Carter Center Mental Health Program Staff

Thomas H. Bornemann, Ed.D., Director
Dr. Thomas H. Bornemann became director of the Carter Center's Mental Health Program in August 2002. Prior to that, he served as senior adviser for mental health in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence of the World Health Organization. Dr. Bornemann has spent his entire career in public mental health working in all aspects including clinical practice, research, research management, policy development, and administration at the national level.  Early in his career, Dr. Bornemann served in a psychiatric emergency clinic in San Francisco, Calif.  At the National Institute of Mental Health, he was part of – and later led – the team that  designed and developed a series of inpatient and outpatient services for a variety of populations including refugees. Dr. Bornemann served in the Office of International Health as the chief of refugee programs. Read full bio >

Lei Ellingson, M.P.P., Associate Director
As associate director, Lei Ellingson assists the director in developing, planning, and implementing Mental Health Program activities, including the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, and the Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum.  She also serves on the board of directors for Mental Health America of Georgia and acts as the liaison between the Mental Health Program and state organizations.  Previously, Ms. Ellingson worked in the field of special education.  Ms. Ellingson received an M.P.P. from Duke University, an M.S.S.E. from Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College.

Rebecca Palpant Shimkets, M.S., Assistant Director,
The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism
Rebecca Palpant Shimkets is assistant director for The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism of the Carter Center Mental Health Program. Ms. Shimkets develops and oversees a journalism fellowship program that each year awards stipends to 10 professional journalists in the United Sates, South Africa, and Romania to produce a significant work on mental health or mental illnesses. The fellowship program has been sustained in New Zealand as the New Zealand Mental Health Media Grants Program through a partnership between Like Minds, Like Mine and the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand. Ms.Shimkets is also an active participant on advisory boards and within national work groups related to stigma and accurate portrayals of mental illnesses in the media. Ms. Shimkets received her master's degree in community counseling from Georgia State University and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Asbury College.

John Bartlett, M.D., M.P.H., Senior Project Adviser, Primary Care Initiative
John Bartlett is the senior project adviser of the Primary Care Initiative of the Mental Health Program. His focus is leading and coordinating the activities of the Mental Health Program's Primary Care Initiative, which is intended to help identify ways to facilitate better recognition and treatment of mental health and substance abuse problems in primary care.  Dr. Bartlett is a psychiatrist and a former treatment system manager who specializes in quality and accountability issues for mental health, substance abuse, and chronic health care. Prior to working at The Carter Center, he was a partner at The Avisa Group, a policy, research, and consulting firm that specializes in behavioral health care. Dr. Bartlett also has served as the senior medical director and vice president for CIGNA Behavioral Health and as an executive vice president for clinical strategy for Charter/Magellan Health Services. He received his medical training at Yale University and completed his psychiatric residency at the UCLA School of Medicine, where, following his residency, he was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar.

Janice Cooper, Ph.D., MPA, Country Representative, Liberia Mental Health Initiative
Dr. Janice L. Cooper is the country lead for the Liberia Mental Health Initiative. She oversees a national training, policy, and support program to expand capacity for mental health services delivery.  She also is responsible for interacting with national and international colleagues and partners of the program. A native Liberian and health services researcher specializing in children's mental health, Dr. Cooper has worked in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors in the United States and Liberia. Prior to joining The Carter Center in 2010, Dr. Cooper was the interim director of the National Center for Children in Poverty as well as an assistant clinical professor in health policy and management at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. From 2005-2009, she also served as the Center's director of child health and mental health, receiving the distinguished Calderone Prize for Junior Faculty in 2007. Dr. Cooper received her Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard University. She was a 2001 fellow in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School and a 1999 Archibald Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow. She holds additional undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Essex in Colchester, England, and Columbia and Harvard universities in the United States.

Shelly Terrazas, M.S., M.B.A
Assistant Director, Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative and the Liberia Mental Health Initiative
Shelly Terrazas supports the management and oversight of the operations of the Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative and Liberia Mental Health Initiative. She is involved in the development, implementation, and monitoring of project activities for EPHTI and Liberia Mental Health Initiative and is responsible for interacting with international colleagues and partners of the program. Ms. Terrazas supports the management of program grants and assists in the compilation of data, reports, papers, proposals, and budgets.

Prior to joining The Carter Center in 2004, Ms. Terrazas was program administrator for the Islam and Human Rights Fellowship Program at Emory University School of Law, overseeing all aspects of the program in the areas of finance, administration, personnel, research, and public relations. She has also worked at the Georgia Institute of Technology in program and grant management.

Ms. Terrazas earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in international affairs from Centre College and her Master of Science degree in international affairs from the Georgia Institute of Technology. She received a Master of Business Administration degree with a concentration in healthcare administration from Georgia State University.

Lynne Randolph, Program Coordinator
As program coordinator, Lynne Randolph assists in developing new program initiatives and oversees the coordination of ongoing program activities, such as the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy and the activities of the Mental Health Task Force. She also coordinates with outside colleagues who wish to collaborate with the Center. Ms. Randolph earned an Associate in Arts degree in human services from Piedmont College in Charlotte, N.C. She worked at the Mecklenburg County Community Mental Health Center conducting play therapy sessions with children and later taught prekindergarten.

Tina Rezvani, Assistant Program Coordinator
The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism
Tina Rezvani first joined The Carter Center as a Health Programs Development intern in the fall of 2010. She joined the Mental Health Program as assistant program coordinator in 2011. Ms. Rezvani supports the operations of the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism in a number of ways, including organizing and developing materials for the annual fellowship meeting and conducting programmatic research. Prior to joining The Carter Center, she completed a Master of Arts degree in anthropology at Georgia State University, where she conducted ethnographic research for her thesis on the cultural identity of Iranian immigrants living in Atlanta. Ms. Rezvani completed a Bachelor of Science degree in anthropology at Emory University in 2007.

Yolonda Johnson, Program Administrative Assistant
Program Administrative Assistant Yolonda Johnson assists the staff in the coordination of program initiatives and activities such as the Rosalynn Carter Symposium on Mental Health Policy, Rosalynn Carter Georgia Mental Health Forum, and Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. She performs various special assignments and supervises interns. She is pursuing a bachelor's degree in psychology at Georgia Perimeter College.