Tommy Valdez

Tommy Valdez, TIPP Principle and Founder. Tommy brings over 25 years of corporate business development experience and has served as a leader and administrator in behavioral health for the past 13 years. His creative, kind and inspirational efforts have led to profound systems change and transformation at the national level in behavioral health, peer support and person-centered approaches, creating environments for humane, supportive engagement and retention, and positive therapeutic outcomes.

Jim Clarkson

Jim Clarkson, MA, LADAC, Chair Person and Founder of the Via Positiva Family of Companies.  Jim serves on numerous boards and advisory roles to the nation’s leading healthcare providers. He serves as Senior Adviser to BayMark Health Services, the nation’s leading recovery oriented, trauma informed Medication Assisted Opioid Use Disorder Treatment provider headquartered in Lewisville, Texas.  He is Chairman of the National Advisory Board at Ensoftek, the proprietor of DrCloudEHR, in Beaverton, Oregon.   He previously served as a National Vice President with ValueOptions, Inc. (now Beacon Health Options), the nation’s largest private behavioral health and wellness managed care organization.  With ValueOptions, Jim was responsible for enterprises in emerging market areas, managed state substance abuse delivery systems and served as an internal and external substance use disorder subject matter expert.  Previously, Jim both led behavioral health and substance use disorder treatment provider agencies and worked as a clinician for many years.  Jim provided consultation and training nationally and internationally including for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment, the National Association for Addiction Professionals, the Association for Behavioral Health and Wellness as well as many other state and federal agencies.  Jim is a national presenter, trainer and subject matter expert in the business of behavioral health and led the National Addiction Professional Business Learning Collaborative, the Recovery Business Professionals Business Learning Collaborative, and served on the SAMHSA Recovery to Practice Initiative.
In addition to his role as a managed care executive, Jim has worked and consulted with programs across the country focusing on the connection between spirituality and wellness, mental health, addiction recovery, and financial literacy. He managed the Healing Circle at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico and has worked with pueblos and tribes around the country. Jim has served as President of the New Mexico Recovery Professionals Alliance, is a Certified NIATx Change Leader (Network for the Improvement of Addiction Treatment), was a Key Supervisor for the Matrix Institute, is a Certified Mental Health First Aid Trainer and for 35 years has helped Fortune 500 companies and public healthcare systems create environments for recovery, sustainability and positive therapeutic outcomes.

Jim has assisted three national insurance companies integrate and implement opioid treatment services, including designing the reimbursement options, service definitions and combinations of services. He was also the lead on winning one of the very first two CMS Innovation Awards for behavioral health during their initial awarding of the innovation grants. The project implemented was to develop systems of care using peers to help navigate transitions between providers on a person’s treatment and recovery plan. Jim also led the department that was responsible for the entire SUD system of care in NM for 5 years between 2005-2010. He has worked with virtually every pueblo and tribe in NM, including the Navajo Nation.

Sylvia Barela

Sylvia Barela, MBA, who has served as National Managing Director for Via Positiva since April 1 of 2022, was born and raised in New Mexico. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from New Mexico State University and a Master’s in Business Administration degree with a Healthcare Concentration from the University of Phoenix.  Sylvia has dedicated her twenty-four year career to behavioral health. She has twenty years of experience working with three non-profit residential treatment facilities in Colorado and New Mexico. She spent four years doing behavioral health consulting for four New Mexico Behavioral Health Providers, helping them navigate Intensive Outpatient Treatment certification with the State of New Mexico Human Services and Behavioral Health Services Division.
For sixteen years Sylvia Barela served in various leadership positions for the Santa Fe Recovery Center (SFRC), a statewide substance use disorder treatment program providing integrated care to a population with multifaceted behavioral health, mental health, and physical health disorders. From 2015 and 2022, Sylvia served as Chief Executive Officer of SFRC.

As CEO of SFRC, Sylvia led the organization in significant growth and expansion to ten times its capacity and revenue between 2017 and 2022. By 2022, it became the largest residential substance use disorder treatment program in the state of New Mexico with an exponentially increased budget, and capacity to serve ten times the number of clients as it did in 2015. Under her leadership SFRC expanded services to provide a continuum of care including detoxification, short-term and extended residential treatment, recovery housing, transitional living, supportive employment, an array of outpatient and medication assisted treatment services, gender specific services, and a women and children’s residential treatment program where young children can enter treatment with their mothers. Sylvia is committed to the support and improvement of behavioral health and integrated healthcare services, strives to make an impact in policy, funding, organizational management, and treatment innovations, and is dedicated to being of service and making a positive difference.

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