Our Mission
To ensure the systems providing support to people with disabilities and older adults are driven by their voices.
What makes us different:
1. Cross-disability and cross-system expertise
2. Multidisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians, former public managers, and people with lived experience
3. Large-scale systems and policy focus
4. Tailored support and practical, applied guidance
5. Centering lived experience in everything we do
Our Team
Alexandra Bonardi, MS (OT), MHA, is committed to improving supports and services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Drawing on her clinical occupational therapy background and years of direct service experience, she works with public agencies to measure and enhance quality outcomes across service systems. She is skilled in participatory research and engages diverse decision-makers to build effective, person-centered supports. Alixe guides organizations in using National Core Indicators and national health data to understand population health. A clinical assistant professor at UMass Chan Medical School, she teaches in the Shriver Center’s LEND program. Previously, she directed the Center for Developmental Disabilities Evaluation and Research, leading projects on quality improvement, assistive technology access, and health data initiatives.
Bevin Croft, PhD, supports change agents in strengthening systems through approaches that are both data-driven and grounded in core values. An expert in person-centered planning, peer-delivered crisis alternatives, self-direction, and other rights-based practices, she leads behavioral health and disability system assessments and facilitates strategic planning for states and counties nationwide. Bevin uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods and works with participatory approaches aligned with the “nothing about us without us” principles of the disability rights and consumer/survivor/expatient movements. Her research and evaluation projects range from building evidence for specific interventions to synthesizing best practices that help agencies improve services and supports.
Kate Brady, PhD, ABD, is co-director of the Grassroots Project and is passionate about strengthening community-driven responses to major public systems changes that support the vision of all people living healthy, fulfilling lives in their communities. With more than two decades of experience in disability policy, services, and systems advocacy, she brings expertise across Home and Community-Based Services, Vocational Rehabilitation, Medicaid, Social Security, and Workforce Development. Kate excels in leading organizational and systems change through research, technical assistance, and program design and evaluation. Previously, she served as Deputy Director at the Georgia Council on Disability, directed research at the National Organization on Disability, and consulted with multiple University Centers of Excellence on Disability.
Saska Rajcevic, MPA, brings over eight years of experience delivering technical assistance, training, and evaluation to organizations implementing person-centered planning and meeting Home and Community-Based Services Final Rule requirements. She supports states in designing and coordinating engagement efforts—including partner mapping, listening sessions, focus groups, and interviews—to ensure community voices guide system improvement. Her work emphasizes practical, day-to-day application of person-centered values across different organizational roles and settings. Before joining HSRI, Saska worked at Utah’s Division of Services for People with Disabilities, where she led major updates to the Division’s person-centered planning software, processes, and policies in collaboration with community members.
Our Projects
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Our team is supporting the No Wrong Door Resource Center to implement person-centered practices across the No Wrong Door network, with a specific focus on community care hubs. Our team is developing competencies for person-centered practices along with training materials and resources to bolster workforce development and ensure people receive person-centered care.
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Our team is leading efforts through the Grassroots Project to provide people with disabilities and their support networks access to tools, resources, information, and peer-to-peer networking to help them ensure the perspectives, priorities, and preferences of disabled people are reflected in disability policies and service systems in their states and communities.
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Our team is analyzing survey data and conducting focus groups and observations to evaluate the reach and impact of New York State Department of Health’s Person-Centered Planning Training Initiative.
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Our team is supporting the management and evaluation of the North Carolina Person-Centered Practice Learning Collaborative to strengthen service providers’ skills in attaining and incorporating individualized goals documented in the Person-Centered Plan and promote better outcomes for individuals receiving services.
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Our team works with North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) to support cross-disability and cross-system initiatives enhancing person-centered practices. These include facilitating a person-centered practice self-assessment process in all HHS divisions, providing ad hoc technical assistance to develop and further goals that are identified through the self-assessment process, and developing a train-the-trainer program for the HHS Aging and Adult Services Division.
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Our team is working with the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at the Brandeis University Heller School for Social Policy and Management to conduct a study on the experiences of people of color in self-direction. The study examines the experiences of disabled people of color who use self-directed services, with the broader goal of addressing knowledge gaps about disparities in access to community living services and supports faced by disabled people of color and developing interventions to promote equity in home and community-based services.
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The Self-Directed Support Network is a worldwide community of people with disabilities, practitioners, administrators, and researchers working to define and improve best practice in self-direction. Within that network, our team leads SDS Network Research, a group of researchers and others who share an interest in the knowledge base for self-direction. The group brings people together to share ideas and developments, learn from one another across countries and contexts, and build connections lead to collaboration.
Our Partners
