FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Susan MacLean Niederlander
847.377.0520 ext. 23
[email protected]
Pamela Cairns 708.927.8121
[email protected]
John Shustitzky Named New Executive Director of the Alliance for Human Services
Lake County, Illinois—December 3, 2012—The Alliance for Human Services has hired John
Shustitzky as its first regularly employed Executive Director. Shustitzky’s goal over his thirty-five year career has been to find ways to improve communities and to help people lead healthy, productive, fulfilled lives. Working for a variety of nonprofit mental health, human services and educational organizations, he has provided direct counseling services, served in senior and executive leadership roles and has been a faculty member at the community college, undergraduate and graduate school levels.
The Alliance for Human Services is forming as a 501(c)(3) organization, following a three-year planning process convened and funded by The Lake County Community Foundation. More than 20 community-based organizations considered escalating community needs, major gaps in service capacity, and the promise of collaboration as a means to improve the overall effectiveness of health and human service delivery in Lake County. The Alliance’s current functions include the management of a unified technology platform for client management, information and referral (ServicePoint®); the development of collaborative service delivery programs; and advocacy. The Alliance will develop additional functions called for in its strategic plan: fund development, capacity development, and resource coordination/sustainability.
“The Alliance eagerly anticipates the next chapter with John at our helm. We are now positioned to include a wider range of safety net health and human service providers, expand the implementation and use of ServicePoint®, advocate more effectively, and increase electronically supported
referrals and care coordination,” said Laurel Tustison, Board Chair. John will succeed Pamela Xichel Cairns, the Alliance’s Interim Executive Director and President of the consulting firm Leading Healthy Futures, Inc.
Prior to his appointment with the Alliance, John served the Chicago School of Professional Psychology as a Professor in the Clinical Psychology department, teaching doctoral students in clinical psychology and supervising dissertation research. He will continue teaching on a reduced schedule. His areas of interest include treatment of mental health disorders and addictions, design and implementation of behavioral health treatment programs, program evaluation, behavioral health administration, community mental health services, grant writing and fund development of human service programs, community psychology, psychologists in management, positive
psychology, employee assistance programs, and domestic violence. He has been affiliated with the Chicago School in various capacities since 1989, with the exception of the three years he and his family lived in Oregon.
For much of his career, John has worked for mental health and human services organizations. From 2001 until 2011, he served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Pillars, a comprehensive behavioral health and social services organization that serves thirty-seven (37) suburban communities west and southwest of the City of Chicago. Pillars provides mental health and addictions services for people of all ages, domestic violence and sexual assault programs, Head Start and day care programs for young children, prevention activities, a specialized bereavement program for children who have lost a parent to death, and comprehensive services for homeless people, including a transitional residential program for homeless families with children. Prior to joining Pillars in 2001, he served in senior leadership roles within mental health programs in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Oregon.
He is Co-Chair of the Illinois Mental Health Planning and Advisory Council, is a member of Illinois Director of Human Services Michelle Saddler’s Social Services Advisory Council, is a member of the strategic planning committee for the Illinois Division of Mental Health and is a Board member of
NAMI Illinois. He is a past Treasurer of the Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois and served as a member of the Human Rights Committee of Helping Hand Center, Countryside, IL.
John was raised in La Grange, in Chicago’s western suburbs. He earned his B.S. degree in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1973, and his M.S. (1975) and Ph.D. (1979) degrees in Counseling Psychology, also from the University of Illinois. He is a licensed psychologist and resides in Lake Forest with his wife, Christine Chakoian who is Senior Pastor/Head of Staff for the First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest, and their daughter Anna, a recent graduate of the University of Chicago.
About the Alliance for Human Services
The Alliance’s mission is to continuously improve the delivery of human services in Lake County, and its vision is to ensure the quality of life for people in its communities. The Alliance takes a leadership role to promote collaboration, advocate for the human service sector, and enable the delivery of innovative, sustainable programs and accessible services. The Alliance is generously supported by The Lake County Community Foundation, the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Lake County and dues from its organizational members.
About The Lake County Community Foundation
Since 2003, The Lake County Community Foundation, an affiliate of The Chicago Community Trust, has partnered with donors to leverage and guide their philanthropy to help transform the lives of the most vulnerable people across our county. The Foundation has contributed over $2 million to nonprofit organizations that support basic human needs, community development, education and health throughout Lake County. By connecting the generosity of donors across Lake County with the most pressing needs of the community, we ensure that our county thrives today and for generations to come. Please visit: www.lakecountycf.org