Michelle Baxter is a senior program associate II for Advocates for Human Potential’s (AHP) Center for Technical Assistance. She joined AHP after spending the past 7 years as the State PATH Contact (SPC) for Pennsylvania. During that time, she participated in many Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) workgroups, and she has been the co-lead for the SPC Network since 2020. As Pennsylvania’s SPC, she authored and administered the state’s $2.36 million PATH grant in 24 territories covering 36 counties and 35–40 providers. She has provided direct training and technical assistance (TTA) to address the needs of SPCs, PATH providers, and stakeholders who work with individuals experiencing or at risk of homelessness who also have serious mental illness (SMI) or SMI with co-occurring substance use disorders (SUDs). This involved various Cooperative Agreements to Benefit Homeless Individuals (CABHI-ST) grants, Supplemental Emergency Response Grant, Crisis Counseling Program grants, the Pennsylvania Forensic Interagency Task Force, Pennsylvania’s 16 Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) CoCs, and local housing authorities.

Ms. Baxter is a subject matter expert on PATH, PATH Data Exchange (PDX), and Homeless Management Information Systems (HMIS). She is an experienced technical assistance (TA) provider who has assisted PATH providers with understanding and using the PDX and HMIS systems, provided one-on-one assessment of PDX reports with the intent of identifying weaknesses or issues, and delivered TTA to ensure a uniform understanding of the data and data collection methods and to optimize program effectiveness. She has also provided TTA around evidence-based practices including Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH), Housing First, Motivational Interviewing (MI), Critical Time Intervention, trauma-informed care, and other practices, as well as techniques such as outreach and engagement, equity, boundaries, Crisis Intervention Team, and other topics. 

Ms. Baxter has a B.A in communications/journalism (summa cum laude) from Shippensburg University, PA.  

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