Leadership
Meet the Experts
Alongside our deep wells of experience as administrators, attorney, policy makers and advocates, we draw from our longstanding relationships with a large national network of talented and experienced change agents. With these partners, we will help to craft, promote and implement innovative, cross-system strategies to address our most vexing and complex social issues.
Co- Founder & Principal Consultant
June S. Binney, JD
June Binney brings over 30 years of experience in the fields of criminal justice and health, with a concentration on jail diversion, recidivism reduction and best practices in treatment and programming for people with mental illness and substance use disorders. As Director of Criminal Justice Diversion at the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI Massachusetts), Ms. Binney developed a program promoting statewide de-escalation and behavioral health training and technical assistance approaches, including Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training and Mental Health First Aid (MHFA), for municipal police officers, campus police, court personnel and correction officers. As Director of Health and Criminal Justice Programs at UMass Medical School, Ms. Binney developed and oversaw the State medical school’s program of medical and mental health services in the Massachusetts State prisons, managed hospital and specialty services for a Federal Bureau of Prisons Medical Center, and provided forensic mental health services in over 20 Massachusetts courts. While serving as Deputy Commissioner for Correctional Health Services in New York City, Ms. Binney was responsible for overseeing the provision of all medical and mental health services for 20,000 City jail detainees and inmates. Prior to that appointment, Ms. Binney held several relevant positions in Massachusetts including Special Criminal Justice Counsel to the Governor, Executive Director of the Governor’s Special Advisory Panel on Forensic Mental Health, Supervising Counsel at Bridgewater State Hospital and Counsel to the Department of Correction. Ms. Binney has consulted as the medical, mental health, female offender and substance use content expert on prison and jail design projects and State and County corrections master plans. She has served on the District Court Committee on Mental Health; the Female Offenders Advisory Group; the Task Force on Tuberculosis in the Criminal Justice System; the John Jay School of Criminal Justice’s Correctional Health Leadership Group; the Middlesex County Restoration Center Commission; and currently serves on the NYC Mayor’s Task Force on Behavioral Health and the Criminal Justice System, the Rikers Island CIT Steering Committee, and the Advisory Council of the Center for Community Policing and Behavioral Health. June Binney holds a Juris Doctor degree from Boston University School of Law.
Co- Founder & Principal Consultant
Richard A. Sheola
Richard Sheola is the Co-Founder and Principal at Health and Justice Strategies, and a national known expert in public behavioral health service delivery and financing. Prior to the launch of Health and Justice Strategies, Mr. Sheola served as the Vice President and Senior Vice President for National Strategy and Development at Beacon Health and Value Options. There, he was responsible for developing, executing, and evaluating the national vision, strategy, and leadership required to promote and build public behavioral health and cross systems (child welfare, juvenile justice, criminal justice) program and service strategies. In those roles, he ensured the capacity for new and expanded opportunities and replicable new initiatives that continue to add value to state, county and city public health, public safety and human services programs across the country. Previously, Mr. Sheola served as the President of the Public Sector Division at ValueOptions, and the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Massachusetts Behavioral Health Partnership, where he was responsible for the conceptualization, development, implementation, and overall direction and operation of this leading edge, state-wide behavioral health program for Massachusetts Medicaid beneficiaries. Prior to his arrival in Massachusetts, Mr. Sheola served the City of New York as the Senior Vice President for Managed Care, Marketing and Primary Care and the Vice President for Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Services at the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation. He also served as the City’s First Deputy Commissioner for Family and Children’s Services at the Human Resources Administration, and as the Regional Director of New Jersey’s Division of Mental Health and Hospitals as well its Division of Youth and Family Services. Mr. Sheola received a Master of Arts in Public Administration from the Rider Graduate School of Administration, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Wake Forest University.
