Please help me congratulate one of my Health Leadership Fellows Team member Liz Woike-Ganga, who has been promoted to the role of CEO of BestSelf Behavioral Health. BestSelf was created in 2017 through the merger of Lake Shore Behavioral Health and Child & Adolescent Treatment Services.

 

Liz joined Lake Shore as an intern in 2002, then came on staff as a counselor in 2004. She then joined the executive management team in 2012 as director of chemical dependency and became COO in 2015 and is now stepping into the role of CEO. I want to thank the Health Foundation of Western and Central New York’s Health Fellows program for allowing me to have been able to learn and work with such a great leader.  I am so honored to have been able to be on the Team Beethoven with Liz and look forward to seeing where she will take BestSelf in the future.

Through the support of the Erie County Opiate Epidemic Task Force, our Southern Tier Overdose Prevention Program (STOPP) was able to receive several Narcan Emergency Boxes that will be placed throughout our catchment. Through this effort, Narcan, a medication that can reverse an overdose caused by an opiate drug, will be made readily available in public locations. We hope that these emergency boxes will be placed in prominent locations, typically located near an automated external defibrillator. If your agency is interested in receiving a Narcan Emergency Box, please feel free to contact me.