On behalf of the Washington Recovery Alliance’s Board of Directors, we are excited to announce Ely Hernandez as our new Executive Director!
Ely comes to the WRA from her position as a Program Manager at Sea Mar Community Health Centers, a community-based organization committed to providing quality, comprehensive health, human, housing, education, and cultural services to diverse communities. Ely has a Master’s in Clinical Social Work from the University of Michigan, and is currently working on her Doctorate of Business Administration from Columbia Southern University.
Ely’s belief that the community should drive the work is a perfect fit for the WRA values about bringing lived experiences to decision making tables everywhere. We couldn’t be happier to welcome Ely to the WRA team.
As we begin this new chapter with Ely’s leadership, we’d like to thank Chris Langeler for his support as Managing Director over the last year. He provided excellent guidance on internal operations, and advanced our organizational capacity in important ways during his time here. We would also like to thank Ashley Fontaine for taking over as Managing Director this spring and helping us complete our Executive Director search while keeping everything running smoothly.
We look forward to introducing Ely to our community in all the virtual ways we can until we’re able to see folks in person. Later this month, Ely will serve as our Moderator for a joint WRA/KCRC Presents session about the role of state, county, and city governments in behavioral health systems on July 30th, so register and say hello!
Please join us in a warm welcome for Ely in her new role as Executive Director. We know we’ll do great work together, and we look forward to introducing her to all of our local coalitions across the state.
Sincerely,
Melody McKee, WRA Board Chair
Lauren Davis, WRA Strategy Director
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