Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

Joseph L. Volk
CEO, Community Advocates
Administrator, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

Joe Volk was named one of the most influential persons of the decade by Milwaukee Magazine. He has dedicated his career to advocacy for the homeless and for those families and individuals seeking services and assistance to meet basic needs in order to become self-sufficient. Joe has founded, served on, and advised numerous boards and coalitions advocating for low-income and vulnerable populations. With more than 30 years of service to Community Advocates and to Milwaukee, his leadership, expertise, and commitment have resulted in more focused community efforts to develop public policies and systems that influence positive change fin the lives of Milwaukee’s poorest families.

In 2005, when Joe was promoted to Executive Director of Community Advocates, the agency employed 34 staff and had a budget of just over $4 million. Today, as CEO of Community Advocates, Joe oversees an organization that employs 200+ people, serves more than 75,000 clients annually, and has a budget of over $14 million — making it the largest human services advocacy agency in the State of Wisconsin. Joe cares about Milwaukee’s poor, about Milwaukee’s problems and about Milwaukee’s future.

Debra J. Kraft
Deputy Director and Counsel,
Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

As Deputy Director and Counsel of the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, Debra J. Kraft is responsible for assisting the Director in the development and advancement of policies to reduce poverty and its effects in both Milwaukee and Wisconsin. Initiatives in which she has been involved include health care reform, mental health and substance use disorder treatment, supportive housing zoning changes and criminal justice reform. Her duties also include the provision of legal counsel and research; federal, state and local advocacy; and operations oversight.

Special projects in which she has been involved as part of an intergovernmental work group include the review and revision of and advocacy for City of Milwaukee zoning ordinances to promote safe and supervised supportive housing that resulted in their passage by the Common Council. Debra also assisted in drafting legislation and advocating for the successful passage of the Wisconsin Parity Act by the state legislature in April, 2010. As part of this project, she was appointed by the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance to assist in the drafting of administrative rules implementing the Wisconsin Parity Act. She also conducted ground-breaking federal research into the applicability of the Wellstone-Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 to Medicaid managed care organizations.

Before joining the Public Policy Institute, Debra was the General Counsel of the Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing, the state agency responsible for the licensing and enforcement of most regulated professions in the state. As its chief legal advisor and member of the senior management team, she advised the agency on administrative, legal and policy matters while also overseeing the department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

Debra has extensive experience in the private corporate sector, where she concentrated her legal practice in the general business and real estate areas in both law firm and in-house settings, including a position as Corporate Counsel at the world’s largest privately held printing company. She began her career as an Assistant District Attorney in Milwaukee County.

Debra received her undergraduate degree, with honors, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, (1978) and her law degree from the University of Wisconsin Law School (1981). She continued her studies in public international law at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland as a Rotary International Scholarship recipient (1985-1986). Most recently, Debra was selected as one of 50 applicants to attend Georgetown University’s Leadership Academy on Addressing Disparities in Mental Health Care, Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development/National Technical Assistance Center that was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in the fall of 2010.

David Riemer
Senior Fellow,
Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

David Riemer has been active for many years in reshaping Wisconsin and U.S. policies on welfare, poverty, health care and education. He was chosen in 2010 to serve as a member of the Wisconsin Legislative Council Special Committee on Health Care Reform Implementation, as well as the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) Study Panel on Health Insurance Exchanges.

David is the author of “The Prisoners of Welfare” and numerous articles on poverty, health care reform and public administration. He is one of the co-founders of The New Hope Project. David served from 2004-07 as Director of the Wisconsin Health Project to lower the number of Wisconsin’s uninsured and control health care costs. The project was responsible for developing bipartisan legislation to provide all of the state’s residents with affordable health insurance and lower the growth of health care costs.

In 2004 David campaigned for Milwaukee County Executive, 43 percent of the votes. During 2003, David served as Budget Director for Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle. His primary responsibility was to help solve the state’s projected $3.2 billion deficit. The resulting balanced budget preserved vital services without raising taxes. David worked as an Atlantic Fellow in Public Policy in London and Oxford, England, in 2002; his research focused on supplementing low-income workers’ earnings through the tax system.

From 1988-2001, David held several high-level jobs for the City of Milwaukee, including Budget Director, Administration Director and Chief of Staff for Mayor John O. Norquist. For most of this period, he was responsible for overseeing the central fiscal, purchasing, IT and intergovernmental functions of the city government.

From 1975-88, David held several positions in government and the private sector. He was legal advisor to Wisconsin Governor Patrick Lucey, served as legal counsel to Senator Edward Kennedy’s Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research, worked as a health policy analyst for the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, prepared a report on Wisconsin’s uninsured for the state Department of Health and Social Services, and worked on health care cost containment issues for Time Insurance Company.

David received an AB degree from Harvard College in History and Literature (1970) and a law degree from Harvard Law School (1975).

Mike Bare
Research and Program Coordinator,
Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

Mike Bare specializes in disability, energy, housing and health care policy research, and is an expert on the intersection of policy with politics and the legislative process. Mike is the Coordinator of the Project for Health Insurance Exchange Education (PHIXE). Mike was also a Program Evaluator of the Community Advocates Brighter Futures program and has assisted with the Milwaukee Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.

Mike has an extensive grassroots politics and government background, having worked for and provided consulting to several political campaigns. He also served as an aide to former U.S. Senator Russ Feingold in his Washington, DC office, and as the Research Director for his 2010 campaign.

Mike holds an MA in political science from American University, where he was President of the Graduate Student Council and served on several University-wide committees. Mike has been a longtime volunteer for Special Olympics and other disability organizations, and also serves on the Board of Directors for the Down Syndrome Association of Wisconsin.

Robert Cherry
Prevention Services Manager,
Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

Robert Cherry coordinates the Milwaukee Tobacco Prevention & Control Program and the Milwaukee Brighter Futures Initiative. He was formerly Associate Outreach Specialist of Community Based Initiatives at the Milwaukee office of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Urban Population Health. Robert, who has strong interests in public health and systems design, also worked in the central intake unit at M&S Clinical Services and Wisconsin Community Services. He received a BS in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Kari Lerch
Program Coordinator,
Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

Kari Lerch is the Program Coordinator for the Milwaukee Brighter Futures Initiative. Kari started working at Community Advocates in 2007 as a Disability Advocate. She was also an Outreach Specialist in the Community Advocates health care services department, and most recently served as the Coordinator of the Milwaukee Continuum of Care, where she worked to end homelessness in Milwaukee.

Kari is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a bachelor’s degree in Social Work. She is currently a graduate student in Public and Non-Profit Administration.

Bob Sayner
Co-Founder and Former Chief Executive Officer,
Justice 2000

Bob Sayner is co-founder of Justice 2000, a division of Community Advocates established in 2001 to promote the expansion of opportunities for the safe release and community reintegration of criminal offenders. This mission is based on the belief that social services and treatment interventions, when combined with community supervision, can be useful, effective alternatives to incarceration and should be considered for wider application in Milwaukee, and throughout the state of Wisconsin and the nation.

From 1971-97 he served as Assistant Executive Director of Wisconsin Correctional Services (now known as Wisconsin Community Services [WCS]). During his tenure at WCS, Bob provided the leadership needed to develop, establish and manage Circuit and Municipal Court Intervention Services in the Milwaukee area for criminal offenders and indigent ordinance violators with mental health and substance use disorder problems, a program that evolved into a comprehensive Milwaukee County Pretrial Services Program. In 1994 and 1995, the Pretrial Services Program, operated by WCS was nationally recognized as an “Enhanced Model Pretrial Services Program by the Federal Bureau of Justice Assistance, deemed worthy of replication in other jurisdictions throughout the nation.

Bob also provided the leadership to develop, establish and manage a comprehensive Mental Health Community Support and Treatment Program designed to assist offenders with mental illness and co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorder to function and live independently in the community as an alternative to institutionalization. In 1994, the WCS Community Support Program received national honors as a finalist for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government “Innovations in Government” award and was the subject of a National Institute Journal profile published by the U.S. Department of Justice.

In 1998, Bob received the “Olgiatti” award presented in Philadelphia by the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies for lifetime achievement “in recognition for continuing outstanding contributions to the furtherance of the principals of pretrial justice.”

Bob is currently collaborating with the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute to support the Community Justice Project, designed to reduce spending on corrections, control growth in Wisconsin’s prison and jail populations, hold offenders accountable and increase public safety.

Marilyn Walczak
Community Justice Project Coordinator,
Community Advocates Public Policy Institute

Marilyn Walczak, co-founder of Justice 2000 and Community Justice Project Coordinator for the Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, has over 33 years of experience working with local justice systems, and creating innovative and high-impact programs. She has done program development and has management experience in providing successful treatment intervention and pretrial services for criminal offenders. She served on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Pretrial Services Agencies (NAPSA) for six years. Additionally, Marilyn served NAPSA as the Service Coordinator for six years providing support to the Board for Directors and membership. Marilyn currently serves on a variety of criminal justice and community planning groups dedicated to criminal justice reform.

Genyne Edwards
Tobacco Advocacy Consultant,
Tobacco Prevention and Control Program

As an attorney, Genyne Edwards has been actively involved in policy, politics and social advocacy. While Deputy Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Tourism she successfully advocated for an increased role for cultural and urban tourism in statewide economic development policy. Genyne was the Program Director for Milwaukee Mosaic Partnerships Program and is a Commissioner for the City of Milwaukee-Equal Rights Commission. She is a graduate of Marquette University Law School, having received a BS in Organizational Leadership and Supervision from Purdue University.

Kenneth A. Germanson
Communications Consultant,
Tobacco Prevention and Control Program

Ken Germanson has worked at Community Advocates since 1992 on projects involving child abuse prevention, youth development, community strengthening and health care advocacy for low-income persons. He also has been a community activist and spent more than 35 years as a labor union leader.

Ken is a former journalist who began work on the old Milwaukee Sentinel as a reporter-rewriteman after his return to Milwaukee from the U.S. Navy in 1957. It was at the Sentinel that he became active in his labor union, the Milwaukee Newspaper Guild, eventually serving on the executive board and bargaining committee.

In 1964, Ken joined the staff of Milwaukee District Council 48, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFL-CIO), where he mainly represented workers for the Cities of Milwaukee and West Allis, bargaining some of the pioneer labor contracts of the period. From 1968 to 1992, he was a staff member of the Milwaukee-based International Union, Allied Industrial Workers of America (AFL-CIO), heading the union’s political action and communications programs, becoming chief administrative officer for the union in 1981.

He was president of the Wisconsin Labor History Society from 1992 to 2009 and continues serving the Society as President Emeritus, editing the Society’s newsletter, handling Web site functions and assisting the current officers.

Ken has been active in a number of community groups and nonprofit organizations, serving on the boards of Family Services of Milwaukee, St. Mary’s Academy and others. He also served many years on the board and as president of the Planning Council for Health and Social Services, and was involved throughout the years in many advocacy groups supporting civil rights or worker causes. He has received numerous awards for his community work.

Ken is a 1951 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with degrees in journalism and economics. He is married and lives in Milwaukee.

Conor J. Williams
Economic Policy Analyst,
Pathways to Ending Poverty

Conor J. Williams is the Economic Policy Analyst for the Pathways to Ending Poverty Program. He also operates a family-owned stone fabrication business which he helped to found. Conor holds an honors BA in Economics from University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland. Conor started work doing econometric modeling at the Department of Transport in Sydney, Australia followed by a number of years as an economic analyst for an aircraft leasing company in Shannon, Ireland. Subsequently he worked as an economic policy analyst for the Department of Commerce and Industry, Gaborone, Botswana, facilitated through the Irish aid agency APSO.

Conor is active in MICAH (Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope), where he leads the TIP Initiative (Treatment Instead of Prison), which offers an alternative to criminalization and incarceration through seeking to send non-violent offenders suffering from the disease of substance use disorder to supervised community treatment programs.