Joseph de Raismes III Policy Award Previous Recipients
2023: Moe Keller
Moe Keller was Director of Advocacy for Mental Health Colorado for 12 years until her retirement in 2022. Before her work with Mental Health Colorado, Moe served for six years on Wheat Ridge City Council, eight years in the Colorado House of Representatives and eight years in the Colorado Senate, where she concentrated on legislation and policy for individuals who have mental health conditions and for individuals with developmental disabilities. Moe successfully sponsored two mental health parity bills, legislation restricting the use of seclusion and restraint and created the Children’s Mental Health Treatment Act in state law. She also successfully sponsored Expedited Permanency Planning for children in the Child Welfare system.
Moe created psychiatric advance directives in state law and ensured the implementation of advance directives by creating a broad stakeholder group. In 2018, Moe worked with the Kennedy Forum to pass a mental health parity compliance bill in the state legislature which is considered model language for mental health treatment compliance in the country.
In 2021 Moe implemented her bill establishing 988 as the new suicide prevention hotline number in the state of Colorado. This became active in July of 2022. Prior to her work in the legislature, Moe was a special education teacher for deaf and hearing impaired children for 25 years. Moe has been married to Stephen Keller for 51 years and has two adult children.
2022: Cynthia Wainscott
The 2022 Joseph de Raismes, III Policy Award was created to honor the service and legacy of Joseph de Raismes, III who worked on the MHA Board of Directors, gave advice as MHA General Counsel, and provided leadership on the MHA Public Policy Committee. Each year going forward, the Joseph de Raismes, III Policy Award will honor an individual who – like Joe – makes outstanding contributions to furthering mental health policy. This year’s recipient is Cynthia Wainscott.
Cynthia Wainscott was a member of the Institute of Medicine committee that released the landmark report, Improving the Quality of Health Care for Mental and Substance Use Conditions. She was nominated by President Georgia W. Bush and confirmed by the United Sates Senate as a member of the National Council on Disability. She has served as the Vice President for North America and the Caribbean of the World Federation for Mental Health.
2021: Mark Heyrman
MHA’s Joseph de Raismes, III Policy Award is a newly established award, created to honor the service and legacy of Joseph de Raismes, III who worked on the MHA Board of Directors, gave advice as MHA General Counsel, and provided leadership on the MHA Public Policy Committee. Each year going forward, the Joseph de Raismes, III Policy Award will honor an individual who – like Joe – makes outstanding contributions to furthering mental health policy.
The inaugural recipient was Mark Heyrman.
Mark is MHA’s current General Counsel and a national policy expert whose expertise is greatly in demand, especially with respect to mental health law. He has authored ten scholarly publications and has worked on over 40 pieces of legislation related to mental health. He was previously a clinical Professor of Law where his work was dedicated to representing people living with mental illnesses in state and federal courts, drafting and working to enact mental health legislation, and teaching law students mental health law and mental health advocacy.