The 2026 OPEN MINDS Health & Human Services Workforce Best Practices Summit

Peggy Kelly, LPC-S, is Chief Executive Officer of Youth Home, Inc. in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she leads strategic growth—expanding service lines and widening the agency’s geographic reach—while maintaining a commitment to trauma-informed, evidence-based care. Previously as Chief Clinical Officer, she oversaw all clinical services, diversified funding streams, launched new programs, and led a cultural transformation using the Risking Connections trauma‑informed care model.

She served five years as Director of Clinical Services at Jewish Family & Career Services (JF&CS) in Atlanta before returning to Arkansas in 2014 to join Youth Home. Peggy holds a B.S. in Business and Finance from the University of Arkansas and an M.S. in Behavioral Studies from the University of South Alabama. She has practiced in Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, and Arkansas, providing individual, family, and group behavioral health services, and has worked as an Employee Assistance consultant for Fortune 500 companies and a large hospital system, advising on policy development and implementation. Her areas of expertise include employee wellness, workplace violence, substance abuse, and conflict resolution.

Peggy serves on the boards of the Arkansas Behavioral Health Council and the National Association of Children’s Behavioral Health. She and her husband, Donnie, enjoy Arkansas’s mountains and lakes and attend concerts and outdoor festivals whenever time permits.

Patricia D. Wilcox, LCSW, is Klingberg’s Vice President of Strategic Development. She specializes in improving systems that treat traumatized children and their families. She created the Restorative Approach™, a trauma- and relationship-based treatment method. She is a trainer for Risking Connection® and a faculty member at the University of CT School of Social Work and the University of St. Joseph’s School of Social Work. She is the author of Trauma Informed Care: The Restorative Approach as well as several articles. She trains internationally on trauma-informed care, has presented at many national conferences, and has recently been offering training with her colleague, Aminah Ali, on topics supporting full inclusion in the workplace.  She was the 2011 Connecticut Social Worker of the Year and, in 2022, was designated a Soroptimist Exceptional Woman.

Sterling Haukom Anderson, LPC has worked in the mental health field for over 13 years and is currently the Director of Workforce Development at Thresholds. She has provided clinical and case management support to individuals living with severe mental illness and has developed and delivered trainings, eLearning, and consultations for both internal and external audiences on a range of topics. Sterling earned her Master’s in Counseling from DePaul University in 2012.    

Stuart Buttlaire brings over 35 years of executive, clinical, and policy experience to OPEN MINDS. Dr. Buttlaire has experience in both the public and private sectors of healthcare providing leadership and direction in healthcare delivery. His career has focused on advancing integrated behavioral health and addiction medicine through strategic innovation, system redesign, quality improvement, and sustainable policy reform.

Previously, Dr. Buttlaire was the Regional Director of Behavioral Health and Addiction Medicine for Kaiser Permanente. In this role, Dr. oversaw a $200 million portfolio serving 4.6 million members across 23 emergency departments and 33 medical centers. He led development and operations across inpatient, ambulatory, emergency, call center, and contracted community services, supporting more than 2,500 mental health and substance use disorder providers. His leadership resulted in significant system transformation grounded in person-centered, measurement-based, and integrated care models. Dr. Buttlaire was also the lead Mental Health Representative for State Program Initiatives, including Medicaid (Medi-Cal) and Medicare. He pioneered the design and implementation of two psychiatric inpatient units, including a nationally recognized medical/psychiatric unit for individuals with complex co-morbidities. Additional innovations include integrated urgent services for youth and adults, intensive outpatient programs, multi-family group treatments for severe psychiatric conditions, and a mobile app for eating disorders that earned Kaiser’s Innovation Award.

Dr. Buttlaire is a widely respected advisor on behavioral health policy, legislation, and regulatory strategy. He has worked closely with state and federal agencies on issues of parity enforcement, financing reform, Medicaid redesign, and systems integration. He currently serves as Board President of the Institute for Behavioral Health Improvement, is a Board Member of NAMI California, and sits on the California Hospital Association Behavioral Health Advisory Board. He previously chaired the Behavioral Health Section of the American Hospital Association and was appointed to the AHA Regional Policy Board for the Western U.S.

As a frequent speaker and author, Dr. Buttlaire has published articles and research papers on behavioral health integration, suicide prevention, financing, and policy reform. His work continues to shape strategic direction for public and private behavioral health systems across the country.

Dr. Buttlaire holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies, an MBA with a concentration in Health Care Management and Finance from UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business, a Master’s in Counseling Psychology from Humboldt State, and a B.A. in Psychology and Political Science from the University of Colorado.