Jeanne Russo

Jeanne Russo has over 30 years of experience in the behavioral health field. For the last 25 years she has provided leadership to programs funded by the Department of Mental Health (DMH) in Massachusetts. Most significantly she provided oversight of the operations of a community-based mental health provider located in Chelsea MA; with an operating budget of 30 million dollars, serving 2000+ people through a variety of services. Over the last 15 years she has provided leadership to the staff and programs for the community-based services in the Northeast Area of Vinfen funded by the DMH; as well as outpatient services.

In July of 2019, she moved to the position of Senior Vice President of the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Division at Vinfen – providing leadership and operational oversight to programs and services that support over 5000+ people in a variety of settings. She has developed and designed community-based services in her varied roles to provide services and supports to adults with psychiatric conditions to live and work in their communities. These include fidelity-based models of PACT and ACT and Individualized Placement and support; and the fidelity informed model of the Transition to Independence Program. She has spent the majority of her career in the provider community focused on providing services to people from underserved communities. Ten years in the communities of Chelsea, Revere, East Boston, Winthrop and Boston working with a 50% newcomer population that was primarily Hispanic in Chelsea and East Boston. She developed specialized outpatient, day treatment and outreach support to this community. She provided direct oversight to the Southeast Asian Team which was a collaborative group consisting of her current agency, North Suffolk Mental Health, Children’s Hospital, and Dimock Center. This team worked with Chinese, Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants. The group developed specialized outreach, outpatient and housing support to this community. She also implemented a specialized outreach team that provided supported housing services to Deaf individuals. Her current work is in the Northeast Area of Massachusetts in the cities of Lawrence, Lowell, and Haverhill and surrounding towns. These cities/towns are diverse culturally/ethnically. She is experienced in providing culturally competent services for Persons that are bilingual, bicultural in Spanish and Khmer.

Jeanne received her Master of Counseling from Assumption College. She developed, designed, and implemented the Transitions to Independence Program that serves transition age youth and young adults in a strength-based model in collaboration with Hewitt B. Clark, the model-developer. She worked collaboratively with the DMH, Children’s Friends and Family (now JRI) to obtain the Healthy Transitions Grant known as YOU Forward – awarded to the DMH from SAMHSA, and has sat as a member on the Interagency Committee advising the program.