OUR STAFF
Meet Our Administrative Staff
Lisa D'Innocenzo
Executive Director
Lisa D’Innocenzo is the Executive Director of Next Steps Community Services. Lisa is a native of Leominster, MA. Lisa graduated as a Finance Specialist at Fort Ben Harrison, Indiana where she served in the Army. After working for an accounting firm, she then commenced her human service career at Matson Community Services. In 1998, she joined Community Resources for Justice as an Assistant Director and Human Rights Coordinator. In late 2011, Lisa joined the Becket Family of Services team where she has performed many roles for the organization. Lisa worked in Maine as an Executive Director of a residential program for girls and developed an additional eight bed program in ME for girls. In October 2012, Lisa co-founded Becket-MA Adult Services and opened their first MA adult group home. As the Executive Director and Chief Development Officer, Lisa continued to grow and develop numerous group homes in MA. In 2015, Lisa took over three Becket ITS programs and has since developed four more ITS Programs. These formerly named Becket ITS Program are now Next Steps Community Services.
Kari Thompson
Chief Operating Officer
Kari joined Next Steps in January 2017 and brings more than 24 years of operational leadership experience in the mental health field. As Chief Operating Officer, she provides strategic oversight of Next Steps’ Intensive Treatment Services (ITS) programs, ensuring operational excellence, regulatory compliance, and the consistent delivery of high-quality services. Prior to joining Next Steps, Kari served as an Operations Director in Los Angeles, California, where she played a key role in advancing system-wide service quality for children and adolescents with complex clinical needs. Her background includes leadership focused on trauma-informed care, substance use treatment, and family systems. Kari is recognized for her strong leadership, commitment to quality improvement, and dedication to developing high-performing teams.
Meet Our Clinical Staff
David Prescott, LCSW, LICSW
Clinical Director
A mental health practitioner with 36 years in the field, David Prescott is the Clinical Director of the Next Steps ITS programs. He is the author and editor of 20 books in the areas of understanding and improving services to at-risk clients and has produced numerous articles, chapters, and studies in these areas.
He is best known for his work in the areas of understanding, assessing, and treating sexual violence and trauma. Mr. Prescott is the recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Contribution Award from the Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers and the 2018 recipient of the National Adolescent Perpetration Network’s C. Henry Kempe Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Prescott regularly lectures and provides training around the world.
David Schwartz, LICSW
Senior Clinician
David Schwartz joined the Next Steps team in August 2016. Originally from Long Island, he received his master’s degree in Social Work from Stony Brook University. As the Senior Clinician, he oversees all day-to-day clinical administration and well as the growth and development of the Next Steps programs.
With the Good Lives Model as the programs’ backbone, alongside a trauma-informed approach, David also incorporates these clinical approaches with Motivational Interviewing, Dialectical Behavioral Treatment skills, and Feedback-Informed Treatment to help empower the individuals and the programs. Additionally, he is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Fire-setting Intervention Program for Mentally Disordered Offenders (FIP-MO). He prides himself on helping our individuals develop their skills for moving forward and to build the lives they want to live. David is also a team member of Laurie Charlot’s Multidisciplinary Assessment Team in Maine.
Dawn Overton, L.C.M.H.C
Clinician
Dawn joined the Next Steps team in December 2021. Originally from Florida, Dawn started her career 40 years ago and has extensive knowledge when it comes to healing on a physical, mental and spiritual level. Dawn has a license in medical massage therapy with a certification in craniosacral therapy. She is a certified reiki master and is a trained indigenous healer. Dawn graduated from Springfield College with a masters in mental health in 2019. After recently relocating to Vermont, Dawn has worked in the past 4 years at an inpatient facility in New Hampshire treating addiction and mental health. Dawn's passion to treat the whole person is trauma centered using mixed modalities, including Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Interviewing and Mindfulness with the Good Lives Model at the center, providing a platform to treat people the way Dawn has always strived towards.
Pamela Raymond, M.S., BCBA
Board Certified Behavior Analyst
Pamela Raymond, joined the Next Steps team in December 2020 as our Part Time BCBA. She has over fifteen years of experience working with children, teenagers and adults with DD/ID and Autism. She graduated from Saint Anselm with her BA in Sociology before attaining her Master’s in Education-Autism and Applied Behavior Analysis at Endicott College Van Loan School. She became Board Certified in August 2019. Prior to joining Next Steps she worked at Becket Adult Services in MA and she currently also works at Open Sky Community Services