From the President
June 30, 2009 Dear ACMHA Members: It is with great excitement that I write this. I am in my third month as president of the ACMHA board and I am very energized by its composition and activities we have planned for the coming years. While it was an incredible loss to see Deborah Fickling, Sandy Forquer, and Arthur Evans complete their board service, we are fortunate that they remain active and engaged members of the college. At the same time we have gained the expertise of Garrett Moran (Summit Chair 2010), Stephanie Oprendek (Summit Chair 2011), Harvey Rosenthal (Member At Large) and Kathy Sternbach (Membership Committee). They join me (President), Laurie Alexander (Communications Committee), Johnny Allem (Member At Large), Colette Croze (Leadership Committee), Eric Goplerud (Past-President), Ellen Grant (Secretary), Ron Manderscheid (President-Elect), Camille Miller (Summit Chair 2009), David Proefrock (Treasurer), and Howard Savin (Development Committee). This is a wonderful, diverse group of people with whom I am proud to serve. In early June I chaired my first ACMHA board retreat. The two-day meeting was very productive and it is there that we came up with our new tagline "Cultivating Leaders: Fostering Innovation." I am also pleased to report that the Center for Mental Health Services has agreed to provide us with funds to support a Critical Issues Conference Call Series. This project is spearheaded by Johnny Allem with assistance from Garret Moran. These one-hour audio programs will focus on issues critical to behavioral health in the current environment of dramatic economic adjustment, increasing demand for services, major practice innovations, changing regulations, healthcare reform initiatives, and fragile funding streams. We hope to begin this series in the late summer featuring interviews with relevant authorities, experts, and senior leaders in the field. I would like to encourage each of you, if you aren't already, to get more involved with ACMHA. We welcome more participation in committees and interest groups. All of the committees have been very active, from the Leadership Committee working with mentors and learners; the Communications Committee writing this newsletter; the Membership Committee increasing member benefits; the Development Committee raising much needed funds; and the Summit Committee working on a theme and planning the meeting for 2010. The Research Interest Group has some lively discussions planned, the Emerging Leaders are off and running, and the Diversity Interest Group is finding themselves with a lot to talk about as the health care reform debate moves forward. If you want to connect with any of these groups, please contact Kris Ericson (executive.director@acmha.org). I hope all of you enjoy the summer, it is going so quickly! I look forward to seeing you at next year's Summit (March 24 - 26, 2010 - please note we have shifted to end Summit on Friday, not Saturday) if not before. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact me at greenberg@abhw.org. Sincerely,
Pamela Greenberg Invite a Colleague to Join ACMHA! |
