts to improve the well-being of students in order to support their future success.
MASMHC Leadership Team
John Crocker
Founder and Director of MASMHC
Email: johncrocker@masmhc.org
John Crocker has worked in public education for eighteen years, primarily as the administrator of the Methuen Public Schools Counseling Department. He has led the development and expansion of Methuen’s comprehensive school mental health system (CSMHS), including design of the district’s social emotional and mental health data systems, staffing model, service offerings, and teaming and leadership infrastructure. As director of school mental health & behavioral services, he oversees district-wide implementation and evaluation of the CSMHS, including social emotional and mental health services, universal screening, clinical supervision, professional development, and measurement-based care.
John partnered closely with the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) as a member of the National School Mental Health Task Force, the Massachusetts team lead for the National Coalition for the State Advancement of School Mental Health (NCSA-SMH), and now serves on the NCSMH advisory board. He is the founder and director of the Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium (MASMHC), a coalition of roughly 180 districts advancing high quality, sustainable school mental health systems. MASMHC co-led the Massachusetts CoIIN for Comprehensive School Mental Health with the NCSMH and MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), co-leads the School Mental Health Leadership Institute, and partners in Thriving Minds with the Rennie Center and the bryt Program to expand CSMHS statewide and nationally.
He has received numerous awards, including the NCSMH School Mental Health Champion Award (2018).
Courtney Balacco, Framingham Public Schools
Rebecca Bibeau, Triton Regional School District
Sara Burd, Independent Consultant
Nicole Camp, Monomoy Regional School District
Jennifer Cutler, Ashland Public Schools
Marlene DeJesus, Agawam Public School System
Jami Dion, Haverhill Public Schools
Erin Dunham, Wilmington Public Schools
Tracy Encarnacao, Greater Lowell Technical High School
Will English, Beverly Public Schools
Art Fergusson, Natick Public Schools
Lael Gahan, Minuteman High School
Kim Garrison, Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools
Kristen Gasper, Agawam Public Schools
Stephanie Glenn, Framingham Public Schools
Melanie Hart, Bridgewater-Raynham Regional School District
Craig Harris, Independent Consultant
Darrell Johnson, Chicopee Public Schools
Jason Levene, Woburn Public Schools
Melissa Maguire, Monomoy Regional School District
Bernie McCann, Billerica Public Schools
Jamie Millett, Shrewsbury Public Schools
Christine Murray, Wilmington Public Schools
Amanda Nemet, Dighton Rehoboth Regional School District
Kori Nicholson, Minuteman High School
Christine Pond, DESE
Tim Potts, Andover Public Schools
Lauren Suarez, Bridgewater-Raynham Public Schools
Abbey Tenczar, Chicopee Public Schools
Caroline Turner, Lawrence Public Schools
Kim Tynan, Westborough Public Schools
Catarina Veludo-Bovio, Peabody Public Schools
Christine Concesion
Director of Mental Health
Burlington Public Schools
Christine Conceison is the Director of Mental Health for Burlington Public Schools in Burlington, MA. She graduated with her Masters in Social Work in 2009 and has been working to support children, families and communities since that time. Christine has worked to raise awareness regarding the prevalence of mental health in the local community and is dedicated to ensuring equitable and accessible mental health treatment for all community members.
Within the school district, Christine is committed to ensuring social emotional learning and mental health literacy are an integral part of the curriculum. She is focused on enhancing school-family-community partnerships and fostering experiences for all stakeholders that promote trusting and collaborative relationships. Christine has been working to establish a comprehensive school mental health system (CSMHS) including robust community partnerships, evidence-based services, and a tiered approach.
Jordan Hamilton
School Counselor
Methuen Public Schools
Jordan Hamilton currently works as a school counselor for Methuen Public Schools. During his first graduate degree in psychology, he served as a research assistant at UMass Lowell. His research area focused on domain-contingent self-worth and working memory capacity; the extent to which test-anxiety impacted student performance and confounded results. During this time, he also served Middlesex Community College by assisting the dean of students in developing interdisciplinary teaching pedagogies for incoming freshmen. In addition, he also worked as a residential counselor for a group home in Lowell that assisted disenfranchised youth facing a myriad of intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities. During his second graduate degree in education, his research area sought to explore the extent to which early postsecondary aspirations, standardized test scores, and measures of college and career readiness counseling services received in high school predict later postsecondary aspirations, initial college enrollment, retention, and persistence. Using his prior knowledge of computer programming, he designed and coded the website to disseminate the College Admissions Knowledge Evaluation (CAKE), used to collect data. It was around this time that he met his current supervisor, John Crocker, and was afforded the opportunity to work with him for Methuen Public Schools. In addition to his role as a school counselor in Methuen, he also serves on the leadership team for the Massachusetts School Mental Health Consortium (MASMHC).
Jessica Lowe
School Counselor
Methuen Public Schools
Jessica Lowe has worked as a Guidance Counselor at Methuen High School in Methuen, MA for the past five years. She received her 5th-12th grade Professional School Guidance Counselor license in September of 2019. Aside from promoting the academic and post-secondary development for students on her caseload, Jessica is invested in her school’s mental health initiative, providing tiered, therapeutic services to students and using evidence-based and progress monitoring techniques to gauge student achievement, emotional regulation, and symptom presentation. She has presented at the School for Mental Health Conferences in Washington D.C (October 2016) and Austin, Texas (November 2019) on Methuen’s data-driven, small group counseling program. The presentation highlighted Methuen’s group program that provide psychoeducational and therapeutic curriculum for students experiencing symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. As the Rising Star Recipient of MASCA for 2020, Jessica is passionate about promoting mental health in schools in her role as a counselor.
Alex Hirshberg
Executive Director at Hirshberg Behavioral Health Services, LLC
Dr. Alex Hirshberg, Psy.D. was the managing director at James Levine and Associates, a mental health agency that provides school consultation, assessment, and outpatient therapy services. Alex’s worked with schools across the state in a variety of capacities to support student social-emotional skills. This includes professional development around evidence-based intervention, support for implementing SEL and trauma informed practices, and developing specialized programming for in-district social-emotional disability programs. Alex received his bachelor’s degree from Colorado College and his doctorate from William James College (formerly Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology).
Karen McCrillis
School Counselor / District School Counselor Coordinator
Gardner Public Schools
Mrs. Karen McCrillis is a school counselor at Gardner High School and the district counseling coordinator. She has worked to bring the school counseling department to focus on student focused data driven work. She has received her BA in Psychology, MS in Counseling and CAGS in Interdisciplinary Studies (Mental Health Counseling) all from Fitchburg State University and also is a Licenced Mental Health Counselors. She has completed the ASCA U Specialist training in Leadership. Karen is the 2020 MASCA School Counselor of the Year.