Meet the National Program Office
Using a Learning Collaborative methodology, the Reclaiming Futures National Program Office provides training and technical assistance to more than 40 sites across the country. Our office is housed at the Regional Research Institute for Human Services of the School of Social Work at Portland State University, in Portland, OR.
Updated: January 06 2017
Evan Elkin is a nationally respected innovator and leader in the field of juvenile justice, child welfare reform, mental health and substance abuse treatment, and youth development. Originally trained as a psychologist at New York University and researcher at the New York Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University’s Department of Child Psychiatry, his work has been at the intersection of public health and social justice for the nations most vulnerable populations.
Most recently, Evan designed a treatment alternative to incarceration program for mentally ill adults for the Greenburger Center for Social and Criminal Justice, and served as the Director of the Department of Planning and Government Innovation for the Vera Institute of Justice where he was a member of the senior management team. He also oversaw Vera’s work in the area of Child Welfare and Justice and served as Project Director for two successful demonstration projects.
For more than a decade, Evan has been a trusted technical advisor in the government and non-profit sectors on policy strategy, program development, evaluation and training, and was the treatment model developer for the Vera Institute’s acclaimed Adolescent Portable Therapy program, as well as Reclaiming Futures’ new juvenile justice focused approach to Screening Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT).
He has served as a consultant in the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Phoenix House, The Children’s Village, and is one of the founders of the Stargate Theatre Company – a theatre company for formerly incarcerated youth.
Jim Carlton began working with Reclaiming Futures in 2000, during its planning phase as a new project at Portland State University, providing logistical support during project launch. Jim served Reclaiming Futures in a variety of roles, eventually becoming Deputy Director in 2004. His responsibilities include assisting the director with overall management of the Reclaiming Futures initiative and the national program office (NPO), budget development and oversight, and management and coordination of grantee support. Before Reclaiming Futures, he provided administrative support to the director’s office at the Regional Research Institute. Jim earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Oregon.