CHD updates executive leadership team in Union County

Center for Human Development has reshaped the leadership table that helps run much of Union County’s behavioral health and public health safety net, adding Daisy Thompson Duren, Celeste Tate and Shane Stenquist to its executive leadership team. At CHD, that is not a symbolic change: the organization says its Administrative Council is a self-managed team that handles day-to-day operations and serves as the agency’s CEO.

That matters in Union County because CHD is far more than a single office in La Grande. The private, not-for-profit organization says it provides addictions and mental health services, developmental disabilities services, public health services and veterans services to county residents. CHD also says Union County contracts with it to function as the local health department and community mental health program, giving its leadership direct influence over how residents experience everything from crisis response to disease prevention.

The leadership update was announced on May 27, and the change now shows up on CHD’s leadership page alongside Carrie Brogoitti, Susie Cederholm, Daisy Thompson Duren, George Thompson, Celeste Tate and Shane Stenquist. Brogoitti, who joined CHD in August 2008, has led local health department functions and helped guide the agency to accreditation as a health department in 2017. That background underscores how deeply CHD’s top staff are tied to the county’s core public-health responsibilities.

The timing also landed in a week when CHD was already in the public-health spotlight. On May 22, the agency confirmed pertussis, or whooping cough, in Union County. For families, schools and care providers, that meant the same organization updating its executive structure was also carrying the burden of outbreak communication, prevention and response.

CHD says those services remain anchored by a broad set of access policies. Crisis intervention is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week by calling 541-962-8800 and pressing option 6. The agency also says it does not deny clinical services because of inability to pay, and that discounts are available based on family size and income.

The leadership shift arrives at an institution with deep local history. Union County voters approved privatizing CHD into a nonprofit corporation in October 1994, and the transition was finalized on July 1, 1995. Three decades later, the people in CHD’s administrative council are still deciding how the county’s mental health, developmental disability and public-health services are organized, staffed and delivered.