Full Agenda & Schedule Of Events

Joe Dan Beavers is the President/CEO of LifeSkills, Inc. a community mental health center based in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  With over 25 years in healthcare, his work focuses on expanding access to mental health, addiction treatment, and developmental disability services in rural communities.

LifeSkills was founded in 1966 and serves over 26,000 individuals each year through mental health, substance use disorder and intellectual and developmental disabilities programs. In January of 2020 LifeSkills and the Pennyroyal Center merged, creating one of Kentucky’s largest community mental health centers.

Later that year, LifeSkills also helped lead the formation of the Community Health Network of Kentucky (CHN).  CHN includes LifeSkills, Pennyroyal Center and three additional community mental health centers in Kentucky. Together CHN supports over 64,000 individuals annually through 55 programs across rural Kentucky.

Joe Dan has a BS in Accounting from Western Kentucky University, a Master’s degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of Kentucky and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Whitney Westerfield serves as the Director of Legal and Governmental Affairs for LifeSkills, Inc., one of Kentucky’s largest behavioral health providers covering 18 counties across South Central and Western Kentucky. Prior to joining LifeSkills, Whitney represented the 3rd Kentucky Senate District from 2013 through 2024, and served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee for all three terms in office. Senator Westerfield also served as a member of the Senate Standing Committees on Agriculture, Families and Children, Natural Resources and Energy, the Veterans, Military Affairs, and Public Protection Committee, and the Juvenile Justice Oversight Council. Additionally, he helped create and was an inaugural a member of the Commission on Race and Access to Opportunity. His award winning legislative record includes Kentucky’s most comprehensive overhaul to its juvenile justice system in decades, amending Kentucky’s Constitution to include rights for crime victims, and a pilot program funded with opioid settlement funds to intervene in criminal cases shortly after booking to pair offenders with behavioral health services.

Following his legislative service Westerfield continues to work with national advocacy organizations to advance the cause of data-informed criminal justice and behavioral health policy. You can occasionally find his writing in the editorial pages of the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Senator Westerfield received his B.S. in Communication at the University of Kentucky in 2003, and his J.D. in the spring of 2006 from Southern Illinois University School of Law. He has been an active member of the Kentucky Bar since October 2006 and the Tennessee Bar since 2012. He owns a small row crop farm in Western Kentucky with his five brothers. Whitney and his wife, Amanda, have five children, including a set of triplets, and live in Western Kentucky.

Monica E. Oss, M.S. is the founder of OPEN MINDS and serves as its chief executive officer, executive editor of its publications and websites, and executive lead of its consulting engagements. For the past three decades, Ms. Oss has led the OPEN MINDS team and its research on health and human service market trends and its national consulting practice.  She is well known for her numerous books and articles focused on the strategic and marketing implications of the evolving health and human service field – and its focus on the verticals of the field serving consumers with chronic conditions and complex support needs.

Ms. Oss has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth strategies for a wide array of organizations in the field. She has expertise in industry trend analysis, reimbursement and rate setting, and creating actionable plans for market success. In her role, she has led numerous engagements with state Medicaid plans, county governments, private insurers, and health plans, service provider organizations, technology vendors, neurotechnology and pharmaceutical organizations, and investment banking firms – with a focus on the implications of financing changes on delivery system design.

Prior to founding OPEN MINDS, Ms. Oss served as an executive with a nationally managed behavioral health organization, responsible for market development, actuarial analysis, and capitation-based rate setting. She also held a position as vice president of the U.S. risk management and underwriting division of an international insurance company.

Ms. Oss has been the keynote speaker at the conferences of dozens of national associations and has been published in a wide range of professional journals and trade publications. She has provided Congressional and state legislative testimony on issues as diverse as the financial impact of parity and payer medication access policies.

Ms. Oss has led a range of industry research and consultation initiatives, serving as principal investigator on research projects that include the examination of national managed care enrollment and service patterns, development of provider rate structures for government entities, creation of return-on-investment models for technology investments; design of performance-based compensation models within public and private health plans; and analysis of the economic impact of changes in benefit design, adoption of evidence-based practices, and new technologies.

Paul M. Duck brings over 30 years of experience in leadership and management focusing on managed care, health information technology organizations, strategy, business development, and market expansion, and customer experience optimization to the OPEN MINDS team.

Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Mr. Duck served as the Vice President, Strategy & Development at Beacon Health Options. In this role, Mr. Duck led the organization’s strategy and business development efforts – responsible for a 30% increase in net revenue and initiated over $1 billion in revenue generation. Mr. Duck was active in national behavioral health initiatives as an executive of Beacon Health Options, including participating as a speaker at national and state association meetings.

Before joining Beacon Health Options, Mr. Duck was the Vice President of Business Development at Netsmart Technologies. During his tenure, Mr. Duck was responsible for business planning, including, the oversight of strategic activities including acquisitions, development, and execution of strategic initiatives, and positioning, and sales of large strategic customers. He also led the rollout of the company’s benchmarking and data analytics product suite.

Prior to Netsmart, Mr. Duck served as the Chief Executive Officer for Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, a large group practice with five clinic locations and two ambulatory surgical centers. As the organization’s chief executive officer, Mr. Duck was responsible for significant positive changes in leadership and corporate culture, financial and operational performance, compliance, and governance. Mr. Duck improved net collections by over $1 million per month and grew the practice through negotiating better contract rates with payers. He also implemented an organizational rebranding initiative and launched a new marketing campaign.

Prior to Coastal Orthopedics and Pain Management, Mr. Duck served as the President and Chief Executive Officer for Florida Radiology Imaging, one of the largest outpatient diagnostic imaging service companies serving the greater Orlando market. During his tenure, Mr. Duck led the construction of three new, full modality, diagnostic imaging locations. Mr. Duck revolutionized the company’s culture by creating a highly attractive and functional work environment.

Mr. Duck earned his Bachelor of Arts in Business Management from Case Western Reserve University. He earned his Associate of Arts in Electronic Engineering Technology from the Electronic Technology Institute. Mr. Duck received an award by Inc Magazine for leading Florida Radiology Imaging as one of America’s fastest-growing companies. Mr. Duck recently served as a contributing author to the book The New Health Age: The Future of Health Care in America.