Bruce Nisbet, MSW, DFNAP, brings over 40 years of experience in the behavioral health and child welfare service field to the OPEN MINDS team. His wide range of experience includes community mental health and child welfare agency leadership and program development, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Programs (CCBHC), and legislative strategies to impact public policy and agency project funding.

Mr. Nisbet currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Spectrum Health Human Services, with programs in six western New York counties. Spectrum provides integrated mental health and chemical dependency clinics as one of the nation’s sixty-two federally awarded and funded Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Programs. Since Mr. Nisbet began with Spectrum, the organization quadrupled in size to become one of the most comprehensive outpatient behavioral health organizations in the region.

Prior to joining Spectrum, Mr. Nisbet was President/CEO of the Children’s Home of Wyoming Conference, a large multi-program child welfare agency located in Binghamton, New York. Originally serving only eastern New York State, Mr. Nisbet expanded operations successfully into the state of Pennsylvania and increased agency revenues by 26% during his tenure.

Mr. Nisbet also co-founded the behavioral health Value Network, IPA. Competitively awarded $4.6M in state start-up funds, Value Network had 90% of the licensed behavioral health organizations as Network level members across the Western region of the state.

Similarly, Mr. Nisbet previously co-founded Health Home Partners of WNY, LLC, a joint venture between Spectrum and two other organizations that included developing an integrated network of 3,000 practitioners across several Western New York counties. Upon establishment, the venture became one of the first designated Affordable Care Act Health Homes in New York State. He currently serves as President of this successful joint venture that serves over 4,000 Medicaid recipients with either serious mental illness (SMI) or two or more physical health chronic conditions.

Mr. Nisbet has co-authored several published research articles and has presented at national and international conferences in the United States, Europe, and Australia. He also co-authored The Person-Centered Recovery Planner for Adults with Serious Mental Illness, published nationally and internationally by John Wiley & Sons.

Mr. Nisbet was elected a Distinguished Practitioner and Fellow (DFNAP) by the membership of the National Academy of Practice based on his professional contributions to the field. He earned both his Master of Social Work and Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Philosophy from University at Buffalo.