Heather McGovern
NAMI Southern Arizona, Treasurer

Heather McGovern, MPA is currently the Director of Outpatient Operations for Palo Verde Behavioral Health in Tucson, AZ and identifies as a peer and family member and a proud part of the LGBTQ community. Heather has worked in various leadership roles within the behavioral health field for the last 12 1/2 years. Specifically working for the public behavioral health system has allowed Heather to deal with many non-traditional business situations. She has addressed these situations by utilizing her educational background, a Master’s in Public Administration and her experience in nonprofit management along with a vast network of individuals who work in public and private entities, to gain knowledge and maintain best practices related to employee relations, business operations, finance and management. Heather also has a unique advantage in that she worked her way up at agencies from the ground level. Heather’s career highlights include:

  • Joining the NAMI Board of Directors
  • Asserting multiple agency's presence in the behavioral health community, in order to reduce stigma around peer- and family-run organizations
  • Visioning multiple agency's financial growth plan and acquiring funding streams though grants, contracts and partnerships to diversify funding over my tenure.
  • Employing strong agency-wide financial internal control systems
  • Hiring diverse and experienced staff
  • Implementing rigorous data measurement tools to highlight accountability and efficiency with multiple departments in multiple agencies
  • Creating a consultation company to assist smaller community organizations in infrastructure development
  • Teaching at the University of Arizona School for Government and Public Policy for 5 years in their undergraduate public administration program