Board of Directors

Our Board is convened from stakeholders who provide a broad range of expertise and interest. They represent behavioral health and / I-DD, primary health, public and private providers and payers, advocates, and key state and local partners.  This diversity embodies the collaborative spirit at the core of our work and ensures that all voices are heard at every stage of i2i planning.

 

Kurtis Taylor, President and Board Chair

Mr. Kurtis Taylor is a person in long-term recovery. For him, this means that he has not used alcohol or any other substance since December 23^rd, 2002. Mr. Taylor obtained his bachelor’s degree in social work from Shaw University in May of 2019.

For many years, Kurtis Taylor has been a voice for citizens seeking long-term recovery from substance use disorders. He was an appointed member of Governor Pat McCrory’s Task Force on Mental Health & Substance Use Disorder. He is currently serving as Chairperson for the NC Substance Use Disorder Federation, as a member of the NC Departmental Waiver Advisory Committee (DWAC), chairperson of the board of directors for i2i Center for Integrative Health, and a board member for the Emerald School of Excellence – the first Recovery High School in North Carolina.

Presently, Mr. Taylor serves as the executive director of the Bob Barker Foundation, where he is committed to helping reduce recidivism rates, nationwide. Under his leadership, the Foundation is committed to the elimination of stigma attached to the subject of reentry & justice-involvement. Mr. Taylor is an extremely vocal advocate for all citizens faced with the challenges that accompany reentering society after incarceration, and he is proud to serve in this capacitity.

Victor Armstrong, MSW

Victor Armstrong is the Vice President for Health Equity & Engagement at The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He previously served as Chief Diversity Officer of RI International with responsibility for developing, creating, and implementing the Diversity Equity and Inclusion framework throughout the organization. Prior to this role Victor served as North Carolina DHHS Chief Health Equity Officer, with responsibility for leading the overarching strategy and operational goals to promote health equity, diversity, and inclusion across all the agency’s health and human services.

Victor originally joined NC DHHS as ‪Director of the NC Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Substance Abuse Services in March of 2020, with responsibility and oversight of the public community-based mental health, intellectual and other developmental disabilities, substance use, and traumatic brain injury system in North Carolina. Prior to accepting this role, Victor spent six years as Vice President of Behavioral Health with Atrium Health. Based in Charlotte. Victor has over 30 years of experience in human services, primarily dedicated to building and strengthening community resources to serve individuals who have been historically marginalized. He is a nationally recognized speaker on issues regarding health equity and access to healthcare, particularly as it relates to individuals living with mental health challenges.

Victor currently serves on the board of directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention- North Carolina and is the host of the “Strong Talk” podcast. He is a member of NC Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) and serves on the Steering Committee for the National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention.

Victor graduated, Magna Cum Laude, from North Carolina Central University with a bachelor’s degree in business management and received a Master of Social Work (MSW) from East Carolina University. He is the husband of Dr. Charletta Armstrong and the father of three sons, Carter, Alonzo, and Victor Jr.

Jerome Brown

Jerome Brown is the Managing Partner and Co-Founder of United Providers of Health (UPOH). UPOH is an Independent Provider Association (IPA) focusing on Integrated Care and addressing Social Determinants of Health (SDOH). His previous roles were COO/Consultant for various Provider Healthcare
organizations serving the MH/SA/ and I/DD populations. He has over 27 years of corporate management and executive experience. Jerome is also the CEO/Owner and founder of New Thought Leadership. New Thought Leadership is a series of workshops where individuals will learn the basic leadership principles,
characteristics and leadership styles of being a leader and how to effectively use these styles.

Jerome is a Lean Six Sigma-Green Belt for over 24 years. He is a certified Facilitator and certifications in Leadership Through Quality (LTQ), Problem Solving Process (PSP), Quality Improvement Process (QIP), Organization Development (OD), Business Process Development (BPD) and Change Management (CM). He enjoys leading organizations, collaborating and building growth through networks and business development and managing change. He has implemented operational processes and clinical workflows that achieves strong measured outcomes and financial sound business results for organizations. He has launched and implemented programs and process in corporate America regionally and nationally and statewide within Healthcare. He has chaired on several boards of non-profits and is currently a board member at his church and served on the former i2i-I’m IN, Advisory Group. Jerome attended Millikin University (Decatur, Ill.) where he is in the Hall of Fame and a two time All American in Football and he
received his BS in Psychology.

Carol Clayton, Ph.D.

Carol Clayton is a Senior Associate at OPEN MINDS. She has over 30 years of experience and a wealth of both in clinical work and in executive management.  Her areas of expertise include data-driven strategy development and management, performance measurement and outcomes reporting, quality improvement, and growth strategies.

Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Dr. Clayton served as the Vice President of Behavioral Health Solutions Integration for Relias, an online training solution for health care providers. At Relias, Dr. Clayton led the development of analytics-focused market solutions.  Her areas of focus were performance measurement systems, management team dashboards, and analytics for managing value-based reimbursement. 

Prior to her role at Relias, Dr. Clayton served as the Chief Executive Officer for Care Management Technologies (CMT), an analytics solution organization of which she was a minority owner.    With CMT, Dr. Clayton worked with state and county governments and provider collaboratives to develop shared performance management and performance improvement platforms.   Her work included creating solution-specific health information exchanges promoting data sharing between multiple payer and provider organizations. 

Prior to joining Care Management Technologies, Dr. Clayton served as the Executive Director for the North Carolina Council of Community Programs. In this role, she worked with both public agencies and private provider organizations during the evolution of the North Carolina MH/DD/SA service delivery system to a new managed care model.   Her work involved both advocacy to public policy makers and the legislature, as well as working with member organizations on improving their delivery system.

Previously, Dr. Clayton also served Executive Director for Magellan Behavioral Health.    In this role, she was responsible for the Magellan book of business – at-risk managed care, administrative service organization (ASO) contracts, and employee assistance program (EAP) contracts for two million lives across four states.

Dr. Clayton started her career as a Staff Psychologist at John Umstead Hospital. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Special Education from Appalachian State University, and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Rob Robinson

Rob Robinson is the Chief Executive Officer of Alliance Health, the public behavioral health managed care organization serving over 135,000 Medicaid eligible people and thousands of uninsured individuals in Cumberland, Durham, Johnston, Mecklenburg, Orange and Wake counties.

Mr. Robinson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Justice from the State University of New York at Oswego and a Master’s degree in Community Counseling from Norfolk State University. He is a Licensed Certified Addictions Counselor with over 23 years of both clinical and managerial experience in the public and private behavioral healthcare fields with a focus on program and system development.

Before assuming his current position at Alliance, Mr. Robinson served as Chief Operating Officer and in that role was instrumental to the creation of the company in 2012. Prior to that time he served The Durham Center in Durham, NC as System of Care Administrator and then Deputy Director. He helped oversee the development of Durham’s nationally-recognized system of care and during his tenure The Durham Center received the Excellence in Community Collaboration Award from the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare.

Mr. Robinson serves on the board of directors of the Association of Community Affiliated Plans.  He has considerable experience in multiple facets of managed care operations and is considered a respected voice within the public behavioral healthcare system in North Carolina.