After two and a half years at MHANYS, Brandon Beachamp is stepping down as the Director of the School Mental Health Resource and Training Center. Brandon was a great asset to MHANYS as he provided a strong clinical perspective to our trainings. Under his leadership, the Resource Center continued their work in reaching out to schools and families across New York State. Between, our school meetings, trainings, presentations and webinars, we reached thousands of school personnel and families. Just like our prior director Amy Molloy, Brandon has left the Resource Center stronger and a great resource to schools and families across New York State.
The person taking over as the new director of the School Resource Center is Renee Rider. Many of you already undoubtedly know Renee. Early in Renee’s career, she worked at the MHA in Columbia/Greene. Since then, she has held high level positions in the Governor’s Office, OCFS, the State Education Department and most recently as head of the State Council on Children and Families. I have worked with Renee for many year and she is the quintessential professional. She is smart, insightful and incredibly collaborative. She was one of the thought leaders in the original implementation of Mental Health Instruction in Schools. We are glad that we were able to coax her out of retirement to join the MHANYS Team in April.
Renee will be working with our great team of experts in the Resource Center (Susan Fisher—Assistant Director, Tharaha Thavakumar—Slavin– Project Manager, Family Education and Engagement and Stephanie Sullivan– Program Manager) as well as across the agency.
