Honors for Sandy Recovery Efforts

Shore area dwellers who acted intuitively and quickly when Superstorm Sandy hit the Garden State last October get top honors at next Tuesday's annual awards ceremony and dinner from the Mental Health Association of New Jersey.

Honorees from Ocean County

Victoria Magliacane, Senior Vice President, Director of Sales and Service, Investors Bank (Victoria is also a Toms River resident)

At the end of last October, Ms. Magliacane was Senior Vice President, Regional Manager, overseeing 21 Investors Bank branches in Ocean and Monmouth Counties,  leading the Bank's recovery efforts in the region which ranged from going to great lengths to open local branches as quickly as possible to assure access to  funds for those in need, to working with the Bank's holding company to arrange for thousands of dollars in relief funding very quickly for local non-profit  organizations following the storm, to building partnerships with local groups and coordinating employee participation in community recovery efforts.

Preferred Behavioral Health of New Jersey, Inc., Lakewood, Brick, Barnegat and Toms River

Preferred Behavioral Health (PBH) is a prominent, comprehensive behavioral healthcare provider, offering a full array of services in central New Jersey.  These include both mental health and substance abuse programs for individuals of all ages. Its headquarters is in Lakewood, with additional branches in  Brick, Barnegat and Toms River. Their proactive thinking and strategic initiatives are helping to maintain the mental health of their clients as well as the  greater community.

Mental Health Administrators of the ten disaster-declared counties
including Sally Williams from Atlantic County;  Michele Hart-Loughlin from Bergen County; Patricia Devaney from Cape May County; Joseph Scarpelli, D.C.,  from Essex County; Robin James from Hudson County; Penny Grande from Middlesex County;  Barry W. Johnson from Monmouth County; Tracy Maksel from Ocean  County; Pam Mastro from Somerset County; and Katie Regan from Union County

In a disaster such as Superstorm Sandy, the main responsibility of New Jersey County Mental Health Administrators is to coordinate the behavioral health  response to those individuals that are affected by the disaster by working in collaboration with community partners.  Almost eight months later, they continue their dedicated efforts.