Month: June 2022

(Springfield, IL) – Blanca Campos, CBHA’s Vice President of Policy & Government Affairs and incoming CEO, has earned the prestigious Certified Association Executive (CAE) credential through a certification program sponsored by the American Society of Association Executives.

The CAE is the highest professional credential in the trade association industry. 

Blanca received word from the accrediting body, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies, last Thursday, June 16, that she had passed the rigorous 4-hour exam.

“The CAE credential recognizes that an association professional has demonstrated the range of knowledge essential to manage a trade association in today’s challenging environment,” said CBHA CEO Marvin Lindsey. “I am deeply proud of Blanca’s achievement because the credential places an official seal on her daily demonstrated professionalism here at CBHA.”

To be designated as a Certified Association Executive, an applicant must have experience with nonprofit organization management, complete a minimum of 100 hours of specialized professional development, pass a stringent examination in association management, and pledge to uphold a code of ethics. To maintain certification, individuals must undertake ongoing professional development and activities in association and nonprofit management. 

There are currently only 4,700 CAEs across the world.

mlindsey@cbha.net

(Springfield, IL) – The Community Behavioral Healthcare Association of Illinois [CBHA] has tapped the group’s current public policy chief, Blanca Campos, to be its new C.E.O., and the first Latina to lead the association, starting on July 1, 2022.

Campos who has served as the organization’s Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs since 2016, replaces its current C.E.O., Marvin Lindsey, who is retiring.

“Extraordinary grace and strength.”

“In her five and a half years as CBHA’s vice president, Blanca has successfully helped steer multiple, high priority legislative initiatives through the Illinois General Assembly, such as expansion of telehealth services, creation of a behavioral health workforce center, and a historic behavioral health funding increase in 2022, totaling $170 million in new money annually,” said Lindsey. “Blanca’s mastery of behavioral health policy and the legislative process, her passionate commitment to our clients, and her extraordinary grace and strength make her an ideal C.E.O.”

Campos, who served as the Chief Operating Officer of Advocacy for the Chicago-based Small Business Advocacy Council for seven-years prior to joining CBHA in 2016, says “leadership” and “education” are key to ensuring policy makers maintain behavior healthcare as a priority.

“As a C.E.O., it is necessary to provide both leadership, guidance, and advocacy for providers and consumers and simultaneously to educate lawmakers and state officials on community behavioral health needs and services,” said Campos, a NAMI Illinois board member. “My commitment is to follow Marvin Lindsey’s successful leadership model of working collaboratively with coalitions and other stakeholders in the building of an effective, coordinated, and adequately funded community behavioral health care system.”

Outside of CBHA, Campos, who holds a Master’s in Public Administration from DePaul University, has been since 2019 a Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP) scholar of the American Society of Association Executives, which supports individuals from under-represented identity groups to advance into the ranks of leadership in the association management profession. She is also a member of the Association Forum Latinx Advisory Group and Health & Medicine’s IL ACEs Response Collaborative Advisory Council.

davidormsby@davidormsby.com