Steve Friedman, Chief Consultant

Steve Friedman is the Executive Director and owner of Bay Area Behavioral Services, a child welfare agency located in Brandon, Florida. The organization was established in 2000, and has provided assessment, clinical, and adoption services in 11 counties in the State of Florida.  Before founding Bay Area Behavioral Services, Mr. Friedman served as hospital CEO of Charter Behavioral Health Systems in Tampa, Florida, Orlando, Florida, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. His broad background in all facets of behavioral healthcare and child welfare systems management has prepared him well for the accreditation process with skills in finance, risk management, quality improvement, personnel management, governance, leadership, regulatory issues, and ethical business practices.

Mr. Friedman successfully navigated his organization through the process to be accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA). Mr. Friedman is a presenter at conferences across the country, most recently in August 2009 where he was a speaker at the Council on Accreditation (COA) National Conference in New York.  There he outlined success strategies for small to medium-sized behavioral health care organizations that are pursuing accreditation. Mr. Friedman’s presentation also offered insights into managing a successful small to medium-sized behavioral healthcare organization now and in the future.

Mr. Friedman represents the Council on Accreditation (COA) as a Peer Reviewer where he reviews other organizations to ensure the highest standards of professional performance.

Mr. Friedman holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Inter-disciplinary Social Sciences and a Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology.

Susan R. Rhodes, Associate Consultant

Susan Rhodes is currently a Florida Licensed Mental Health Counselor and has served as clinic/clinical Director for Bay Area Behavioral Services since 2002. Her work as a psychotherapist has covered a broad array of mental health conditions and clinical populations from Infant Mental Health to Geriatrics. She worked for several years in the design, implementation and administration of Employee Assistance Programs for Fortune 500 companies, a university, a hospital, government agencies and private companies. She has been managing/directing clinical service teams and programs providing services to foster and adoptive families since 1997 in addition to remaining active in service provision to these families.

Ms. Rhodes’ areas of expertise in the accreditation process is focused on development of sound clinical quality of care standards, efficient use of technology to assist staff with time management, and the creation of multi-function clinical supervision tools which provide for ongoing staff development, identification of company-wide training needs and company performance quality improvement analysis. This includes monitoring results, comparing to benchmarks and best practices, evaluating the efficacy and efficiency of the process, controlling for staff strengths and needs, and making adjustments to the process as necessary. Collaborative management processes are developed to make use of staff expertise in determining suitability, feasibility and acceptability of company procedures and operating practices.

Ms. Rhodes’ is a Florida Licensed Mental Health Counselor and a National Certified Counselor.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degree from the University of Cincinnati, graduating Magna Cum Laude. Her Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology was awarded by the University of Louisville in 1985.

Gene Magrini, Associate Consultant

Gene Magrini is accomplished in all areas of Human Resources management and has extensive experience in finance. He has served as the Human Resource Director for G4S Youth Services since early 2004 with operations covering 7 youth treatment facilities in five states and nearly 2,000 employees. Prior to that, Gene was the Director of Human Resources with the World Champion, Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2000 through 2004 and prior to that was a Regional Human Resources Director for Charter Hospitals in Florida from 1995 to 2000.

Mr. Magrini is a dynamic and engaging speaker on employment-related topics. He has been a featured speaker at both the University of Tampa and the University of New Orleans and is a frequent presenter at both national and Florida Human Resources conferences.

Mr. Nagrini earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Duquesne University and has been certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) since 2000.

Jon Preciado, Associate Consultant

Jon Preciadomaintains a high level of proficiency in multiple disciplines in the field of Information Technology and Computer Science.  With over 20 years of experience he has served as both a solutions provider and consultant in fields ranging from software design and development, computer systems network integration, and legacy and forefront application and data integration in hybrid environments.  The scope of his experience include IT specialization in the development of the processes for healthcare security, case records management, communication integrations systems, and assisting multi-disciplinary healthcare groups achieve accreditation.  During his tenure as CEO of SIA, Inc. the company has provided consulting to a wide range of clients including the state of South Carolina, Verizon Wireless, and The Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce.