Acadia Healthcare, Summit BHC Name New CIOs

Acadia Healthcare names Laura Groschen to the C-suite

Laura Groschen is now the chief information officer for the largest pure-play behavioral health operator in the U.S. — Acadia Healthcare Co. Inc. (NASDAQ: ACHC).

Groschen will report to CEO Chris Hunter. Her role is to advance the company’s digital transformation, according to a news release.

She comes to the Franklin, Tennessee-based provider from the business unit CIO role at Medtronic PLC (NYSE: MDT), a global medical device company with a $104 billion market cap. There, she oversaw IT for 20 operating units with operations in 150 countries. She also previously worked at UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE: UNH) and Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC).

Acadia Healthcare has undertaken the goal to double revenue by 2025 under Hunter’s leadership.

Aliya Health Group names two COOs

Pittsburgh-based Aliya Health Group has named two new chief operating officers — Natalie Pflueger and Vaun Williams. As co-COOs they will oversee and support all operations. These include program development, admissions, and clinical services.

Aliya Health Group operates four addiction treatment organizations across seven states, according to its website.

“I feel a sense of comfort and relief to be able to entrust something so dear to me to two individuals who aren’t just highly qualified but also caring, honest, trustworthy, and driven,” Michael Milch, owner and CEO of Aliya Health Group, said in a news release. “At the end of the day, it’s about providing a certain standard of care to our clients, and you can’t just hand that off to anyone.”

Early on in the role, Pflueger and Williams will focus on strengthening staff cohesion across the organization and building care teams.

Pflueger spent the last three years overseeing the Aliya Health Group addiction treatment brand Footprints to Recovery in several different leadership roles. Footprints operates in Colorado, Illinois and New Jersey. She has worked in behavioral health treatment for over 15 years.

Williams has worked in behavioral health for 20 years. For the last three years, she has been the executive director of Aliya’s Vogue Recovery Center, which operates in Arizona, California and Nevada.

Leadership of fast-growing ABA provider Acorn Health turns over

Janet Widmann took on the interim CEO role at Acorn Health on Dec. 8. She succeeds founder and CEO Vicki Kroviak who has stepped back from day-to-day operations. Kroviak will remain on the board of directors.

Kroviak is a former CEO of the eating disorder treatment provider Monte Nido & Affiliates and a board member of Lightfully Behavioral Health.

Widmann was a board member of Acorn Health before temporarily succeeding Kroviak. A search for a permanent CEO is underway.

Jose Alvarez, Acorn Health’s chief operations officer, also resigned, according to a news release.

Acorn Health announced in October that it acquired seven applied behavior analysis (ABA) practices.

Summit BHC names CIO from giant hospital system

Jeanne de Vries Sands announced on Dec. 13 that she had taken the role of chief information officer at the large addiction and mental health treatment provider Summit BHC.

“I feel privileged to be part of this amazing team making such a difference,” de Vries Sands said in a post on LinkedIn. “Our technology team is growing and we are looking for exceptional talent in the Nashville, Tennessee area.”

She immediately previously held the vice president of IHT clinical consultancy at SSM Health. Her previous employer is a 20-hospital nonprofit Catholic health system that operates in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. It employs about 40,000 people.

In September, Summit BHC named Todd Wyatt its new CFO. Summit owns and operates 32 inpatient facilities across 19 states.

Valera Health financial officer joins Resilience Lab

On Dec. 12, now-former Valera Health finance vice president Alex Ferstenberg announced he would become the chief financial officer of Resilience Lab.

Valera Health is a telehealth behavioral health provider that focuses on partnering with other health care providers. It cares for a full spectrum of providers including those with serious mental illness (SMI).

“What has [been] built at Resilience Lab in such a short period of time is truly amazing, and I’m excited to play a part in its story,” Ferstenberg said in a LinkedIn post.

Resilience Lab is a hybrid mental health provider that operates in the Northeastern U.S. It was founded in 2019. It announced a $15 million Series A in November 2022.