Leadership

Heidi Baskfield

Executive Director

Heidi Baskfield is Vice President and Executive Director of Speak Our Minds, where she leads national efforts to improve child and youth mental health through advocacy, policy, and systems change. An attorney by training, Heidi has spent more than 20 years championing the needs of children and families, particularly those impacted by mental and behavioral health challenges.

Her career began defending the rights of children and youth with disabilities at the Colorado Protection and Advocacy System and later at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. She went on to serve Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, where she gained firsthand experience advancing effective public policy.

Heidi later spent more than a decade at Children’s Hospital Colorado, ultimately serving as Vice President of Population Health and Advocacy. Drawing on her experience in law, government, healthcare, and policy, she now leads Speak Our Minds’ mission to advance solutions that ensure all children, youth, and families have the support they need to thrive.

Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn

Board Director

Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn is a child and adolescent and addiction psychiatrist, the IUH II Professor of Psychiatry and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the IU School of Medicine. Dr. Hulvershorn is an active researcher and clinician and has authored numerous publications on various topics in child psychiatry. She has received multiple grants to study the neurobiological basis of addiction risk and risky decision making in youth. She serves as the consulting Medical Director for Indiana’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction.

Nick Lashutka

Board Director

Nick Lashutka joined the Ohio Children’s Hospital Association (OCHA) as President & CEO in 2007 and has over 30 years of public policy experience working in the private sector and state government.

OCHA serves as the statewide advocacy leader for children focused on achieving the vision of making Ohio the best place for child health. The organization advocates in partnership with children’s hospitals and their patients, families, and communities for continuous child health improvement with a focus on bringing solutions to complex public policy challenges at both the state & federal levels.

In 2009, Nick was instrumental in the creation of Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS), the largest pediatric patient/employee safety network in the world with over 140 member children’s hospitals. Nick has served as President of SPS since the network began. Achievements of SPS include over 23,000 children being spared serious harm and over $447 million in health care costs saved.

Nick is a 1990 graduate of the College of William and Mary in Virginia, where he studied both government and history. Nick and his wife, Megan, are the parents of four sons – Kuyper, Duke, Ike, and Drake – and live in Upper Arlington, Ohio.

Beverly Razon

Board Chair

Ms. Razon serves as the Senior Vice President of Public Affairs for Copic and has been with the company since 2009. Prior to joining Copic, Ms. Razon worked on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C. for over seven years. She leads the government affairs and public engagement for Copic, collaborating with health care, consumer advocacy, and business organizations in an effort to identify opportunities to partner on legislative and policy initiatives, as well as statewide and community projects involving access to safe, quality health care. Ms. Razon holds an MBA from Regis University and bachelors of science from Doane College. She serves on the board or is an active member of several community organizations including the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, Speak Our Minds, Coloradan Protecting Patient Access, the Colorado Health Policy Forum, and Doctors Care.

Melissa I. Sachs

Board Director

Melissa is Link Logistics’ chief communications officer, responsible for corporate reputation, brand equity, employee engagement, marketing and elevating the company’s narrative across all audiences. She oversees the firm’s integrated Communications and Marketing function, which works together to strengthen Link Logistics’ relationships with its customers and communities, articulate and amplify business strategy across the organization, and market Link’s portfolio of last-mile industrial real estate and warehouse properties across the U.S. Melissa also leads the firm’s digital and internal communications programs and serves as a strategic advisor to senior leadership on a variety of critical topics.

Prior to joining Link Logistics in 2021, Melissa served as vice president, head of global corporate communications at Prologis. In this role, she was responsible for the company’s reputation and visibility globally, leading strategic planning and execution of corporate and global external and internal communications initiatives. Previously, Melissa was vice president, corporate communications and investor relations, at DCT Industrial Trust, where she built and led corporate communications, investor relations, marketing and branding. In addition, Melissa spent more than five years with International Flavors & Fragrances in New York, where she managed a global communications function. She worked for several boutique PR agencies earlier in her career.

Melissa received a Bachelor of Science degree in Communications (Broadcast Journalism) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from The University of Miami, as well as a Master of Science in Strategic Communication from Columbia University. Along with her son, she is a member of the Marin Chapter of the National League of Young Men, Inc. which invests in young men’s personal development and leadership skills. She is also a member of the Chief professional network of women executives. Previously she served two terms on the board of Special Olympics Colorado.

Melissa and her husband, Dan, live with their two sons in Marin County, California, where they enjoy exploring the outdoors and watching their sporty boys play in games and tournaments.

Trudy Fountain-James

Board Director

As Atos’ General Counsel, Trudy leads legal affairs as well as participating in Atos’ businesses and growth strategies. She is developing and empowering a cohesive, collaborative, diverse and agile organization embodying the highest standards of legal practice while contributing to the organization’s strategic goals and objectives. Trudy rejoined Atos five years ago as the Global Negotiations Leader after a four-year sabbatical to care for her father who was diagnosed with Dementia and her son who was diagnosed with Autism. She led and closed billions of dollars in strategic deals and helped create strategic global partnerships with some of the largest technology industry leaders. Trudy spent ten previous years with ACS/Xerox as SVP Deputy Global General Counsel/Head of Software and Business Management, where she led a 250+ person global department and was the primary corporate officer-in-charge of global commercial legal, software and contracts management.

Prior to ACS/Xerox, Trudy was the Lead Negotiator and Contracts Manager for Northrup Grumman Ship Systems, managing a 15+ person team. During her tenure at NGSS she led the negotiations of the largest multi-billion-dollar Navy contract at that time. That position followed a successful term as SVP of Legal and Regulatory Affairs for Park Place Entertainment (currently named Caesars), managing 125+ attorneys, contract managers, paralegals, and regulatory officers.

She is a prolific advocate for the neurodivergent population, including youth. Having seven of her nine children with a neurodiverse gift she has learned the challenges of fighting for the level playing field for the “neurogifted”. She learned to conquer and excel with neurodiversity herself having three (3), Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia. She has learned to make those neurogifts her Super Powers and encourages others to follow her example.

Laurel K. Leslie, MD, MPH

Board Director

Laurel K. Leslie, MD, MPH is the Executive Director of the Mental and Behavioral Health Institute (MBHI) at Cincinnati Children’s. The MBHI was started in 2023 and encompasses three divisions at Cincinnati Children’: Behavioral Medicine and Clinical Practice, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics. Dr. Leslie is also a Research Professor-Affiliated, with the Department of Pediatrics at University of Cincinnati.

Dr. Leslie has had a long-standing commitment to improving mental, behavioral, and developmental health care delivery for children, from infancy through early adulthood, through clinical care, research, and system change efforts. Past academic positions have included Research Scientist at Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego (1997-2006) and Adjunct Assistant Professor, University of California San Diego (2003-2006); Associate Professor, Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, Tufts School of Medicine (2007-2012); and Professor, Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics, Tufts School of Medicine (2013-2025). Her most recent position was Vice-President of Research, the American Board of Pediatrics, where she initiated a new strategic plan for the ABP Foundation, including research on the pediatric workforce and readiness for behavioral mental health care provision. Other areas of leadership have included equitable health care delivery, stakeholder and community engagement, integration of service systems for children and adolescents, and the future of pediatrics.

Dr. Leslie received her bachelor’s degree in History and Science from Harvard University, her medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, her residency and fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, and her master’s degree in Public Health: Biostatistics and Epidemiology from San Diego State University. Dr. Leslie is board certified in General Pediatrics and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics with the American Board of Pediatrics. She is married to Allen L. Gifford, MD, and has two adult children.