From strengthening California’s behavioral health crisis system to expanding mental health care in schools, Pacific Clinics employees are helping shape conversations about some of the biggest challenges facing children, families and communities across the state.
This expertise was displayed September 1-3 at the 2026 California Child & Family Services Conference, Stronger Together: Lighting the Way for Our Communities, in Anaheim. Pacific Clinics employees led six sessions spanning crisis care, health equity, child abuse prevention and treatment, support for people returning from incarceration, peer services and school-based behavioral health.
Pacific Clinics was proud to serve as an Elite sponsor of the conference, which brought together more than 800 professionals from 200 organizations across California’s child and family services workforce. More than 50 Pacific Clinics employees attended, sharing insights from their work, hearing what’s working in other communities and strengthening partnerships across the field.
Pacific Clinics also welcomed attendees at its conference booth, where visitors could connect with employees, learn more about resources from the 퍼시픽 클리닉 훈련 연구소, try their luck at a prize drop featuring custom conference swag and get a free professional headshot.
Pacific Clinics’ leadership extended beyond its sessions and conference presence. Chief Executive Officer Kathy McCarthy, who serves as president of the California Alliance, welcomed attendees to the keynote session, reflecting on the importance of developing leaders through community and collaboration. “Leadership isn’t something we build alone,” McCarthy said. “It is built in community.” She then introduced keynote speaker Dr. Thema Bryant, a nationally recognized clinical psychologist, author and former president of the American Psychological Association.
Taking on Challenges Across the Field
What can California learn from the people working on the front lines of behavioral health care? Garret Zabel, executive director of healthcare business and Kristopher Stevens, director of new business analytics and innovation spoke on a panel sharing findings from a statewide study of crisis services, bringing perspectives from professionals supporting people through some of their most vulnerable moments across communities in California.
Health equity took center stage in a session led by Michelle Linares, senior vice president of workforce engagement and impact; Jasmine Sims, clinical team supervisor of outpatient services; Carolina Almeida, managed care clinician of emerging statewide services and Sabrina Thakur, clinical program manager of emerging statewide services. They explored how health equity can be built into the design and delivery of community-based mental health care, rather than treated as an afterthought.
Mary Sheppard, executive director of foster care; Garrett Macedo, family therapeutic clinical director and Una Ko, family therapeutic clinical program manager, shared expertise in preventing and treating child sexual abuse. Rachelle Grant, executive director of statewide enhanced care management and community supports; Kristin McCarthy, director of services for the emerging statewide services team and Rebekah Gallego, clinical director of housing services examined how health care, social services and housing supports can work together to help people successfully return to their communities after incarceration.
Pacific Clinics employees also examined the role of relationships in supporting effective, lasting care. Audrey Read Brown, executive director of neurodevelopmental services, Pacific Clinics Training Institute, and program of all-inclusive care for the elderly, 와 함께 Prue Cooper, director of paraprofessional and substance use disorder training and innovation, discussed the role of peer professionals (people who use their own lived experience to support others going through similar challenges) as part of multidisciplinary care teams. Lacey Castellese, executive director of education/emerging statewide services, Patrick Neddersen, Jennelle Valles and Joanna Carson-Young, senior clinical directors with School-Based Intervention Teams, explored how schools and community partners can build lasting mental health supports for students by developing the workforce, funding and infrastructure needed to sustain them.
That range of expertise reflects the complexity of the challenges facing children and families — and why addressing them requires collaboration across programs, professions and communities.
Pacific Clinics is proud to contribute to that conversation, and to learn alongside the many organizations working toward the same goal: helping children and families thrive.
