Karen E. Fitzhugh, Ph.D., brings more than 34 years of executive-level leadership experience in the behavioral health space to the OPEN MINDS team as a Senior Associate. Ms. Fitzhugh has extensive experience in program development, research and development, fiscal management, and behavioral health and substance use disorders.

Prior to joining OPEN MINDS, Ms. Fitzhugh served as the Senior Vice President of Operations at Rogers Behavioral Health, a nationwide, non-profit behavioral health service leader in evidenced-based treatment of OCD and anxiety disorders, trauma, dual diagnosis mental health, and substance use disorders. In this role, she was responsible for clinical, regulatory, and operational fidelity in all locations including 21 PHP/IOP clinics serving over 1,250 patients daily. She was also in charge of generating operating revenue of $200 million. During her time at Rogers, Ms. Fitzhugh also served as the Vice President of Operations and before that as the Executive Director Eastern Service Area. In these roles, Ms. Fitzhugh oversaw eight division clinics in Washington, California, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Florida. She provided strategic and operational direction to the senior directors of operations and site directors. She also successfully developed additional sites to increase the Rogers footprint and increased revenue to $37 million.

Prior to joining Rogers, Ms. Fitzhugh served as the Senior Executive Director of Operations at the Gateway Foundation, the largest non-profit SUD/BH services provider in the U.S. serving over 36,000 clients annually. In this role, Ms. Fitzhugh led a quality outcomes project across 100% of sites in the Community Division to prepare the agency for value-based payment. She successfully added new corrections division contracts for probation and parole SUD assessments and CBT groups delivered in Level IV and V facilities across the state of Delaware.

Previously, Ms. Fitzhugh was the Vice President of Community Care at InnerChange, a nationwide adolescent and youth adult residential treatment centers, therapeutic schools and outpatient programs (now part of Embark Behavioral Health). In this role, she integrated new acquisition of a nationally based community in-home care organization in eight major metropolitan areas across the US. Ms. Fitzhugh achieved profitability from FY2016 for new acquisitions and added evidenced-based practices into the clinical product.

Prior to that, she was the Founder/CEO at Sovereign Journey, a young adult residential treatment center. Ms. Fitzhugh created and funded the program from concept to start up and atypically acquired full state licensure. She also designed a clinical model for client and family treatment as well as achieved full census in the first 11 months of operation.

Before this role, Ms. Fitzhugh was the Senior Vice President at CRC Health, a national behavioral health care organization serving both behavioral health and SUD clients. She led the eastern division which included six therapeutic boarding schools and two therapeutic summer camps. She also implemented financial management protocols to integrate all facilities through the merger of Aspen and CRC.

Ms. Fitzhugh received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology/Special Education from the University of California Riverside. She also received her Master of Arts degree in Educational Psychology/Special Education from UC Riverside. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from UCLA.