Leadership

Ellen Bemis serves as AMHC’s Chief Executive Officer. As Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Bemis ensures the achievement of the agency’s service mission in conformance with AMHC’s philosophy of service, organizational values, strategic vision, and the policies established by the Board of Directors. Prior to joining AMHC, Ms. Bemis served for 20 years as the Chief Financial Officer of the Aroostook County Action Program and as a member and past president of AMHC’s Board of Directors since 2011. She began her career as a Certified Public Accountant with Newman, Noyes & Associates in Portland and David N. Felch, CPAs in Caribou. Ms. Bemis holds a Public Accounting degree from Husson College. She is a native of Maine and resides in Presque Isle with her husband Frank and their three children.

Jennette Hitchcock, LCSW is AMHC’s Chief Operations Officer. She oversees AMHC’s day-to-day operations across all services and sites in partnership with AMHC’s Senior Leadership Team.  She began her employment with the agency in 1982 and has held a variety of direct service and management and leadership positions within the agency before becoming the Chief Operations Officer in 2014.  Jennette is the lead for AMHC’s High Performing Team model and is a Ken Blanchard trained instructor for Situational Team Leadership, Situational Self Leadership, Situational Leadership II, and Coaching.  Ms. Hitchcock is an independently licensed clinical social worker in the State of Maine, and she received her Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Maine at Orono.

Christy Daggett, MPP, is AMHC's Chief Financial and Administrative Officer. As the Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, she is responsible for providing leadership for the financial and administrative systems of the organization. Prior to joining AMHC, she has worked in public service in Maine for close to a decade, holding program-oriented and leadership roles at MCD Public Health, the Maine Center for Economic Policy, and the Aroostook County Action Program. She has served as Board President of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Maine Affiliate, President of the Aroostook Training and Education Coalition (ATEC), and Board Member of the Maine Children's Alliance. A native of Presque Isle, Christy earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Maine and her master's in Public Policy and Management from the Edmund S. Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine. She has testified as an expert on rural public policy issues before the Maine Legislature, and her pieces have been published in many statewide and national forums, including health policy research on Medicaid expansion, health care price transparency, cancer screening access for rural Mainers, and the correlation between school-based health clinics and better graduation and attendance outcomes for K-12 students.

Christine Brown is a Program Director with oversight of Community Integration services across AMHC’s service area.  She began her career at AMHC in 1999 as the Office Director for Caribou Outpatient Office, where she held that position for 5 years.  When AMHC implemented the High Performance Teamwork model, Christine was one of the first trainers and coaches to work with teams and was very actively involved with trainings and coaching for the first 6 years of implementation.  Christine transitioned to the Quality Department in 2006 and then in 2008 was hired as the Program Director for Community Integration, her current position.  She continued to step in to provide HPT trainings as needed.

Christine moved to Caribou from Boston, MA where she previously worked at Uphams Corner Health Center, located in Dorchester, MA as the Director of Guidance and Counseling Department.  Prior to Boston, Christine lived in Geneva, Switzerland for a number of years.  She is a graduate of the School of Social Work in Geneva and was employed at a psychiatric clinic there for 7 years.  While working, Christine also completed a 3-year program in international development at Geneva University Institute for Development Studies.  During her time in Switzerland, she became interested in health and wellness.  She pursued her interest in wellness once back in the States and living in Boston by attending numerous trainings and workshops, notably a stress reduction program with Jon Kabat-Zinn and externship in behavioral medicine with Dr. Dan Brown.  She is a graduate of The Polarity Institute, Watertown, MA – a 3-year training program in an energy system for healing and wellness.  She has maintained her certification as a Registered Polarity Practitioner.

Lorraine Chamberlain is AMHC’s Program Director of Integration and Behavioral Health in Aroostook County. She has been a member of Senior Leadership for 23 years. She previously was the Program Director of the Emergency Services Program that includes mobile crisis services, crisis stabilization units for both adults and children and the Sexual Assault services at AMHC. Within her role, she is also AMHC’s lead for Integration services through the advancement of physical and behavioral health in a variety of community settings, specifically in a primary care setting. This work involves developing the Community Care Team (CCT) services of care coordination from a primary care setting as well as AMHC Behavioral Health Home (BHH) services for both adults and children. Ms. Chamberlain has led several different agency initiatives over the years to support high quality, easy access to behavioral health services in all three counties that AMHC serves. This includes; the initial ADHD child assessment clinic in the Presque Isle Outpatient office, leading the process of effective assessment of childhood mental health diagnosis to support effective treatment; the development and implementation of the Maine Crisis Network, “Crisis Curriculum” for certification of Mobile crisis providers across the State of Maine; the implementation on a state and National level through the National Council the initial Integration Model of Care, using the Triple-Aim process of improving quality of care and access to services by offering integration behavioral health services successfully in a primary care setting; the development and implementation of the Collaborative Care Model with Emergency Psychiatry from the community setting that has been very successful in improving access to high quality psychiatric services in a time of crisis so the community vs the inpatient unit can meet their needs; and the lead for the current AMHC project titled “Zero Suicide”, to change our overall experience concerning the high rates of successful suicides to not be seen as an option in our community.

In taking on the role of Behavioral Health Program Director she now attends to the Substance Use Program Services of residential care at the Residential Treatment Facility (RTF) in Fort Fairfield, Intensive Outpatient program services (IOP) in the 5 outpatient offices in Aroostook, Medicated Assisted Treatment (MAT) services and has started the Opioid Health Home (OHH) as well as regular outpatient services. The two Peer Recovery Centers – one in Caribou called Roads to Recovery and the one in Houlton – Aroostook Recovery Center of Hope (ARCH) are also part of this continuum of care.

With all of this activity, Ms. Chamberlain does find time to spend with family and friends enjoying the outdoors and traveling throughout Maine.

Clem Deveau is AMHC’s Program Director of Behavioral Health Services in Washington and Hancock Counties. His primary role is the development and implementation of Mental Health and Substance Use treatment and support services in these two counties. Clem began with AMHC in the late 1980s at the Helpline and Skyhaven. He has maintained a long term commitment to the agency in both undergraduate and postgraduate roles. Clem has been involved in the development and expansion of new substance treatment programs such as Intensive Outpatient Program (IOP) and Medicated Assisted Treatment (MAT) in these counties. Clem has also been highly involved in the redesign of children’s services, particularly in Washington County children’s residential services. Clem enjoys his role in partnering with other organizations and identifying collaborative projects. This has included other behavioral health organizations, primary health as well as prevention. Clem has maintained his career with AMHC except for 10 years while he and his wife Brenda served in Africa as Peace Corps volunteers and for 7 of those years working in technical program development and implementation reducing HIV among high-risk substance using populations. Clem and his wife have enjoyed their return back to the US and now living in Washington County.

Debra L. Jacques is the Director of Marketing and Development. She is responsible for the agency’s marketing, planning and development activities. With more than 25 years of experience, the majority of Deb’s career has been in non-profit work, serving as the Business Development Director for Eastern Maine HomeCare (now Northern Light Home Care & Hospice) and as Resource Developer for Aroostook County Action Program. Active in her community, Deb is involved in a variety of activities with United Baptist Church of Littleton, is the current chair for the Greater Houlton Christian Academy (GHCA) Bike-a-thon, as well as a past board member of GHCA. She lives in Littleton with her family.