Heather joined the Center for Innovative Practices as the Project Director of the Children’s Behavioral Health Center of Excellence. Heather has over 17 years of experience in various community based and inpatient behavioral health settings serving families, children, adolescents, and transitional age youth. Heather has a special interest in and experience working with youth who have complex needs that cross multiple systems. In her work with multi-system youth, Heather has been a change leader, promoting inter-agency collaboration and best practices across the various child-serving systems. Heather most recently served as a county board behavioral health administrator monitoring the fitness of the children's behavioral health continuum of care, ensuring access to high quality care while also leveraging resources to promote system sustainability. In that role, Heather spearheaded several county-wide, multi-discipline system of care initiatives and county-wide quality assurance efforts specific to intensive home-based programs, youth crisis services, transitional age youth services and juvenile justice involved youth with behavioral health needs. Heather holds a master’s degree from John Carroll University and is an independently licensed counselor.