Joe Rizziello

Joe Rizziello is the current Director of Behavioral Health Services at Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton. Prior to this, they spent eight years as the Chief Program Officer at The Children's Home Society of NJ. In this role, Joe was responsible for nurturing a supportive, trauma-informed culture while supplying strategic program vision and direction as a key member of the executive leadership team. This included managing budgets and guiding and mentoring a staff of 5 in implementing service delivery across 4 programs.

During their time at The Children's Home Society of NJ, Joe made a number of notable achievements, including generating sustainable adoption program revenue, accelerating cash flow, and facilitating interagency cooperation by transitioning the business model from full-service to fee-for-service payment structure. Joe also diminished the risk of a contested adoption by shifting specified financial and legal risks from the agency to families with a new service agreement drafted in collaboration with an adoption attorney and the NJ Adoption Licensing Board. Additionally, Joe directed the sourcing, evaluation, selection, negotiation, and procurement of an electronic health record (EHR) system; elevating their own technical skillset as part of customizing and implementing a timely EHR roll out. Finally, they attained Council on Accreditation (COA) recertification in 2012 by meticulously evaluating agency programs; elevating program practices to meet COA standards; revising policies and procedures; enacting corrective measures; and collaborating with managers to complete the renewal application and ace the site visit.

Joe Rizziello has a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from Rider University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rider University. Joe also holds certification from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs as a Licensed Professional Counselor.

Joe Rizziello reports to John Tesoro, Chair & Treasurer. Some of their coworkers include Susan Loughery - Associate Executive Director, Operations, George Bontcue - Associate Executive Director, Fiscal Affairs, and Arnold Valentin - Director, Community Services.