Agenda for 2026 Scottsdale, AZ

 09:00 - Noon MST (UTC-7)

 Pickleball (Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only)
 Hosted by:  Doxy.me

Pack Your Tennis Shoes & Join Us For Pickleball!

Looking for a great way to meet new people, build meaningful relationships, and have some fun? Join us for a friendly morning of pickleball at the Westin Kierland Pickleball Courts. Whether you’re picking up a paddle for the first time or you’re an experienced player, all skill levels are welcome. Equipment will be provided, so just bring yourself, enjoy some friendly competition, and connect with others in a relaxed, welcoming atmosphere.

  NOTE:   Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only. Please pre-register by RSVP'ing here:

• Register / RSVP - Online registration closed.  Please check at the Registration Desk in Scottsdale to inquire about availability.

 12:30 - 1:30 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Tech Talk Ice Cream Social (Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only.)
 Sponsored by: Netsmart 

Don't have a meltdown, have an ice cream instead!  Join fellow CIOs, COOs and technology leaders for a casual conversation about what’s working, what’s not, and what’s next.
Share. Connect. Learn. Chill.    Non-dairy treats will also be available.

  NOTE:   Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only. Please pre-register by RSVP'ing here:

• Register / RSVP - Online registration closed.  Please check at the Registration Desk in Scottsdale to inquire about availability.

 1:30 - 4:30 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Innovation Incubator
 Sponsored by: LIO

Innovation Incubator: AI’s Here; Now What? A Hands-On Workshop for Behavioral Health Leaders

Facilitators: Kevin Gilbert PhD, Founder & Chief AI Architect, of Cake Studio AI, and Eric Meade MBA, Founder, of Whole Mind Strategy

Everyone’s talking about AI, but where do you start? Your staff is already using it, often without guidance. Maybe you’ve rolled out ambient scribes; now what? In this hands-on workshop, you’ll work through real tasks, see the use cases already reshaping care, and learn the AI governance essentials. Leave knowing how to put AI to work to free up your staff for the human connection that brought them to this work.

 5:00 - 6:30 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Welcome Reception
 Sponsored by:  MHRRG & Negley Associates   

All attendees and their travel companions are invited to join us for drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

 7:30 - 8:30 am MST (UTC-7)

 General Session
 Sponsored by:  Genoa Healthcare

Growing Up Farley: A Story of Addiction, Love and Forgiveness

Presenter: Tom Farley

Tom will talk about his brother, the late actor Chris Farley, his family and his own journey towards recovery. Tom will also discuss how Improv and humor gave him a deeper understanding of connection, trust and acceptance. Tom Farley’s journey starts from a place of fear and self-doubt. Leaning into vulnerability, acceptance and forgiveness he has found connection, authenticity, and the ability to be “comfortable being uncomfortable”. All of this has opened the door to a greater degree of creativity, innovation, and even joy.

 Morning Break
 Sponsored by:  Greenspace Health

 10:30 - Noon MST (UTC-7)

 General Session (Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members & Top Tier Sponsors only)

Speed Networking: Expand Your Network - One Conversation at a Time!

Facilitator: Lonnie Lovelady, Director of Communications & Membership, of mhca

A fun, fast-paced experience designed to help you connect with fellow members in a relaxed, welcoming, low-pressure environment. No awkward introductions, just meaningful conversations with people who understand your work, share your passion, and may become your next collaborator, mentor, or friend. Whether you’re attending your first conference or you’re a seasoned attendee, this is one of the easiest ways to make the most of your conference experience.

 Noon - 1:30 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Grab Lunch with a Few of Your mhca Peers

 Noon - 1:30 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Orientation Lunch for New & Prospective mhca Member CEOs (by invitation only)
 Sponsored by:  INCITE Consulting Solutions

 TUE Leadership Lunch (Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only, and seating is limited.)
 Sponsored by:  Doxy.me

Designing an Intentional Virtual Clinic: Better Design, Better Outcomes

Presenter: Bryan Zitzman PhD LMFT, Senior Clinical Strategist, of Doxy.me

If you were designing your virtual clinic from scratch today, would you design it the same way? Many organizations still rely on workflows created when the priority was simply making virtual care possible. Today, executive and clinical leaders have an opportunity to examine how those workflows serve patients, providers, and organizational goals.

This interactive session offers a practical framework for evaluating virtual care through four lenses: the patient journey, care team workflows, pain points, and organizational outcomes. Through an experiential activity and real-world examples, participants will explore how seemingly small barriers before, during, and after a visit can affect patient engagement, provider efficiency, and business outcomes.

Regardless of the telehealth platform their organization uses, participants will gain tools to assess their current virtual experience, question workarounds that have become routine, and identify opportunities for improvement. Leaders will leave with a structured evaluation guide and a clearer approach to prioritizing changes.  

  NOTE:   Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only, and seating is limited. Please pre-register by RSVP'ing here:

• Register / RSVP - Online registration closed.  Please check at the Registration Desk in Scottsdale to inquire about availability.

 1:30 - 3:00 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Breakout Session 1

The Benefits of Improv and Creating Ensembles

Presenter: Tom Farley

In this interactive breakout session, Tom Farley will take a deeper dive into the principles of improvisation and explore how leaders can build ensembles—not just teams. This hands-on session will introduce practical tools and techniques that can be immediately applied to create healthier, more connected workplace cultures. By embracing an ensemble mindset, leaders can help reduce stress, burnout, and turnover while cultivating environments that encourage creativity, innovation, collaboration, and shared commitment to the mission.

 1:30 - 3:00 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Breakout Session 2

AI In Action: How AI Is Being Built Into Members’ Workflows To Improve Access

Learning from 3 member case studies:

1. From Referrals to Residents: Building an AI-Powered Admissions Platform in Behavioral Health
   Presenter: Devang Patel MS, Chief Information Officer, of Devereux
   This session tells the story of how Devereux's technology team designed and built a Multilayer AI platform, an internal employee AI assistant ("Ally") and a Claude-powered referral and admissions POC — using a deliberate, compliance-first architecture that prioritizes HIPAA defensibility, clinical trust, and long-term LLM vendor flexibility. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for evaluating, building, or procuring AI-assisted admissions tools — grounded in the real decisions, trade-offs, and surprises encountered during implementation at scale.
    
2. Faster Access, Better Outcomes: Pacific Clinics transforms engagement through Human-Led, AI-Augmented Automation
   Presenter: Jacquelyn Torres MS LMFT, Sr VP - Emerging & Statewide Services, of Pacific Clinics
   Pacific Clinics has transformed Enhanced Care Management (ECM) outreach by automating thousands of health plan referrals, integrating our call center, launching large-scale SMS text engagement campaigns, and deploying Hope, an AI Assistant that provides real-time program information and scheduling. These innovations improve access, streamline enrollment, and enhance the member experience, at scale.
   
   
3. Open Access 2.0: Deploying AI to Scale Same-Day Care
   Presenter: Felica Jefferey LPC, CEO, of Gulf Coast Center
   Open access transformed engagement in behavioral health care, but delivering it at scale can overwhelm staff. In this session, hear how Gulf Coast Center deployed frontier AI to reclaim intake time and clinician capacity, and is extending the technology beyond clinic doors with community partners to deliver instant access, anywhere.

 Afternoon Break
 Sponsored by:  Bristol Myers Squibb

 3:30 - 4:15 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Breakout Session 3

The Hidden Line Item: Rethinking Inpatient Safety Costs

Presenter: Todd Haedrich, CEO, of LIO

Inpatient safety costs hide in plain sight—scattered across continuous observation, agency sitters, staff overtime, and catastrophic events. LIO’s CEO, Todd Haedrich, introduces Patient Liability and Grievous Loss (PLGL), a financial model that unifies these costs into a single, manageable metric. Healthcare leaders will learn actionable strategies to recapture operating margin, ease workforce burnout, and transition from reactive labor spend to proactive, tech-supported safety.

 3:30 - 4:15 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Breakout Session 4

From Overhead to Outcomes: Putting AI to Work in the Business of Behavioral Health

Presenter: Dr. Adi Vaxman MBA PhD, Founder & CEO, of Sheba Consulting

How can AI take on the operational work that consumes your organization’s time and resources? In this interactive session, Dr. Adi Vaxman explores the processes behind delivering care, from workforce and back-office operations to organizational knowledge. Participants contribute challenges, choose examples to explore and see a working AI employee in action. Together, we examine how processes change, what implementation requires and what reclaimed capacity could mean. Participants receive a shared report connecting the room’s challenges with research and modeled operational impact.

 Mid-Way Mingle Reception
 Sponsored by:  NextGen Healthcare

All attendees and their travel companions are invited to join us for drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

Test your golf skills at the reception with the "Hit the Boat" golf challenge. Step up to the tee and see if you can land a direct hit on small sailboat in the lake. It's all about precision and bragging rights!

 7:30 - 8:30 am MST (UTC-7) 

 Registration & Continental Breakfast
 Sponsored by:  Blue & Co.

 General Session
 Sponsored by:  Martyn Family Foundation

AI: Clear and to the Point. Where We Are and Where We’re Going

Presenter: Ron Galloway, AI Strategist & Speaker, of RonGalloway.com

Artificial intelligence is transforming healthcare faster than any technology shift before it. This keynote offers a practical, jargon-free look at where AI stands today, where it’s headed over the next five years, and what it means for behavioral health organizations. Attendees will explore the rise of agentic AI, the growing strategic value of organizational data, and a practical framework for identifying which AI opportunities to implement now, pilot next, or monitor for the future.

 10:00 - 10:30 am MST (UTC-7)

 Morning Break
 Sponsorship Available!

 General Session
 Sponsored by:  Martyn Family Foundation

Healthcare Policy Meets Reality - Preparing for the Future

Presenter: Charles S. Ingoglia MSW, President & CEO, of National Council for Mental Wellbeing

Just over a year ago the United States Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill and federal healthcare agencies have been busy writing rules for its implementation. This session will unpack the details and discuss how states are implementing the rules, and what all of this means for mental health and substance use service delivery going forward. Come with your questions and suggestions.

 Noon - 1:30 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Grab Lunch with a Few of Your mhca Peers

 WED Leadership Lunch (Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only, and seating is limited.)
 Sponsored by:  Consulting for Human Services

From Information to Market Intelligence: Turning Data Into Action

Presenters: Ashleigh Delaney, Director of Market Intelligence, of CFHS; and Adam C. Andreassen PsyD, President & CEO, of Family & Children's Services; and Stacy DiStefano MC, CEO, of CFHS

Organizations have more data than ever, but having information isn’t the same as having market intelligence.
Join us for an interactive discussion exploring how AI-driven tools and predictive analysis can turn public data, policy trends, workforce insights, and local intelligence into actionable strategies. See heat maps, trend analysis, and scenario modeling in real time as we explore how organizations can anticipate market shifts, evaluate expansion opportunities, and understand the potential impact of reimbursement changes before they affect the bottom line. We’ll also hear from an mhca member who has used this approach to evaluate expansion opportunities and navigate reimbursement strategy.
No sales pitch — just practical tools and real-world insights you can put to work.

 NOTE:   Open to Current and Prospective mhca Members only, and seating is limited. Please pre-register by RSVP'ing here:

• Register / RSVP - Online registration closed.  Please check at the Registration Desk in Scottsdale to inquire about availability.

 1:30 - 3:00 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Breakout Session 1

You Multiplied: Compounding Time, and Revenue, with AI

Presenter: Ron Galloway, AI Strategist & Speaker, of RonGalloway.com

Small AI improvements can deliver big results. This practical session explores how behavioral health organizations can use AI to reclaim staff time, improve operational efficiency, and increase revenue through incremental, high-impact changes. Attendees will learn proven use cases, from documentation and prior authorizations to claims and no-show reduction, along with a simple framework for identifying and implementing AI opportunities they can put into practice immediately.

 1:30 - 2:15 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Breakout Session 2

Innovation or Obsolescence: The Future of Behavioral Health Is Now

Presenters: Emily Barr, Chief Quality & Data Officer, and Andrew Swanson, VP of Systems & Technology, of Lutheran Family Services

What if behavioral health organizations could unlock their data to drive smarter decisions? This session explores how Lutheran Family Services (LFS) is using AI, agent-based solutions, and enterprise data strategy to transform care and operations. Learn how LFS moved from fragmented legacy systems to an integrated data foundation, established AI governance and an AI Commission, and deployed AI-powered solutions that accelerate insights and improve clinical and administrative outcomes. 

 3:00 - 5:00 pm MST (UTC-7)

 mhca Board of Directors Meeting
 Chair:  C.J. Davis PsyD

 5:00 - 6:30 pm MST (UTC-7)

 Elite Event
 Sponsored by:  Eleos Health

Cap off the week with an unforgettable experience. This is your chance to connect and unwind with fellow leaders over food, cocktails/mocktails, and some surprise entertainment!