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.

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 Emergency Services. She has been a member of Senior Leadership for 22 years and supports 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 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.

A significant part of Ms. Chamberlain’s contribution to the community is the advancement of AMHC’s Sexual Assault services in 3 Counties which has now introduced our first Child Advocacy Center in Fort Fairfield. Ms. Chamberlain is very committed to the overall health of the communities that AMHC serves and she had dedicated her life to advance the quality of services and access to services at the lowest cost. An example of this is when she recruited her husband Joe to lead the hugely successful Andy Santerre SNO-RUN charity event for 10 years to raise funds for children who have been sexually abused in Aroostook County. This work was recognized in 2014 by the American Red Cross for her and her husband as they were both recognized as “Community Heroes”.

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

Peter McCorison is AMHC’s Program Director of Behavioral Health Services Aroostook.  He assures that AMHC’s services are developed and implemented to meet the community needs to include Mental Health, Substance Use Disorders and Prevention services for individuals of all ages.  In his 20 plus year career with AMHC, Mr. McCorison has played an important senior leadership role in guiding and supporting the development of AMHC’s service offerings to increase access to evidence-based service to include Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Intensive Outpoint Programing (IOP) and Medicated Assisted Treatment (MAT).  Most recently Mr. McCorison has worked closely with the local community to expand recovery services in Aroostook County.  Mr. McCorison has a long history of involvement with ATLC Aroostook Teen Leadership Camp and the Residential Treatment Facility in Limestone.  He most values the concept of Recovery and the ability for individual and communities to create change in the day to day situation to foster wellness and growth.  In his personal time, along with his family, he enjoys most outdoor activities, wood carving, and is a Registered Maine Guide.

Jamie Owens, MSB, is AMHC’s Director of Marketing and Development.  She assures that AMHC’s services are developed and marketed to meet the organization’s mission in a customer centric, operationally sound, and fiscally responsible manner.  In her 19 plus year career with AMHC, Ms. Owens has played an important senior leadership role in guiding and supporting the development of AMHC’s service offerings under an operating budget that has increased in the past 19 years from an annual budget of $11.5 million to approximately $19 million at present.  Mrs. Owens has led the market research, development, and successful retention of insurance reimbursement and public and private funding to establish integrated behavioral and physical health services, medication assisted treatment, behavioral health home services, drug court treatment, and peer-run services.  In addition to functioning as the Director of Marketing and Development, in 2016 Ms. Owens assumed the senior lead responsibility for AMHC’s Family Visitation contract and the Center for Integrated Neuro-Rehab, a CARF accredited service.  She most values kindness, compassion, honesty, and the commitment to serving the community with health and human services it needs to be well and thrive.

Ms. Owens earned her Bachelors’ degree in economics from Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts and a Masters’ in Business Science from Husson College in Bangor, Maine.  In her personal time, with her husband, Joe, Mrs. Owens enjoys boating, travelling to far-away places, and spending time with their Labrador Retrievers, Molly and Jack.