Stephen Feathers

MPA Fellows, Class of 2028

Quality Improvement Specialist, The Connection Inc.

I’ve worked in the non-profit mental health and substance use treatment field since late 2012. In that time I have worked as a front line worker both in inpatient facilities and doing outreach. Most of my time was spent doing outreach work in the HIV prevention space on both state (CTDPH) contracts and federal (HHS) contracts. I spent 1 year doing more administration and management of my previous agency. This included a brief time as co-president following the previous CEO’s departure. During the first 3 months as co-president I achieved a $300K reduction in annual agency spending without compromising program efficacy. During that first 3 months I also uncovered systemic financial instability which the board had not previously been aware of. This led to the board’s decision to close the agency. I have since moved on to my current role working on quality improvement for a much larger agency. I am primarily focused on Housing and Criminal Justice programs working with program management to identify areas where improvements can be made and look for opportunities for program improvement. My department is also focused highly on coordinating accreditation of the agency as a whole and responding to client grievances.