Mark
Helijas
|
After
receiving an MBA, Mark spent time on Wall
Street, at AT&T and in 1987 moved
to the Upper Valley to accept the position
of Chief Financial Officer at the Dartmouth
Medical School. He then consulted to hospitals
in the Boston area until 1998 when he
became the first Executive Director of
what is now the Second Wind Foundation,
whose most visible programs are the Turning
Point Recovery Community Center and Willow
Grove, a 9 bed transitional residence
for women in early recovery.
In
long term recovery from both alcoholism
and major clinical depression himself,
Mark approached the Vermont legislature
in 2001 proposing a network of recovery
centers across the state. There are now
9 centers and one in progress. The model
is being replicated in New York State,
Massachusetts and elsewhere.
Mark’s
speaking engagements include Columbia
University, The National Press Club, and
on Capitol Hill to members of the US House
of Representatives. For his advocacy and
the Turning Point model, Mark has received
awards in the Vermont statehouse, at the
National Press Club in Washington, and
most recently received the 2008 Dartmouth-
Hitchcock Medical Center “Community
Health Leadership Award”. |
