Page 59 - Healthcare News Nov/Dec 2022

CAREER PULSE CONT’D
Clarke-Mitchell Nominated to MCLA Board of Trustees
NORTH ADAMS — MCLA announced that Jean Clarke- Mitchell, assistant professor of Social Work at Lesley Uni- versity, has been nominated to the MCLA board of trustees. A 2000 alumna of MCLA, she is also in her second term on the college’s foundation board.
Clarke-Mitchell is a licensed clinical social worker who served as the clinical director of the Elizabeth Freeman Center, and an outpatient clinician at the Brien Center for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. With more than 20 years of experience in the clinical field and more than 10 years in academia, she looks forward to participat- ing on the board.
She has an extensive resume in social-justice activism and working with community organizations, including the Rights of Passage and Empowerment program as a senior mentor. She serves as a board member on Rockfort Moving Forward, Leadership Councils of Western Massachusetts, the Albany Assoc. for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and the Massachusetts Women of Color Network.
Prior to teaching at Lesley, Clarke-Mitchell taught social work and psychology at Westfield State University, Smith College, Cambridge College, and Elms College. She has worked with groups in South Africa, taught students in Ghana, and conducted presentations on healthy relation- ships and self-care in Jamaica. She continues to affect posi- tive change by teaching social work full-time and continu- ing to develop effective social-work practitioners.
Blouin-Roy Receives Award
for Children’s Behavioral Health
SPRINGFIELD — Behavioral Health Network Inc. (BHN) announced that Linda Blouin-Roy, who serves as the program director for BHN’s Family Support and Train- ing/Family Partners Program, is the recipient of the Assoc. for Behavioral Healthcare’s (ABH) Salute to Excellence – Carl B. Cutchins Award for Children’s Behavioral Health. Blouin-Roy accepted her award on Oct. 21 at ABH’s annual Salute to Excellence event in Framingham.
The Carl B. Cutchins Award
for Children’s Behavioral Health recognizes an active child advocate who has demonstrated a long-term commitment to supporting and enhancing services for children and/or adolescents with behavior- al-health needs at the state or local level.
ABH’s Salute to Excellence is a celebratory event that recognizes individuals and groups, often clinical and direct-care staff, who have made outstanding contributions to community-based behavioral healthcare in Massachu- setts.
In Blouin-Roy’s nomination for the award, she was credited with having cultivated BHN’s Family Support
and Training program over the past 20 years into a robust, well-respected, and invaluable program that has served and benefited innumerable families in Massachusetts. Through the program, those with lived experience raising a child
in the behavioral-health system are connected to families receiving Children’s Behavioral Health Initiative services.
Blouin-Roy has worked at both BHN and at the state level to develop professional and ethical standards and
trainings for Family Partners program leaders. She is re- spected at the local and statewide levels for her experience and expertise.
According to Michelle Michaelian, senior vice president at BHN, “Linda is a natural at this work. She has been an excellent teacher, role model, and leader who is well- respected by her peers, managers, staff, and the families with whom she works. Having raised her own children with special needs, she has been an advocate for countless children and families by supporting, educating, and guid- ing them. Linda’s persistence proved that having Family Partners involved in treatment was invaluable in helping families move forward.
“Linda has built the Family Support and Training pro- gram from the ground up,” Michaelian went on. “With that experience, she has been able to provide support for devel- oping Family Partner programs across other BHN service areas, including the Family Resource Center, Mobile
Crisis Intervention, Community Based Acute Treatment, Intensive Home-based Therapeutic Care, and with the Department of Mental Health In-Home Therapy program. Her efforts have reached far and wide and will continue to reverberate for years to come.”
Rosa Appointed to HCC Board of Trustees
HOLYOKE — Nayroby Rosa, director of Community Engagement and Resident Services for OneHolyoke CDC, has been appointed to the Holyoke Community College (HCC) board of trustees by Gov. Charlie Baker. Her term will expire on July 10, 2027.
An HCC alumna, Rosa graduated in 2010 with an associ- ate degree in human services before transferring to UMass Amherst, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in child
and youth services through the University Without Walls program.
Rosa, a certified nursing assistant and home health aide, got her start in human services as a personal-care attendant for Community Enterprises, assisting patients with their daily living and transportation needs. Since then, she has worked as site director and case manager for the YMCA in Springfield, home health aide for Home Health Solutions, program specialist for HAP Inc., and resident services coordinator for Beacon Residential Management. She has been employed in her current position at One Holyoke since 2018.
Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy Welcomes Halbert
SPRINGFIELD — Doherty, Wallace, Pillsbury & Murphy, P.C. announced the hiring of Lisa Halbert as an attorney in the law firm’s Northampton office. Halbert joined Doherty, Wallace in July and brings more than 30 years of experience in representing clients throughout Western Mass.
Halbert has an extensive back- ground in elder law and estate planning, estate and trust adminis- tration (including estate-tax return preparation), special-needs trusts, asset-protection planning, residen- tial real estate, and preparation of personal and fiduciary income-tax returns. She is available to assist
clients in Hampshire, Hampden, and Franklin counties. Since 2016, Halbert has served on the board of direc-
tors for Lathrop Community located in Easthampton and Northampton, and currently serves as its secretary. She is a member of the National and Massachusetts Associations of Elder Law Attorneys, the Massachusetts Bar Assoc., the Hampshire County Bar Assoc., and the Pioneer Valley Estate Planning Council.
“We are happy to have someone of Lisa’s expertise
and experience join the firm, and we look forward to her providing exceptional service to all our clients,” said Garth Janes, managing shareholder of Doherty, Wallace.
Charland Wins Hyundai
Salute to Heroes Car Giveaway
HOLYOKE — The Western Mass. Hyundai dealers (Balise, Gary Rome, and Country) surprised Bob “the Bike Man” Charland with a new 2023 Hyundai Tucson yester- day at his repair shop at the Eastfield Mall in Springfield.
Charland is the founder of Pedal Thru Youth Inc. He started working with children in 2003 when he led a Girl Scout troop for his daughter and coached her softball team. He started teaching automotive for Willie Ross School for the Deaf in 2012. Around the same time, he started fixing up bikes to donate to less fortunate kids.
In 2017, after being diagnosed with a neurodegenera- tive disease, he decided that he wanted to create a formal organization and start donating bikes to large groups of children. Thus, the idea for Pedal Thru Youth was born. Charland has made significant contributions to the com- munity that also includes volunteering his time to supply law-enforcement agencies around Massachusetts and Con- necticut with backpacks filled with essential supplies for the homeless.
Hyundai Salute To Heroes is an annual event that was launched in 2021 and brought to the Western Mass. region by Gary Rome, president of Gary Rome Hyundai and president of the Hyundai Dealers Advertising Assoc., to recognize local, everyday heroes. The Hyundai Tucson SEL AWD is valued at $33,495, and the dealers are paying for all taxes and fees associated with the vehicle.
“Salute to Heroes is our way, as a dealer body, to acknowledge the ordinary people of our Western Mass. community who selflessly do heroic things,” Rome said. “Our local communities continue to go through so much; Salute to Heroes is the Western Mass. Hyundai dealers’ way of saying thank you.”
The 29-day nomination period ended on Nov. 20, and anyone at least 18 years old who lives in Franklin, Hamp- shire, or Hampden county was eligible to win. Thirty finalists were chosen, and three local community leaders volunteered their time as honorary judges to vote on the final winner. This year’s appointed judges were Anthony Cignoli, president of A.L Cignoli & Associates; Denise Jordan, executive director of the Springfield Housing Au- thority; and Linda Thompson, president of Westfield State University.
Last year, Westfield High School teacher Kristen Bian- cuzzo was the winner of the Salute to Heroes contest.
LINDABLOUIN-ROY
LISAHALBERT
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
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