2026 Conference Schedule - Detailed
Monday, April 27th, 2026
8:30-9:45a Registration/Check In
9:45-10:00a Welcome
10:00-11:00a
Where Evidence Meets Experience: Bridging Academia and Industry to Redefine Quality Care
This presentation explores how evidence-based research and real-world industry experience can be integrated to redefine and elevate quality care in mental health. It highlights the complementary strengths of academia and industry, offering strategies to bridge gaps, foster collaboration, and translate knowledge into meaningful clinical improvements.
David Rubin, M
Massachusetts General Hospital & Oceans Healthcare
Dr. Rubin is the Director of the Division of Professional and Public Education within the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He also acts as Chief Medical Officer for Oceans Healthcare. Additionally, Dr. Rubin is the Executive Director of the MGH Psychiatry Academy and is the founding director of MGH Visiting—an innovative program that mobilizes MGH faculty to provide on-site and virtual clinical services, advisory support, and interim leadership to external organizations.
Previously, Dr. Rubin directed the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Training Program at MGH and McLean Hospital. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
His research in biological psychiatry focuses on the genotypic and phenotypic traits of social withdrawal in youth, particularly as they relate to severe depression and anxiety. He also leads studies in medical education, with an emphasis on innovation, design, implementation, dissemination, and outcome measurement.
Clinically, Dr. Rubin specializes in treating severe forms of psychopathology in children and adolescents, particularly depression, anxiety, and neuropsychiatric disorders. His experience spans inpatient, residential, day hospital, and emergency psychiatric care. He frequently consults at the institutional level to enhance clinical practices and improve patient outcomes.
InStride Health and Massachusetts General Hospital
Mona Potter, MD is a board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist and is co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of InStride Health, an innovative outpatient program that serves children and adolescents (and their families) diagnosed with anxiety and OCD. She also serves as the Associate Director of the Division of Professional and Public Education for the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Prior to InStride Health, Dr. Potter served as Medical Director of McLean Hospital’s Child and Adolescent Outpatient Services, where she co-built the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program (MAMP) and the McLean School Consultation Service. She also served on the leadership team of the McLean Institute for Technology in Psychiatry (ITP), where she helped pioneer their telehealth pilot program and the use of virtual reality for anxiety exposure therapy. Additionally, as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and Associate Training Director for the MGH/McLean Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Program, she helped train the next generation of Child Psychiatrists
11:00-11:15a BREAK
11:15a-12:15p
Establishing Key Performance Indicators
This presentation will explain how KPIs align with strategic goals and provide measurable benchmarks for performance in behavioral health settings. We will discuss the types of KPIs, steps to establish KPIs, and implementation and monitoring of KPIs.
Stephanie Weatherly, DNP, PMH RN-BC
Psychiatric Medical Care LLC
Stephanie Weatherly is the Chief Clinical Officer at Psychiatric Medical Care (PMC), a nationwide behavioral health provider. She has devoted her life to providing patient-centered care and teaching others how to care for those living with mental illness. She routinely speaks to large audiences about clinical outcomes, compliance, and improving access to behavioral healthcare. Stephanie holds a doctorate in nursing from Walden University, a master’s degree in nursing leadership from Western Governors University, and a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of South Carolina. She is a board-certified psychiatric nurse leader with experience in improving access to care, reducing the use of restraint and seclusion, and providing evidence-based care models. Stephanie has been with PMC since 2015. She was previously the administrative director at Parthenon Pavilion Mental Health Hospital in Nashville, the chief quality officer at Mary Black Hospital in South Carolina and held numerous leadership positions across multiple healthcare organizations. After years of directing clinical care in individual care settings, she gained oversight of multiple healthcare facilities. Her passion for individualized care has been instrumental in moving numerous organizations to a more patient-centered approach.
12:15-1:30 LUNCH
1:30-2:30p
PANEL: Using AI to Deliver Quality Care
This panel will provide an overview of how programs and clinical teams can work cooperatively and effectively with providers of AI technology to reduce impact on clinical integrity, staff time, and patient outcomes.
Douglas Newton, MD, MPH
Rula Health
Douglas Newton, MD, MPH, is a psychiatrist dedicated to improving the wellbeing of families and individuals. Through his role as Chief Medical Officer at Rula, he works to further both his impact and the company’s mission – making mental health care work for everyone.
Douglas holds a BS and an MD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Master’s in Public Health from Yale. He completed residency training in adult psychiatry at Dartmouth and a child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Surabhi Bhandari, MBA
Surabhi Bhandari, MBA, is the Co-Founder and CEO of Soulside AI, a healthcare AI leader focused on advancing the quality of behavioral healthcare through clinically grounded AI. She has built her expertise over the last decade through deep experience as an engineer, investor, and builder in the space.
At McKinsey & Co., Surabhi led large-scale technology deployments and strategy for health systems. At Sequoia Capital, she invested in technologies to improve access, patient experience, and quality of care.
She led the adoption of innovative products at Lexington Medical across academic hospitals and surgery centres. Surabhi has been a mentor to healthcare AI companies with Techstars and MassChallenge.
Surabhi holds an engineering degree and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
At Soulside AI, her work focuses on advancing clinical quality and provider experience in behavioral health using AI by providing clinicians with deeper, real-time insights across IOP, PHP, and residential care settings. Soulside is backed by UCSF Rosenman, OneMind Foundation, and GreyMatter Capital.
FACILITATOR - Andy Cruz, MD
Andy Cruz, MD, is a mission-driven physician-executive working to expand access to transformative, compassion-first mental healthcare. Trained at the Harvard Medical School Adult Psychiatry Residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital, he received multiple teaching awards from both Harvard medical students and MGH/McLean residents—a reflection of his enduring commitment to mentorship and clinical excellence.
Dr. Cruz has helped lead care in some of the world's most respected institutions, from inpatient psychiatry at McLean to low-barrier substance use treatment at MGH. He served as a medical director at Headway, the largest virtual mental health platform in the country, and currently advises Steadfast Health as they scale their network of substance use clinics rooted in dignity and access.
In 2023, he co-founded Guidelight, a national provider of intermediate behavioral health care (PHP/IOP) that serves patients across all insurance lines. Guidelight exists to close the gap between outpatient and inpatient care—offering a level of treatment that is often the most appropriate and powerful, yet the most challenging to access.
He serves on the board of the Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare—the national voice for PHP and IOP providers. Through this peer-led coalition, he works to improve access, elevate quality, and advocate for fair reimbursement across the field. He is also a founding member of the Noble Forum, a physician-executive collective dedicated to solving healthcare’s most complex and urgent challenges.
2:30-2:45p BREAK
2:45-4:15p
Leadership Across Levels: Using AABH Leadership Standards to Grow Individuals, Strengthen Organizations, and Develop Future Leaders
:This 90-minute session explores how the 2025 AABH Standards and Guidelines (Volume II) can be used as a practical framework for leadership development across levels in PHP/IOP settings. Moving beyond compliance, the session positions leadership as a core operational and cultural responsibility that supports quality and sustainability.
Aligned with the conference theme of Excellence at All Levels, the session examines leadership as a continuum—beginning with individual leadership practice, extending to organizational leadership behaviors that shape culture and performance, and culminating in the intentional development of future leaders. Participants will be introduced to leadership standards, competency, and readiness frameworks embedded in the 2025 Standards and Guidelines that support self-reflection, organizational alignment, and leadership development planning.
Designed for current and emerging leaders, this session emphasizes practical application and shared responsibility for strengthening leadership capacity over time.
Peter Thomas, PhD
Penn Medicine Princeton House Behavioral Health
Peter Thomas, PhD is Vice President of Outpatient Behavioral Health Services for Penn Medicine Princeton House Behavioral Health. In that capacity, he oversees intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs that serve 6,000 patients annually across five New Jersey locations. He leads strategic planning, program development, and clinical innovation, including the launch of Princeton House’s Virtual Intensive Outpatient Program, which has delivered over 225,000 telehealth visits since 2020.
A clinical psychologist with 30 years of experience, Dr. Thomas serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for Ambulatory Behavioral Healthcare (AABH) and chairs its Training, Research, and Publication Committee. He earned his PhD from DePaul University and completed a Clinical Fellowship at Harvard Medical School.
5:00-7:00p AABH Welcome Reception
Tuesday, April 28th, 2026
9:00-9:45a Coffee Break
9:45-9:30a Welcome
10:00-11:00a
The Role of Seed Funding for Stronger Patient Outcomes and Effective Advocacy
Learn the fundamental aspects of a compelling seed funding project, so that your program can advocate more effectively for policy and funding improvements
National Eating Disorders Association
Jessica is an avid social cause capacity builder. Appointed as the National Eating Disorders Association's Acting CEO in November 2025, she is leading the organization as it provides critical educational resources to individuals and communities, supports early intervention methods, and funds promising clinical research. As a consultant and nonprofit leader, she has helped organizations raise millions of dollars and increase their impact. She has been an Executive Director and CFO at nonprofits who are leaders in their issue areas such as the EB Research Partnership and DoSomething.org. During her first term at NEDA from 2017-2019, she strengthened financial operations, created impact measurement systems, and led the program and development teams to new strategic growth. She holds a Masters Degree in Nonprofit Management from The New School.
11:00-11:15a BREAK
11:15a-12:15p
Compassionate Excellence: Leadership Development and Performance Management
This session explores how behavioral healthcare leaders can foster high-performing teams without compromising empathy, humanity, or well-being. In an environment defined by rising acuity, workforce shortages, and complex patient needs, leaders must balance accountability with compassion to create cultures where people thrive. This keynote will highlight proven leadership practices, values-aligned performance systems, and real-world lessons from ambulatory and intensive outpatient settings. Participants will gain actionable strategies for elevating clinical quality, strengthening engagement, and developing leaders at every level.
Guidelight Health
Dr. Jenn Crenshaw is committed to building intentional cultures of belonging; this is one reason she was drawn to the opportunity to serve as Chief People Officer for Guidelight Health, where everyone has a seat. She has served as CPO in healthcare, hospitality, and professional services over the last 15 years. Jenn is recognized for her skills in cultural alignment, human capital systems, and change management, known for developing practical solutions while staying focused on both speed to market and return on investment. Jenn earned her Doctorate in Business Administration from Georgia State University in 2020 and serves as Adjunct Faculty in Executive Education with Florida Atlantic University. One of her passion projects is her community work with her husband, Shawn, who founded an non-profit to facilitate veterans helping veterans. She also enjoys spending time outdoors with her family and friends in both Florida & Virginia.
12:15-1:30 LUNCH
1:30-2:30p
Clinical Quality in the Age of Technology
As technology becomes embedded in PHP and IOP care delivery, behavioral health clinicians are challenged with integrating these solutions into their clinical processes. However, programs need to recognize the difference between compliance and quality and how technology impacts each. This presentation will review a framework for successfully integrating technology in their clinical processes and helps programs support their clinical staff while increasing compliance.
Ujiwal Ramtekkar, MD
AURO Health
Dr. Ujjwal Ramtekkar is a psychiatrist, clinical professor, and physician executive with extensive experience in clinical quality, tech enabled care, and value-based behavioral health. He is a well-published author and recognized leader in designing and scaling high-quality behavioral health
care across complex delivery settings.
He has led enterprise-level clinical strategy and clinical operations initiatives across academic medical centers, multi-site programs, and national behavioral health and health-technology organizations. Dr. Ramtekkar is the founder of Auro Health, where he advises care delivery organizations and health-tech companies on clinical strategy, product design, operating models, and governance required to scale care safely and effectively. His work focuses on improving outcomes, supporting clinicians, and reducing organizational risk while aligning clinical excellence with sustainable growth.
2:30-2:45p BREAK
2:45-4:15p
How to Build a Multidisciplinary Team
Building an effective multidisciplinary team is essential for delivering high-quality, evidence-based, patient-centered behavioral healthcare teams. Especially for teams treating individuals with couple psychiatric, medical, and psychosocial needs. This session will explore key principles for building a strong multidisciplinary behavioral health team.
Dr. Gerdes is a double board-certified adult psychiatrist and addiction medicine physician executive with over 13 years of experience in behavioral healthcare, clinical leadership, and healthcare strategy. Her experiences range from scaling a collaborative care model and starting a behavioral health crisis program at Northwell Health to building behavioral health teams at Cityblock Health, and overseeing care management
for HARP members as the Medical Director of Fidelis - Centene’s HARP plan in New York. Most recently, Dr. Gerdes served was the Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer at Willow Health, where she developed and led the organization’s evidence-based clinical care model and clinical services. Dr. Gerdes is an innovative physician leader experienced in driving the development and implementation of modern behavioral
healthcare with a focus on value-based care, clinical quality, and population health outcomes.
Wednesday, April 29th, 2026
9:00-9:45a Coffee Clutch
9:45-10:00a Welcome
10:00-11:00a
AI in Behavioral Health
:Learn how AI is being applied within PHP and IOP settings to support more responsive, scalable, and insight-driven behavioral health care. As a growing set of AI-enabled tools emerges, including solutions for intake, clinical documentation, outcomes monitoring, provider coaching, and automated assessments, new approaches to treatment engagement and clinical decision-making are taking shape. This presentation highlights real-world examples of how AI was embedded into PHP/IOP care delivery, supporting thousands of patients across tens of thousands of clinical interactions. Attendees will gain practical insights into what worked in practice, how workflows evolved, and how AI helped expand clinical capacity while supporting more timely and informed treatment adjustments.
Brett Talbot, PhD
Videra Health
Brett Talbot, Ph.D. is the co-founder and CCO of Videra Health, the leading AI-driven mental health assessment platform. Dr. Talbot is a distinguished clinical psychologist, technology innovator and revered figure in the behavioral health community. Prior to Videra Health, Dr. Talbot was the Chief Clinical Officer and Executive Director across several prestigious healthcare organizations. His pioneering efforts led to the creation of trailblazing video-based depression, anxiety and trauma clinical assessments.
11:00-11:15a BREAK
11:15a-12:15p
new age of treatment, looking into the future
Despite decades of clinical innovation, behavioral health outcomes remain constrained by fragmented training models, siloed professional identities, and workforce shortages. This keynote argues that the next era of treatment will be defined not by new techniques, but by system design. Drawing on Nevada-based innovations—including the development of a cross-disciplinary behavioral health institute, the collaborative policy work behind SB165, and emerging workforce models—this presentation explores how aligning training, legislation, and workforce architecture can create a coordinated continuum of care. Particular attention will be given to prevention-first system design and the potential role of a structured behavioral health and wellness practitioner pathway within a tiered model of services. Participants will be invited to consider how professional education, policy alignment, and workforce sequencing can collectively move the field toward delivering the right care, at the right time, by the right level of provider.
Michelle G. Paul, PhD
UNLV PRACTICE
Dr. Michelle Paul is the Workday Endowed Executive Director of UNLV PRACTICE, an interdisciplinary mental and behavioral health institute recognized by the Nevada System of Higher Education. She also serves as Assistant Vice President of Mental and Behavioral Health at UNLV, where she leads implementation of a university-wide strategy to integrate behavioral and physical health training under the UNLV Academic Health Initiative.
Her recent legislative advocacy contributed to the passage of Senate Bills 165 and 353, expanding behavioral health workforce development across Nevada. A licensed psychologist since 1999, Dr. Paul previously served nearly two decades on the faculty of UNLV’s APA-accredited Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program and is a past president of both the Nevada Board of Psychological Examiners and the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards.
Across academic, regulatory, and legislative roles, she is committed to sustained, collaborative leadership to strengthen behavioral health systems grounded in high-quality training and evidence-based practice.
12:15-1:30p AWARDS LUNCHEON & MEMBER MEETING
1:30p CONFERENCE CLOSES
POST-CONFERENCE ADDITIONAL TRAINING EVENT
WED, APR 29th
2:00-5:00p
AND
THURS, APR 30th
8:30a-2:30p
AABH CORE Training - both sessions are required
The CORE Training is an intensive comprehensive overview of the technical and clinical requirements for operating a PHP and/or IOP. The training will focus on the requirements established by CMS-Medicare and The Joint Commission, as most other payers also follow these requirements that are directly related to the patient experience in a PHP and/or IOP.
The updated training includes all the new requirements that were implemented by CMS for Medicare that include the new definition for an Intensive Outpatient Program and the requirements for that level of care in their manuals.
CORE training will highlight processes and needed elements from admission to discharge. The slight differences for PHP, IOP and the intensified outpatient services will be covered.
Allison Kidder, MBA LCSW-BACS
Co-CEO, Compass Health
Allison Kidder currently serves as Co-CEO of Compass Health, a Louisiana-based behavioral health system. Comprised of free-standing inpatient and outpatient behavioral health programs as well as partnerships with local hospital systems, Compass Health serves over 500 patients each day and employes over 700 personnel at its various locations.
A licensed clinical social worker, Allison began her career with Compass Health as a therapist in a hospital outpatient department, providing PHP and IOP services. Before long, she was promoted to a PHP/IOP program director position; over the next 7 years, Allison worked in operations serving as an outpatient program director, regional manager, and hospital CEO. Having served on Compass’s EHR implementation team in 2014, in 2017, she moved into the role of Director of Information Systems, where she helped to finalize implementation and optimize Compass’s EHR and leverage other information systems to gain business efficiencies.
Allison has worked in healthcare for 20 years, with 16 years of experience in behavioral health and 13 years in leadership. Passionate about getting things right, Allison uses her experience in operations oversight, regulatory compliance, utilization review, performance improvement, and policy & procedure development to streamline both clinical and administrative processes.
Allison served on the AABH Board of Directors from 2014 to 2017.
Emily Hunter
President, Classic Behavioral Healthcare
AABH President & CMS Liaison