Jim Skeel

Jim Skeel earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1991 from Ball State University (BSU) in Muncie, Indiana, and published the results of a research project in the Journal of Social Psychology. He earned a Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology from BSU in 1993, while he worked as a graduate assistant. As a graduate assistant, he taught experimental psychology laboratory classes. Upon graduation, he accepted a position with BSU and was employed by the Counseling and Psychological Services department. He worked for about four months as a research assistant, presenter, and trainer for a grant project. Jim, along with two staff psychologists, trained Kuwaiti University Social Workers on how to provide mental health services for returning troops, and prisoners of war, and released political prisoners from the Iraq invasion of Kuwait.

In 1993, Jim began clinical work at Charter Beacon Behavioral Health Systems in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He worked primarily in Charter’s outpatient offices providing counseling to all populations, while also coordinating intensive outpatient programs and an alternative education program for children and adolescents. He worked very closely with community partners in juvenile probation, schools, child protective services, domestic violence shelters, and child abuse advocacy agencies. While working in northern Indiana, he began involvement in boards of various community agencies and associations and was an instructor for Ivy Tech, an Indiana community college.

Jim has been with Aspire Indiana since 1999 and has held the positions of Child Team Manager, Clinical Director of Outpatient Services, and Quality Improvement Director, and Senior Director, Performance and Outcomes. He provided direct oversight and leadership within the organization to the child and adult clinical service units, information systems department, medical records department, electronic medical records team, utilization review department, clinical training, and quality improvement.

He has also been responsible for the development and maintenance of community relationships, and contract relationships with managed care companies, insurance companies, accreditation bodies, and state government entities. He assisted the organization in a corporate merger to form Aspire Indiana through leadership and involvement in a variety of work teams designed to align clinical and support functions within the merged company. Jim served on numerous boards and committees for local and statewide organizations and associations, as well as most of Aspire's internal committees and work teams.

As the CIO, Jim will ensure the comprehensive collection, integration, and effective utilization of the organization’s performance and clinical outcome data to promote Aspire’s mission, vision, and strategic priorities. Ensure the provision of the necessary information to demonstrate the organization’s effectiveness in meeting internal and external healthcare targets, metrics, and benchmarks in order to demonstrate Aspire’s effectiveness within the healthcare system. Jim provides guidance and leadership within the organization to determine performance outcome targets and collaborates with Aspire’s leaders to develop organizational strategies, system adjustments, and workflow to improve the health of the consumers.

Under the direction of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), he works collaboratively with the organization's leaders to ensure accreditation standards and compliance with the regulatory and statutory requirements are met. This position assists Aspire’s organizational leadership to develop, implement and refine systems of operations to ensure the compliant and ethical operations of the programs and services.

Jim will be responsible for providing strategy and functional oversight to the continuous quality improvement of services, and clinical documentation and developing and maintaining a range of evaluation and reporting systems to guide Aspire’s Quality Improvement Program. He will also provide program and provider performance data to Aspire leadership and facilitate all continuous quality improvement/performance activities for clinical processes.