Danielle Bartelli, vice president of operations of KVC Kansas, will become president of the behavioral healthcare and child welfare organization on May 1. She succeeds Chad Anderson who was named chief clinical officer of parent organization, KVC Health Systems, earlier this year.  Lindsey Stephenson has been named the new vice president of operations of KVC Kansas. 

KVC Kansas, also known as KVC Behavioral Healthcare, Inc., is a private, nonprofit organization that provides in-home family support, family reunification services, foster care, adoption, and behavioral healthcare. As one of two primary contractors for the Kansas Department for Children and Families, KVC Kansas serves approximately 3,500 Kansas children in foster care each day and more than 5,000 children and families in home-based programs such as family preservation. It also works closely with Camber Children’s Mental Health, a separate division of psychiatric hospitals for children and adolescents.

Bartelli has been with KVC since 2000, joining just three years into the public-private child welfare partnership between the state of Kansas and KVC. She led efforts to decrease care for children in residential settings such as group homes, increase community-based care of children by relatives and foster families, and reduce the time children were in foster care. She was instrumental in forging community and provider partnerships to ensure lasting change.

Over the last 16 years, Bartelli rose from a family support worker to her current leadership role. She will oversee all programs, ensuring children and families who receive child welfare services have the best possible care. Ongoing program improvement is a priority for Bartelli who is committed to continued implementation of evidence-based practices and measuring outcomes.

Bartelli is a licensed professional counselor (L.P.C.) and received her master’s degree in mental health counseling from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan.

“A benefit of the 20-year partnership we have with the state of Kansas is the expertise that we have within leaders such as Danielle,” said Jason Hooper, president and CEO of KVC Health Systems. “She is talented at managing the complexities that come with an organization of this size, and she also has the direct service background that keeps children and families front and center. We’re excited to see the continued improvements she will lead.”

Bartelli emphasizes her own frontline experience. “I am a case manager at heart,” she said. “Because of this passion, I understand the challenges and success of nearly every position in our agency.”

While the majority of her time will be spent on management and relationship building, she enjoys the detailed case planning process. “Facilitating our Safe & Connected™ case planning process with families and professionals is something I love. It allows me to role model for staff the power of engagement and the importance of thinking outside the box with the family.”

Bartelli’s two areas of focus over the next couple years will be first, ensuring high quality, effective services by incorporating more feedback from youth and families, and secondly, making KVC Kansas a great place to work. This second initiative involves working with staff to create a vibrant culture and increase employee retention. Early efforts to increase communication to staff across 15 offices through the use of video and offering more benefits and perks have generated positive feedback.

“We have an amazing leadership team with KVC Kansas that is spearheading these projects so I anticipate good things to come.”

Following this leadership change, Lindsey Stephenson was named Vice President of Operations for KVC Kansas.

About KVC Kansas
KVC Kansas (KVC Behavioral Healthcare, Inc.) represents one of the strongest and broadest child welfare and behavioral healthcare continuums in the nation. The private, nonprofit organization is responsible for the care of all children served by the Kansas Department for Children and Families’ Kansas City Metro and Eastern Regions, which includes 30 counties and more than half of all children and families who interact with the child welfare system. KVC provides case management, therapy, family education and support, transportation and aftercare services, impacting thousands of children and family members each day. KVC is accredited by The Joint Commission and part of KVC Health Systems. Learn more at www.kvckansas.org.