Joanna Cardwell directs and coordinates activities of Thriving Mind for which responsibility is delegated to further attainment of goals and objectives. She is responsible for the management of all quality improvement and quality assurance processes within the agency, for the data support and analysis. She develops, leads, facilitates, and advises internal committees in regard to quality improvement, quality assurance, utilization management and risk management activities. She maintains knowledge of federal and state regulatory conditions and integrates into the internal QI/QA systems and ensures continued compliance with such regulations. She identifies opportunities for performance improvement and establishes corrective action plans. She is responsible for the preparation and the maintenance of national accreditation. She monitors services to ensure they meet organizational guidelines and stakeholder needs. She serves as one of the single point of contact for complaints and grievances. She serves as the Corporate Compliance Officer.  

Adilen Cruz, Vice President of Behavioral Health, oversees the System of Care programming. She is responsible for managerial work planning and directing behavioral health programs to ensure coordination and efficiency among programmatic aspects of service delivery, reporting directly to the Chief Operating Officer. This position ensures coordination amongst the Programmatic, QA/QI, and Fiscal/Contract Departments. She develops, implements, and manages operational strategies for Thriving Mind’s System of Care Departments. She assists the Executive Management Team and its Board of Directors in carrying out the strategic plans to ensure a comprehensive, collaborative co-occurring system of care that is recovery oriented and transparent. The system of care should be innovative, fiscally responsible and demonstrate the following values: recovery based; individually focused and consumer/family driven; community- based; and cultural and linguistic responsive.  

Karol Diaz is responsible for developing and overseeing a housing initiative that expands the permanent supportive housing options to individuals who experience behavioral health challenges. He works collaboratively with housing/homeless initiatives and representatives from Housing Finance Agencies, Department of Children and Families, Homeless Coalitions, other non-profit agencies, the faith-based community and other non-traditional and private partners in Miami-Dade and Monroe County.  

Carrie A. Liberante is an award-winning former newspaper journalist with nearly 30 years’ experience in communications, marketing, and grant writing. She has worked in newsrooms, medical schools and for nonprofits both on-staff and as a consultant. She uses her broad skill-set – writing, editing, design and outreach – to ensure our public-facing marketing efforts are understandable to our audience, visually engaging, accurate, and comply with all regulations set forth in our contract with the Department of Children and Families. 

Derek Moore is a Certified Recovery Peer Specialist and mental health advocate with over three decades in the field. He is also a licensed clinical social worker who has worked with various populations in many different capacities. He remains committed to the mission of breaking down barriers to mental health care and substance use disorders treatment.  

Laura Naredo. MS, CHC, CHPC is the chief operations officer with over 20 years of experience at both the clinical and management level. She has also worked with both state agencies and non-profits in behavioral health care. She is responsible for managerial work planning and directing programs to ensure coordination and efficiency among administrative, programmatic and operational aspects of service delivery, reporting directly to the President/CEO. She is responsible for the management of all systems of care operations, quality improvement and quality assurance processes within the agency. She develops, leads, facilitates, and advises internal committees regarding system of care operations, quality improvement, quality assurance, utilization management and risk management activities. She maintains a knowledge of federal and state regulatory conditions and integrates into the internal QI/QA systems, system of care operations and ensures continued compliance with such regulations. She has direct responsibility for the development of the system of care teams, quality improvement and quality assurance programs within the network. She identifies opportunities for performance improvement and establishes corrective action plans. She assists the President/Chief Executive Officer and leadership team in the development of appropriate system of care programming, quality assurance programs and monitor quality control for all operational functions.  

John W. Newcomer, M.D. is President and CEO of Thriving Mind South Florida in Miami, Florida. Thriving Mind (contracting as South Florida Behavioral Health Network, Inc.) oversees safety net mental health and substance abuse services for the population of 3 million people in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, serving approximately 220,000 individuals annually with an annual operating budget of $140 million, funded by the Florida Department of Children and Families as well as other Federal, State, County and private sources.

Dr. Newcomer is also Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. During two decades at Washington University, he served in research leadership roles including Medical Officer for the General Clinical Research Center and Medical Director for the Center for Clinical Studies. Dr. Newcomer has served as Principal Investigator on peer-reviewed federal research grants funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) for over 30 years. He was Executive Vice Dean at Florida Atlantic University Schmidt College of Medicine and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Research at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. From 2007-2019 he served on the Metabolic Disorders Steering Committee of the Biomarkers Consortium of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, and in the public sector Chaired the Medicaid Drug Utilization Review Board for the State of Missouri for 13 years. In 2014 he was named to the Thomson Reuters List of Highly Cited Researchers.

Jessica Rodriguez, Vice President of Contracts and Procurement is a Florida Certified Public Manager with 19 years’ experience in contracting and procuring State of Florida publicly funded behavioral health services. Ms. Rodriguez’s contract and procurement career began at the Florida Department of Children and Families, Southern Region’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Program Office in 2004. At Thriving Mind, she oversees the Contracts and Procurement Department that currently manages approximately $141 million in contracts. Her department manages over 100 contracts and agreements. She is responsible for drafting all procurements, contracts, consulting agreements, memorandum of understanding, business associate agreements, data sharing agreements, and prepares budgets when requested. She participates, and at times, takes the lead in contract negotiations. She reviews and provides feedback on subcontractor’s budgets, develops and approves scope of work and review invoices submitted by vendors and subcontractors. She serves as the Single Point of Contact for person’s and/or companions with disabilities and limited English proficiency that need auxiliary aids to be able to communicate effectively during meetings and events at Thriving Mind. In 2018, she began her work as the Procurement Manager to a competitive procurement process that selected a general contractor for the renovation of a vacant hospital to a state-of-the-art mental health diversion facility for individuals diverted from the criminal justice system in Miami-Dade County.  In her eleven (11) years at Thriving Mind, she has never had a solicitation successfully challenged by an agency.  

Jose Vempala is Vice President of Finance at Thriving Mind, where he has worked for 13 years. He previously was a budget manager at the Department of Children and Families.

Stephen Zuckerman is the chief financial officer. His role is to develop, initiate, maintain, and revise policies and procedures for the general operation of the Financial Program and its related activities to prevent illegal, unethical, or improper conduct. He develops and periodically reviews and update Standards of Accounting to ensure continuing currency and relevance in providing guidance to management and employees. He collaborates with other departments to direct accounting and finance compliance issues to appropriate existing channels for investigation and resolution. He responds to alleged violations of rules, regulations, policies, procedures, and Standards of Conduct by evaluating or recommending the initiation of investigation procedures. Develop and oversee a system for uniform handling of such violations. He acts as an independent review and evaluation body to ensure that accounting financial issues/concerns within the organization are being appropriately evaluated, investigated, and resolved. He monitors and coordinates the financial and accounting activities of other departments to remain abreast of the status of all financial and accounting activities and to identify trends. He Identifies potential areas of financial vulnerability and risk; develop/implement corrective action plans for resolution of problematic issues and provide general guidance on how to avoid or deal with similar situations in the future. He provides reports on a regular basis, and as directed or requested, to keep the President/Chief Executive Officer, Finance Committee and Board of Directors informed of the operation and progress of accounting efforts. He monitors the performance of the Financial and Accounting Program and related activities on a continuing basis, taking appropriate steps to improve its effectiveness. He ensures the provider network follows the rules and regulations of regulatory agencies as it pertains to the contract with the provider, that agency policies and procedures are being followed, and that behavior in the organization meets the company’s Standards of Conduct.