AGE: 37
TITLE: Chief Operations Officer
COMPANY NAME: InterCommunity, Inc.
COMPANY’S LOCATION: East Hartford
RESIDENCE: Glastonbury
What do you do? I oversee the daily operations and the clinical care of approximately 2,000 children and adults with behavioral health issues. We provide the highest quality services to people ages 3 and up, poor to wealthy, uninsured to privately insured, severe and persistently mentally ill to the worried well. In the past six years, I have helped to reshape our agencies clinical philosophy (moving from therapy without end to solution and rehabilitation focused care), improve access (moving from a month-long waitlist to same day access), expand services (moving beyond services for chronically mentally ill to include a children’s clinic and services for people with commercial insurance throughout Hartford County), and broaden our scope of practice (creating a consulting group and a network of providers across the health field to improve linkage and care coordination).
What do you want to be doing in 10 years? This is a tremendous time of change for the healthcare field due to the budget crisis and enactment of the Affordable Care Act. Ten years from now, I hope to have successfully helped steer InterCommunity to a place of stability and unparalleled care, and to have expanded responsibilities as a top-tier manager for a company that is financially successful while doing right by the clients and staff.
What is your biggest strength? Being dyslexic, I learned early the values of tenacity and working creatively. Where many see an impassable linier path, I see obstructions that we have to figure out how to work around. This outside the box thinking, and belief that we can figure out a way to make it work, has led to some important innovations for InterCommunity and is my biggest strength.
Where do you go for new ideas? I see myself as the ideas person. When we are facing a new problem, I like to pull together a group of staff who are impacted and start brainstorming solutions. As I throw out ideas, I say, “Tell me why this won’t work and what are the unintended consequences of us trying it this way?”
What is the best advice you received? “We give our clients two things: truth and hope.” -Dr. Hildegard Messenbaugh. Not only do I practice this philosophy, I live my life being truthful and hopeful and try to help others do the same.
What service or charitable cause has your attention? Giving high quality, respectful, recovery oriented, whole-person, and client-centered care to people, regardless of their financial situation, phase of life, where they live, or what they are dealing with is my and InterCommunity’s mission.
