NNews October 2024

3 October 2024 NJAMHAA Board Chair Dr. Anthony Comerford Shares Focus on Servant Leadership, Greater Collaboration and Increased Visibility Dear Colleagues: I am charged with an incoming Chair’s customary writing of a letter to themembership outlining a theme and goals for my time in office. First, I am honored, humbled, and challenged by the leadership of those who came before me, and I plan on calling for their guidance when the need for counsel inevitably arises. When pondering this question of a theme or goals, I amstruck by how far NJAMHAA has come over the roughly 25 years that New Hope has been a member and how talented its long-tenured staff is at negotiating tenuous times as they arise. This included the COVID periodwhenwe all were required to make significant changes to negotiate immediate adjustments and major shifts that were called for to address the dramatically increased need for behavioral health care and innovative ways to deliver it. In the face of all this, the NJAMHAA BoardMembers are certainly proactive in their leadership roles for the association and in running their organizations. So, it was not a surprise that Anthony Comerford, PhD, newly elected Chair of theNJAMHAABoard of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of NewHope Integrated Behavioral Health Care, already had a letter to themembership preparedwhen hemet with staff for an interviewabout his vision for NJAMHAA and the state’s behavioral healthcare system. Below is Tony’s letter, followed by additional details on his vision, including inspiring insights, goals and strategies. The other Board members are highlighted in subsequent articles. 1 Attributed to Arthur C. Clarke, Bill Gates and others. 2 Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: a journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. New York, Paulist Press. NJAMHAA team continued to provide support services and follow through on advocacy campaigns that resulted in major gains for behavioral health care in New Jersey. While this is the case, the COVID period certainly influenced howwe all interact with some good and some not-so-good results, and this surely dominated the press, perhaps resulting in growing behavioral health problems across all sectors of the population. If you follow the news, I believe youwill agree that we are still experiencing some lingering — if not more significant — effects from this worldwide challenge. As this is the case, I hope to work more closely with the NJAMHAA Board and management team to expand our ability to collaborate as one with a stronger voice. It is alsomy hope that we can enhance the role of the membership in these efforts and increase public recognition of the important position that NJAMHAA plays in advocating for high-quality behavioral healthcare access for all. My history with both New Hope andNJAMHAA has confirmed the speculation that we “overestimate what we can do in a year and greatly underestimate what we can do in a decade” 1 . Given this is the case, I seemy role as that of a Servant Leader 2 , having more questions than answers and often repeating the question, “How can I be helpful?” Thanks to all for your dedication to the welfare of the Citizens of New Jersey, Tony (continued on page 4)