Maria Whaley

Director of Residential Operations

Maria is a native to Arizona and has been working within the Behavioral Health System in Maricopa County since 2000. Prior to joining Community Bridges in 2004 Maria worked for Value Options which at the time was the Regional Behavioral Health Authority (RBHA) designated by the state of Arizona to coordinate and manage publicly-funded behavioral health services for children and adults. Maria worked as an Administrative Assistant I & II for Value Options in the Training Department. In this position she assisted in the development, organization, planning and tracking of all Department of Behavioral Health training requirements for Maricopa County service providers and RBHA employees. Maria additionally assisted designated Directors with audits and reporting requirement of contractual compliance.

Maria was hired to work as an administrative assistant for Community Bridges in 2004 and was assigned the huge task of assisting in the implementation of a Best Practice Treatment Program called the Center for Hope. At the time of her hire the Center for Hope had barely completed construction and had not opened its doors. Like any new program not only did clinical policies and procedures need to established, operational policies and procedures were also needed. Maria’s experience and understanding of the RBHA system and its requirements proved invaluable in this process. Not long after her hire Maria was promoted to Executive Assistant to the Program Director at the Center for Hope.

In this role Maria continued to utilize her skills and knowledge to help establish work flow and the daily operations of a 20,000 square foot campus. Once the doors opened at Center for Hope is was apparent that Maria would also be a valuable assess to all the clinical staff in addition to the women and children that entered our program. Maria provides oversight to ensure the CFH stays within all the environmental standards per AZ Administraitve Code. Maria additionally provides administrative support to the clinical team at Center for Hope in a variety of way to include development of tracking and reporting systems, ensuring the clinical team has everything they need to effectively provide services and ensuring that the women and children have all of their needs met.

Simply put the Center for Hope operates as smoothly as it does as a result of Maria’s endless energy, determination and commitment to the program.

In August of 2008, Maria was promoted to Director of Residential Operations. In this position Maria supervises the administrative support team and operational staff at Center for Hope. She will additionally continue to provide oversight to all program functions where clinical and operational systems require coordination.