Principals

The firm is led by Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W. and Helaine Hornby, M.A. and includes staff with specializations in social work, mental health, public policy, public administration, grant writing, data analysis, research design and software application development.

Dennis E. Zeller, Ph.D., M.S.S.W.

Dennis E. Zeller is President and founder of Hornby Zeller Associates. Dr. Zeller’s major areas of expertise include policy analysis, research design, data analysis and computer application development.

Prior to founding the consulting firm, Dr. Zeller was Director of the Bureau of Policy Planning of the Division of Family and Children’s Services at the New York State Department of Social Services. In that role he was responsible for all child welfare and child care regulations, for proposing and negotiating Department-sponsored legislation and for negotiating litigation settlements. He was instrumental in implementing the State’s preventive services program, the uniform case record for foster care and preventive services, utilization review procedures for foster care cases and other aspects of New York’s Child Welfare Reform Act of 1979. He also negotiated litigation regarding kinship care and foster children preparing for independence. Prior to his work in New York, he was a planner for the Texas Department of Human Services, performing research and policy analysis for the agency.

Ongoing performance measurement systems have been a primary focus of Dr. Zeller since he authored the monograph, Model Child Welfare Management Indicators, published by the National Child Welfare Resource Center at the University of Southern Maine in 1991. Dr. Zeller was the person who initiated turning AFCARS data into longitudinal files, so that states could assess their own performance on the achievement of permanency more accurately than the federal outcome measures permit, especially for those without SACWIS or historical management information systems. The Child Welfare League of America disseminated nationally the methodology that he developed. Many of the concepts are now incorporated in the prospective cohort measures adopted by the Administration for Children and Families.

Dr. Zeller co-authored “Kinship Care in America: What Outcomes Should Policy Seek” published in Child Welfare. He has spoken broadly at state, regional and national conferences in the areas of child welfare, research and statistics. He received a master’s degree in social work and a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin.

Helaine Hornby M.A. [return to top]

Helaine Hornby is Vice President of Hornby Zeller Associates and, until 1995, was the Director of the Center for Child and Family Policy at the Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs, at the University of Southern Maine. For eight years she directed one of the national child welfare resource centers.

Since 1980, she has concentrated her work in the areas of child and family services, including parent support services, child protection, foster care, special education and adoption. In 1985, after a national competition, she succeeded in having the University designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the National Child Welfare Resource Center for Management and Administration. While there, she built a team of experts who received grants and contracts in 31 states. This work has involved evaluation of parent education and support programs; evaluation of child abuse prevention projects; assessment of state child welfare programs; assessment of states’ capacities to institute automated case management and performance monitoring systems; analysis of payment structures and systems for foster and residential care; design of data collection systems for foster care review; training curriculum development; strategic planning for child welfare and post-adoption services; and design of case management systems.

Ms. Hornby has directed three nationally, federally-funded research projects; an analysis of adoption disruption (four states, six sites); an evaluation of risk assessment systems in child protective services (five states); and a policy study on kinship care (five states) in which she was the co-principal investigator. These projects, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, have utilized varied methodological approaches (qualitative and quantitative) including case reading, document analysis, data analysis, interviews, focus groups and cross-site comparisons.

Ms. Hornby has served as the statewide evaluator for a number of Maine-based SAMHSA-funded studies, including an effort to increase employment rates for adults with serious mental or emotional illnesses; development of a comprehensive statewide prevention system and reduction of binge drinking and tobacco abuse among youth; creation and support of a statewide prevention/health promotion infrastructure designed to reduce substance abuse and related risk factors and consequences; evaluation of an effort to institute changes in the delivery of services offered to those with psychiatric and alcohol or drug-related co-occurring disorders; and evaluation of a system of care for children whose focus is trauma-informed services.

Ms. Hornby is an expert in qualitative data analysis, as well as organizational and policy analysis. She has published broadly in professional journals including Social Work, Child Welfare, OSERS News in Print, Children and Youth Review, Children Today and New England Journal of Human Services. She has presented papers and conducted workshops at numerous national and state conferences, both domestically and abroad. Ms. Hornby earned a master’s degree in public policy and management from the Edmund S. Muskie Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Southern Maine where she received highest honors and a BS from Simmons College in Boston.

Return to Top Home