An interim executive should do more than keep the CEO's chair occupied. Mr. Cook's approach begins with listening to the Board, leadership team, employees, people receiving services and their families, and key community and government partners, to understand what is working, identify what requires immediate attention, and establish priorities that maintain organizational stability while positioning the permanent CEO for success.

As Regional Director for Dungarvin, Mr. Cook led multi-state operations across Delaware, Illinois, New Jersey, and Wisconsin, overseeing approximately 450 employees while regional revenue grew from roughly $16 million to $20 million annually. He later served as Executive Director of statewide disability provider associations in Wisconsin and Delaware, and, most recently, as Executive Director of the San Gabriel Valley Residential Facility in California. There, he maintained continuity of services through Board leadership changes, staff vacancies, regulatory challenges, and multiple concurrent organizational pressures.

Organizations serving people with disabilities operate within an increasingly complicated environment of Medicaid financing, workforce shortages, regulatory requirements, and changing service models. As Executive Director of the Ability Network of Delaware, Mr. Cook led a multi-year legislative and budget strategy that helped produce a 60 percent increase in state fiscal support for I/DD services over five years, securing $42 million in additional state appropriations and $59 million in federal matching funds.

He currently chairs the ACCSES Advisory Council and advises disability provider associations confronting Medicaid reimbursement, workforce, provider-capacity, and system-transformation challenges. That background gives him an understanding of both sides of the relationship between government and providers: the fiscal and regulatory responsibilities of public agencies, and the operational realities organizations face translating public policy into quality services.

Mr. Cook believes one of the most important responsibilities of an interim executive is to strengthen the organization that will remain after the interim assignment ends. His approach is straightforward: listen first, establish direction, put capable people in the right roles, give them meaningful authority, and create accountability for results. This means identifying the knowledge and talent already within an organization rather than assuming existing leadership must be replaced.

aSuggestion for Wellness & Care is an EHR-agnostic Digital Health Overlay designed to sit seamlessly on top of existing provider systems (such as Therap, iCareManager, or others). Built with a Zero-PHI architecture, aSuggestion transforms daily routines into interactive, active treatment while capturing real-time, audit-ready compliance data, without requiring a costly, disruptive software migration.

Potentia Policy Institute and aSuggestion join forces to bridge the gap between state Medicaid policy, rate-setting realities, and day-to-day service delivery:

Across the country, abuse and neglect in I/DD services reflect systemic weaknesses in prevention and reporting, not isolated incidents. A joint federal review found that group homes failed to report a majority of critical incidents to law enforcement or state agencies as required. A 2018 FiveThirtyEight investigation identified at least 2,400 allegations of abuse and neglect across more than 2,000 unlicensed California adult day programs, and licensed facilities have been repeatedly cited under Title 22 for personal-rights violations, supervision failures, and failure to report.

Once harm occurs, organizations face steep consequences: multi-million-dollar verdicts, insurance premium increases of 25% to 100% or more, reputational damage, and regulatory scrutiny. Prevention — not reaction — is the only strategy that protects the people served and stabilizes the organization.

Sponsored by the Potentia Public Policy Institute, this certification workshop equips organizations with internal trainers who can sustain prevention efforts, embed ethical decision-making into daily practice, and strengthen organizational culture around safety and accountability. Participants train using Potentia's Preventing the Maltreatment of Vulnerable Individuals employee training booklet (California Edition), covering mandated reporting requirements, recognizing abuse, neglect, mistreatment, and financial abuse, and building program-level abuse prevention plans.