About Twogether Consulting

Julie Blacklock is the owner of Twogether Consulting.  She is a graduate of Southwestern University with a bachelor’s in psychology (specializing in Child Life & Development and Crisis Intervention).  She first began her career in mental health.  From 1988-1992, she worked at Austin State Hospital as a mental health worker.  Julie’s interest in the field of developmental disabilities started in 1992 when she began working for Austin Travis County MHMR with their supported home living services and also the OBRA program (now known as PASAAR).

She worked as a Community Mental Health Case Manager and later as a Service Coordinator at Austin Travis County MHMR (Now known as Austin Travis County Integrel Care).  Ms. Blacklock also worked with various providers in the private sector in the Austin area as a QMRP/QIDP for ICF, a Program Manager, and a Case Manager for HCS & TXHmL programs.  Julie was previously an HCS provider herself for some years and as a consultant for 23 years. She has worked in the field of both Mental Health and Special Needs/Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities for over 30 years.

Julie continues to provide expert legal witness services concerning IDD program standards in Texas and nationally.  In addition, Ms. Blacklock sits on various provider human rights committees and consumer advocacy/advisory committees.  Ms. Blacklock is an Associate member of the Private Provider’s Association of Texas (PPAT) as well as a member of the national chapter of the American Association on Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) and a board member of the Texas State Chapter of AAIDD.  Julie has been a consultant for HCS/TxHmL/ICF & CLASS waivers since 1997, and an owner of Twogether Consulting, Ltd. since 2004.

Julie is available for consultation to providers off-site for HCS/TxHmL/ICF/ISS and  CLASS. She also provides training for providers via webinar, and live training for HCS/TxHmL/ICF/ISS and CLASS is available to the general public, or you can request training on-site specifically for your facility. She is the primary consultant at Twogether Consulting working with applicants for the HCS/TxHmL Waiver contracts.  Ms. Blacklock is based in the Austin area but works with providers across the state.  In addition, she also works with many other states with similar Medicaid IDD/DD waiver programs as well as the ICF program. 

Marcus Denman has been a part of the Twogether Consulting team for about the past 5 years and is one of our most knowledgeable consultants.  Marcus has over 25 years of experience in providing services for persons with IDD as well as other at-risk populations.  He also has many years of business management experience as well.

Marcus has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Stephen F. Austin State University.  He earned a  Master’s degree in Business Administration as well.   He began his career as direct support and later stepped into a QMRP role in the ICF program, and eventually became a  Program Director.  He has worked for the local authority in Harris County as a service coordinator and as program director.  Marcus has worked with providers all over the state of Texas during his career, including The Village Learning & Achievement Center as well as Arrow Ministries for many years.

Marcus’s strong points are program structure/design, budgeting, staff development and training, rules and regulation compliance, and customer service. He has worked in the profit and nonprofit sectors as it pertains to providing care for people with IDD. He has an excellent track record when it comes to building programs and initiating valuable business connections. Marcus is currently the Human Resource Manager for an HCS provider in the Houston area.

Marcus is currently based in the Houston TX area. Marcus will be available for “on-site” consultation services primarily in the following locations and surrounding areas: Houston, Galveston, Sugar Land, Corpus Christi, Victoria, Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas/Ft. Worth.  . He is also available for “off-site” services at any location.  Marcus assists providers with many issues.  Some of these include but are not limited to: Plans of Corrections, Directive Inservice Trainings, Direct Support Staff Training in the Group Home, Initial Group Home Opening & Admissions, Policies & Procedures, Survey & Audit Prep or Recovery, Assistance with New ISS Start Up and New HCS Provider Start-Up, Billing In The CARE System and more.

Jo Beth Collier is our newest consultant since 2024.  She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from North Texas State and has been working in the field of intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)  since 1992.  Jo Beth worked as a QIDP at Mosaic and later became their executive director.  Ms. Collier started her Intermediate Care Facility (ICF) journey as a direct care staff and recreational specialist at the Denton State School. Ms. Collier has worked at a variety of positions in the ICF program, including QIDP, Administrator, and Executive Director.  She was the Deputy Chief of Client Services at MHMR of Tarrant County, Director of IDD at Life Path Systems, and the Program Administrator at Denton State Supported Living Center.   Most recently, Jo Beth has been serving as the Director of Client Services at Metrocrest Services.  

Ms. Collier is the Board of Directors’ Vice Chair for the Center for Non-Profit Coaching (CNPC). She also served on multiple committees for the Arc of Dallas, and she has served on the Private Providers Association of Texas (PPAT) Board of Directors.

Jo Beth is currently our primary consultant for ICF trainings both via webinar and live training, as well as our expert on the responsibilities of the QIDP and ICF Administrator.  Ms. Collier provides assistance to our ICF providers with development of policy and procedures and forms, staff training, plan of corrections (POC’s), and survey preparation.  Jo Beth can also assist providers with directive in-service trainings (DIT’s) as part of their plan of correction. She has years of experience with state and county agencies as well as non-profits and working in administrative roles.  Ms. Collier is available for off-site services, which include: development of policies, forms, POCs, plans of removal, 1 on 1 mentoring, webinars, emails, texts, and phone calls.  She is located in the Dallas area and is available for on-site assistance and training, primarily to providers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, West Texas, and Houston.

Marie Zernalyn “Lynn” Palmares worked in California for 7 years doing a variety of jobs in social services for the IDD population.  She worked mainly in Vocational Rehabilitation, Supported Employment and Dual Diagnosis Recovery in California and also worked in some of these types of services in Texas as well.  She has worked in these programs as well as HCS, TXHML and ICF for about the last 15 years.   Lynn is also an expert at “staff rentention” and has recently begun developing some classes/training that we will be available for program directors, owners, and Human Resource staff in the next year through Twogether Consulting.

Lynn started out as a QIDP in the ICF program and then went on to work for 5 years in the HCS program as both a case manager and a Program Director.  Lynn also spent 5 years in Assertive Community Treatment programs in California and Texas.  She has worked in various positions in IDD waiver services in Texas, including:  QIDP, Case manager, Program Director, Vocational/ Habilitation Director.

Lynn is our resident Day Habilitation and Supported Employment/Employment Assistant specialist.  She is also a great source for finding resources in the Denton/Dallas/Ft. Worth/Arlington area.  She is based in Arlington, Tx.  Lynn is great at thinking “outside the box” and works closely with some of our clients who are Day Hab Providers, Non-Profit programs providing contracted waiver services, especially.  Lynn also helps providers with development and maintenance of their Day Habilitation and Vocational services and has spent a bit of time helping providers of these services prepare for the changes coming in the coming years to these services.  She is also able to help the provider with training and cirriculum to show your staff how to help teach the individuals in the program and for the programming for individuals themselves.

She can also provide guidance with development of your “vocational assessment tools” and assessments that help staff to better understand how each of the individuals in your day program/vocational program learns new skills, which should help tremendously in individualizing their plan of care.

Lynn also assists ICF and HCS providers with Corrective Action Planning & Plans of Corrections mostly in the Dallas/Ft. Worth/Arlington area.  Lynn is our other consultant who works with New Providers/Start Up’s.  Lynn is able to assist with the application process for both the AMH-HCBS (Adult Mental Health) and YES (children’s mental health) waiver and really enjoys working with young persons and co-occuring diagnoses.

Stacie joined Twogether Consulting Team in April of 2015.  We are so pleased she is on our team.  Stacie has experience as a Case Manager and a Program Director.

She was a Case Manager for many years at “Forgotten Angels” in Pearland, TX, and built many long lasting relationships with her consumers and their families.  She later became the Interim Program Director before moving on to a new career at as an IDD consultant part-time with Twogether Consulting.  Stacie then became the Program Director with Empowerment Options Inc. (in both HCS & TXHmL as well as the ICF program  for the Houston Area).  Stacie later served as the Regional Director for Houston, Austin, and Conroe.  She was with Empowerment Options for approximately 3 years.  She has now moved on to bigger and better things as the case manager/case coordinator for a small provider that is very near and dear to her,  “A Treasure of Dreams” and continues to some with Twogether Consulting as both a IDD Consultant and SAMA Instructor.

Stacie is a great Case Manager and she has an awesome record of  “zero” deficiencies for ICF Homes and  “zero” citations for most of her HCS Contracts  she oversaw at “Empowerment Options”.  Stacie is also a certified SAMA (Satori Alternatives to Managing Aggression) instructor and currently she contracts with Twogether Consulting to provide SAMA training.