The incoming executive director of the Alliance for Substance Abuse Progress (ASAP) says she is “very excited” to further the mission of the community-wide partnership to respond to the area’s substance abuse crisis.
On Monday, Sherri Jewett will take the reins of ASAP, becoming the third person to lead the organization. She will replace the outgoing executive director, Doug Leonard, who announced his retirement in March.
Leonard, however, will stay on through the end of this month to assist with the transition and in an advisory role on an ongoing basis.
Launched in 2017, ASAP is a community-wide response to address substance use disorder, including the opioid crisis, in Bartholomew County. ASAP was formed through a partnership between Columbus and Bartholomew County governments and Columbus Regional Health.
Jewett, a native of Arkansas and mother of six children, said she has lived in Columbus since 1998 after accepting a position as a program director at Horizon Health, which manages behavioral health and substance abuse services in community hospitals and had a contract at the time with Columbus Regional Hospital.
Later, she served as chief executive officer at several psychiatric and substance use hospitals in Indiana, including Hendricks Behavioral Hospital in Plainfield and Valle Vista Health System in Greenwood. She also has worked with community hospitals across the Midwest and East to develop psychiatric and substance use services.
Jewett has an undergraduate business degree from Southwest Baptist University near Springfield, Missouri and a master’s degree in hospital administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
The incoming executive director said she initially plans to take stock of ASAP’s ongoing efforts and is looking forward to getting to know the organization’s team and board members to identify and discuss opportunities for ASAP in the community.
“I’m really looking forward to pulling all this information together and working with the team and the ASAP board to just try to move the cause forward further,” Jewett said.
For more on this story, see Saturday’s Republic.
