National Council for Mental Wellbeing

Heather M. Gates, MBA, is the President/CEO of Community Health Resources (CHR), the most comprehensive, nonprofit behavioral health care organization in Connecticut. Under her direction, CHR has remained true to its core vision of providing expert mental health and addiction services to people of all ages and has expanded its scope to also provide primary care, supportive housing, therapeutic foster care and a range of other critical services.

Prior to coming to Connecticut Ms. Gates worked in the Western Massachusetts community service system in a variety of capacities since 1976. Her first role was as a legal advocate representing individual’s rights as well as participating in the oversight of the implementation of the Brewster V. Dukakis Consent Degree. Ms. Gates went on to become the Executive Director of a small supported housing program in Holyoke and later worked for the Department of Mental Health as the Director of Managed Care for the Holyoke/Chicopee Area. In all of these positions Ms. Gates provided leadership for system change and reforms.

Ms. Gates is a member of the Medicaid Behavioral Health Partnership Oversight Council and served on the state’s Alcohol and Drug Policy Council. She currently is co-chair of the Public Policy Committee for the Connecticut Nonprofit Alliance and is a member of the Practice Transformation Task Force for the Connecticut SIM. Ms. Gates received her BA from Hampshire College and her MBA from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management.

Mr. Klemanski serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Helio Health and The Helio Health Foundation. He is the current Chair of the Board of the NYS Association of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers, and the Chair of the governing Board of Omnes, a Behavioral Health Care Collaborative which is also an IPA.

During his leadership, Helio Health has grown to a 1,345-bed continuum of care comprised of Inpatient, Residential Treatment, Housing, Outpatient, Training, In-Community, Recovery and Aftercare Services divisions, with operations in Binghamton, Rochester, Utica and Syracuse, NY. Helio Health operates one of the original CCBHC’s opened 7/1/2017. He also founded the Helio Health Training Institute.

Helio Health is experiencing significant growth as a result of a vision to increase both access to, and the quality of, care by developing more regionally integrated continuums of care.

Most recently, he has been focused on the development of the CNY Behavioral Health Care Collaborative and its transition into the Omnes IPA. All of these efforts are designed to form a more integrated continuum of care for behavioral health in Upstate New York.

He earned an M.B.A. from the Whitman School of Management at Syracuse University, and completed his undergraduate degree at the State University of New York Polytechnic Institute.

He has served as a private equity consultant specializing in the field of behavioral healthcare operations, finance, and governance. He regularly speaks and trains on the topics of non-profit board development, Leadership, Management, Communications, and Team Development. He has also served as an independent monitor for government and private treatment programs.

Currently he serves on the NYS Association of Addiction Services and Addiction Professionals Board of Directors (Chair), Onondaga County Criminal Justice Advisory Board, NYS OASAS Residential Re-design Workgroup, NYS OASAS Administrative/Regulatory Relief Task Force, NYS OASAS SUD Treatment/Insurance Workgroup, and the Boards of Directors of both the CNY and Finger Lakes Behavioral Health Care Collaboratives. Additionally, in June 2013, Mr. Klemanski was appointed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, and confirmed by the NYS Legislature, to serve on the New York State Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs Advisory Council, on which he currently serves as the chair of the Investigator and Law Enforcement Training Committee.

Previously, he has served on the CCSI Board of Directors, NYS DOH/OASAS Detox Reform Task Force, CNY Alcohol and Drug Association (President), CNY Care Collaborative Compliance Committee, and Salvation Army Mohawk Valley Advisory Board.

Mr. Klemanski was born in New Jersey, has lived in numerous east coast states, and currently resides in upstate NY with his wife and children.

Through unanimous endorsement, in June of 2015, the Community Residences, Inc. Board of Directors appointed Arthur M. Ginsberg as the President and CEO of CRi. Mr. Ginsberg has significant experience in mental health and intellectual disability services in the nonprofit and private sector. Under his leadership, agencies in the District of Columbia, California, Idaho, Washington, Utah and Pennsylvania, earned new provider market places, received CARF accreditation, and enhanced program revenues through existing and new program development. Mr. Ginsberg’s historical and ongoing operational successes are mission driven, with a focus on community integration and choice, advocacy, early intervention, and services that are comprehensive and innovative. Mr. Ginsberg has also served as an educator. From 2012 through 2014, he was appointed as an Adjunct Faculty member for George Washington University School of Public Health. He was also preceptor for Arizona State, Tulane and George Washington Universities. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives and in 1995 was honored as an Up and Comer by Modern Healthcare Magazine. Mr. Ginsberg earned a B.S. in Health Services Administration from Ithaca College, and an M.S. in Hospital and Health Administration from Xavier University.

Melissa Larkin-Skinner is Regional CEO of Centerstone in Florida. As a licensed mental health counselor Larkin-Skinner has worked with children and adults of all ages in diverse mental health and substance use prevention and treatment programs. During the past 26 years she has designed and operated innovative programs to meet community needs.

Her career in behavioral health began as a volunteer on Centerstone’s rape crisis team. It was there that Larkin-Skinner learned the essence and potential of activism and representing the underserved. Today, she regularly provides state and federal policy feedback and engages in legislative advocacy as a mental health and addiction subject-matter expert in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. She is Chair of the Florida Council for Behavioral Health.

Through her suicide prevention advocacy efforts, Larkin-Skinner works with public and private sectors to increase access to mental healthcare and substance use treatment services. The belief that ‘everyone in our community has a role to play in suicide prevention’ is her driving force. In August 2016, she received the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association Administrator of the Year for her efforts toward combating the opioid epidemic. Larkin-Skinner currently serves as the only behavioral health provider on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission and recently served on the Florida Alliance to End Human Trafficking board.

Mark has dedicated his entire career to advocating for the rights of stigmatized and vulnerable people. For the past seven years, he has led Thresholds, an innovative community-based organization that provides behavioral healthcare and supportive housing to more than 10,000 people each year in Illinois. During his tenure at Thresholds, he has overseen explosive growth, but also a culture shift that embraces change, innovation, transparency, and yes – love. Thresholds has been recognized for five consecutive years as a Chicago Tribune Top Workplace and a Chicago’s 101 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For. Prior to his work at Thresholds, Mark spent decades as a leader in the fight against HIV/AIDS as CEO of the AIDS Foundation of Chicago. Mark holds an MA in Political Science from Northwestern University and a BA in Government and International Studies from the University of Notre Dame.

David J. Ley, PhD. is a clinical psychologist in Albuquerque, NM. Since 2004, he has served as Executive Director of New Mexico Solutions, a nonprofit outpatient behavioral health agency serving several communities in central New Mexico. Dr. Ley is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the New Mexico Behavioral Health Providers Association, and also serves on the Board of Directors of an Albuquerque FQHC.

Dr. Richard K. Whitaker, Jr. began his career in the Quad Cities in 1994 as a doctoral intern at the historic Marriage and Family Counseling Service in Rock Island, Illinois prior to receiving his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Brigham Young University. Since that pivotal year, Dr. Whitaker has pursued a career in community mental health, providing services, supervision, and executive administration at community mental health centers in Grand Island, Nebraska (9 years) and Jasper, Indiana (12 years as CFO). Since January, 2017, Rich has served as the CEO of Vera French Community Mental Health Center in Davenport, Iowa. Rich also serves as a Governor-appointed commissioner for the Iowa Mental Health and Disability Services (MHDS) Commission, as a member of the Iowa Children’s Behavioral Health State Board, as a board member for the Iowa Association of Community Providers, as an Eastern Iowa MHDS Regional Advisory Board member, and as a steering committee member and Innovation Team Co-Lead for the Quad Cities Behavioral Health Coalition. Rich and Miriam are the parents of 3 daughters and 1 son and are proud grandparents. Rich puts a top priority on his family time and also finds time for service in the community, sports of all kinds, vocal performance, and occasional travel. Rich is fluent in Spanish as a second language and helps to lead and support a Spanish-speaking church congregation.

Joseph (JC) Carrica III is the Chief Executive Officer of Southeast Health Group, which serves a six-county rural and frontier region in the southeast corner of Colorado. This outpatient organization provides integrated psychiatric care, mental health counseling, substance use disorder services, primary care, wellness and prevention services, physical therapy, vocational training, and extensive peer support. Carrica has established two social enterprises for the purposes of job training and economic opportunity in the impoverished region.

A fourth-generation native of southeast Colorado, Carrica earned a Doctorate in Interdisciplinary Leadership from Creighton University, and is a master’s level counselor and certified addictions counselor. His 2014 dissertation, sponsored by both Creighton University and the University of Colorado Department of Family Medicine, focused on the referral barriers that affect the integration efforts of behavioral health and primary care in eastern Colorado. He currently serves as the president-elect of the Colorado Behavioral Healthcare Council, the statewide membership organization for Colorado’s network of community behavioral health providers. He also serves as treasurer of Southern Colorado Healthcare Network. A Board of Managers made up of the chief executive officers of the 11 organizations serving the 30 counties of southern Colorado; five community health centers, five community mental health centers and one hybrid organization combining both.

He regularly speaks with health providers, policy makers, and behavioral health students at both the statewide and national level about rural and frontier integrated whole health initiatives and reform.

With over 35 years of experience, Camille Schraeder has an extensive history of community involvement and is a strong advocate for abused, neglected, and at-risk Children, Youth, Families at the local, state, and federal levels. In 1995 Camille founded Redwood Children’s Services, (Now Redwood Community Services), a large multiagency serving thousands of clients a year, within three Northern California Counties. Under her leadership, RCS developed and provided community-based services, prevention services, homeless services, mental health services, foster care, and adoption services. She served as the CEO until 2019.

In addition to serving as the Public Policy Officer for Redwood Community Services, Camille currently leads Redwood Quality Management, which is an Administrative Services Organization managing access, quality assurance, network adequacy, and leveraging Medi-Cal eligibility for both the Children and Adult System of Care of Mendocino County. The Mendocino County System of Care has served over 4000 unduplicated clients annually.

Camille is the Volunteer Founder and Director of the Potter Valley Youth and Community Center (PVYCC), a founding member of the Children’s Action Committee (CAC), a member of the Policy Council on Children and Youth (PCCY), and an active leader in policy change for children, youth and families.

With Mrs. Schraeder’s leadership, Redwood Community Services, Inc. has been a COA accredited agency for the last eight years and is a long-standing leader in her counties receiving numerous community awards for her work. Among them are Chamber of Commerce Leader of the Year and Business person of the year; Lifestyle Magazine Distinguished Leader; Women helping Women award Soroptomist Ukiah Chapter; Lake County Star of the Year for two years, Treatment Foster Care Implementation Group, Public policy advocate for 1115 Waiver, California Alliance of Child & Family Services, and California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies. Camille has also been recognized by her peers receiving the Advocacy of the Year and the Executive Leadership Sabbatical award by the California Wellness Foundation and was an elected Mendocino County Board of Education Trustee and was a recipient of the 2005 CA Wellness Foundation Leadership Award.

Camille holds a master’s degree in Psychology and a Group Home Administrators License in the State of California. Camille serves on the Board of the California Alliance of Children and Families and the California Council of Community Behavioral Health Agencies.

Because of her experience growing up within the Group home and Foster Care system, Camille has a poignant and passionate perspective. Her lifelong commitment has been to be an advocate for the most vulnerable populations in rural California and she continues to inspire those around her to be leaders, advocates, and champions for change.

Heather Jefferis, as the Executive Director of the Oregon Council for Behavioral Health, participates in a wide variety of forums to ensure our members voice is present and actionable.

Over the last 22 years of working in Behavioral Health both Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health, Ms. Jefferis has been privileged to sit in a variety of seats. She has provided direct services as a master’s level clinician, served as a program director, an Executive and Board Chair. Ms. Jefferis developed, implemented and operated programing within government BH clinics, non-profit clinic settings and criminal justice programs. In each of these seats she has typically served individuals who are multi-system involved and frequently with co-occurring concerns. Ms. Jefferis intimately understands Oregon systems that support Oregonians on their path to whole person and family health. As the Executive Director of the Oregon Council for Behavioral Health, she has been charged by the OCBH Board to grow this local association representing the statewide integrated continuum of Behavioral Health Care in Oregon. OCBH has over 40 members providing the full continuum of services from prevention through residential services and detox.