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Behavioral Health Network Announces Leadership Promotions; Retirement of Senior VP

Springfield—Behavioral Health Network, Inc. (BHN) has announced several changes to its leadership team that include recent staff promotions as well as newly-added positions as part of its recently launched BHN WellBeing program. Susan West, LICSW, Senior Vice President, has also recently retired from the organization.

[Photos of BHN leadership here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PVZBczE9Xm7Ol1mto8pVkbqI7ZrrSIq9?usp=share_link]

Susan West retired from BHN after a long career in behavioral health executive leadership. West was CEO of The Carson Center at the time the organization merged with BHN in 2015 and served on BHN’s executive leadership team for 7 years, overseeing Developmental Disabilities Services programs, development, marketing and communications, and grant writing for the organization.

In an effort to meet the leadership needs of the organization’s new Community Behavioral Health Centers model, called “BHN WellBeing,” BHN has added a Senior Vice President position and two Vice President positions that will oversee outpatient, urgent care and medical integration programming. The new positions include the following:

Katherine Cook, LICSW has been hired to fill the Senior Vice President position overseeing BHN WellBeing, one of the Community Behavioral Health Centers launched by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Cook comes to BHN with many years of experience developing, implementing and leading a wide array of behavioral health programs. 

Joy Ifill, LICSW, MBA, who has been with BHN for several years overseeing the Emergency Services and Supports division, has been promoted to Vice President, working with Cook. Jose Rosado-Medina, PhD, LMHC, who first joined BHN as an Outpatient Clinician, has been promoted to Vice President and will work closely with Cook and Ifill on BHN WellBeing.

Katherine Mague, PhD, Senior Vice President, who formerly oversaw outpatient with Christine Edwards and Emergency Services and Supports with Ifill, now oversees Quality, Development, Communications and Social Justice. She will also work closely with BHN’s President and CEO Steve Winn in collaborating with key community stakeholders.

Michelle Michaelian, LICSW, has been promoted from Vice President to Senior Vice President. In addition to her current responsibilities overseeing Children and Community-Based programs, she will now lead the Care Management and Adult Outreach programs.

Christine Edwards, LICSW has been promoted to a newly created, executive level position of Director of Clinical Quality, which will bring focused attention and expertise to the initiatives of evidence-based training, outcome-driven treatment pathways, and the delivery of high-quality services. Edwards will work closely with Mague and with Jennifer Moore, BHN’s Clinical Director, to ensure the organization is delivering top-quality services across all departments of BHN.

Rosemary Cruz, SPHR, who has been with BHN for more than 25 years and previously served as the Benefits Manager in the organization’s Human Resources department, has been promoted to Assistant Vice President within Human Resources.

Matthew Snow, PhD who has served as BHN’s Interim Chief Information Officer for the past two years, will take a permanent position as Vice President of Performance Improvement, Applications and Analytics. Snow has overseen several significant IT transitions over the past few years at BHN.

Brian Ross, MBA who has overseen BHN’s extensive Developmental Disabilities Services system since joining BHN, has been promoted to Vice President in recognition of the breadth of his responsibilities.

Dan Olshansky, LICSW, Vice President, who previously oversaw clinical quality, evidence-based practices and utilization management, has transitioned to a part-time position overseeing project management.

 

BHN has been providing behavioral health services to children and families in Western Massachusetts since 1938. The agency provides community-based services that include innovative, integrated whole-health models as well as traditional clinical and outpatient and therapeutic services, day treatment, addiction services, crisis intervention, and residential supports.