BUSINESS PEOPLE: New director to head Ellie Mental Health, opening in Bradenton
In advance of opening its first area location, Ellie Mental Health has hired Barbara Byrne, a licensed clinical social worker, as clinic director. Ellie Mental Health is a national franchise company seeking to lower barriers to mental health care and destigmatize mental illness.
Byrne will lead the Bradenton office, with plans to hire up to 12 therapists in the next year. She will also manage community relationships – through strategic collaborations, seminars and other resources – to empower businesses and nonprofits to address issues that arise for team members with regard to mental health.
A licensed psychotherapist, Byrne has 25 years of experience and proven knowledge of successful, results-driven management, positive leadership, and long-range planning.
Her previous positions include program director for Evidence Based Associates, mindfulness consultant for Mindful Way Solutions and school counselor for Miami Country Day School.
Byrne earned a bachelor’s from Towson University and a master’s in social work from the University of Maryland and is currently enrolled in the MBCT Teacher Certification Program at the Centre for Mindfulness Studies.
The local franchise partners are entrepreneur, former nonprofit executive and seminar leader Gray Videnka; community leader and Women’s Resource Center President & CEO Ashley Brown; and Franchise Coach, author and Manatee Chamber board chair emeritus Rick Bisio.
The first location will open at the end of March in the Tanglewood Professional Center in Bradenton; hiring is already well underway.
United States Awning, of Sarasota, has hired Jordan Lawhorn to serve as operations manager. Lawhorn, who is new to the awning industry, will support the management team as he learns the production side of the business.
Previously, Lawhorn spent five years working as an acquisitions manager for The Local House Buyers, a family-owned home buying company in Florida. He moved to Florida in 2014.
United States Awning serves residential homeowners and commercial building owners throughout Southwest Florida by designing, fabricating and installing fabric and metal awnings, retractable awnings, canopies, pergolas and motorized louvered roofs.
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T.J. Goelz attended an annual symposium in Charleston, South Carolina, for the Institute of Investment Management Consulting Portfolio Management Group at Raymond James.
Goelz is senior vice president, investments, and wealth management specialist at Raymond James.
The program featured industry experts and peer-to-peer interaction. The curriculum included investment management topics, such as the likelihood of recession; factors influencing inflation and global outlook; and practice management topics, such as making the most of technology and managing investment committees.
At the JMX Brands’ annual awards celebration, the Rookie of the Year Award is always given to an employee who joined the company in the previous 16 months. The recipient must be a fast learner, a team player, an individual who embraces JMX Brands’ core values and company culture, ambitious and hardworking.
This year’s winner was marketing specialist Julianna Young, responsible for marketing the DutchCrafters showrooms in Sarasota and Alpharetta, Georgia.
Young manages advertising and is responsible for sponsorships, promotions, events and anything else that can help get the word out about shopping at DutchCrafters Amish Furniture.
Young graduated from Westfield State University, Westfield, Massachusetts, in May 2021, with a bachelor’s in communication with a concentration in public relations.
Nadine Baez, president of global government business at SynDaver, is a new member of Vistage Sarasota.
SynDaver, of Tampa, manufactures the world’s most sophisticated synthetic human tissues, body parts and cadavers. Its products are used to replace live animals in medical device design validation studies, surgical simulation, advanced clinical task training and military product development.
Vistage is a business advisory and executive coaching organization.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Franchise hires director for new clinic, Rookie of the Year
