Aspen Education Group
Cerritos, CA

Aspen Education Group, the nation's leading provider of therapeutic education programs for struggling or underachieving young people, has announced that Philip Herschman, PhD, will take on the leadership role for the 21-year-old organization. Herschman assumes operational responsibilities from Aspen's former president, Jim Dredge. Herschman and Dredge have been working alongside each other since last fall, overseeing Aspen's daily operations and business development. Dredge will be exiting Aspen as of October 1.

"Aspen Education Group has an exciting future ahead, and I am pleased to be a part of this outstanding organization," said Herschman. "I already have had the opportunity to visit the Aspen programs and am proud of the dedicated and talented staff and quality programming taking place in the field."

Dr. Herschman has been with Aspen's parent company, CRC Health Group, for more than seven years. He serves as President of the company's Healthy Living Division, which now includes Aspen Education Group, as well as the company's weight loss and eating disorder programs.

Herschman has over 30 years of experience in the health care industry. Prior to joining CRC, Dr. Herschman served as Chief Executive Officer of Behavioral Health Concepts, a national mental health management company that he founded in 1993. He also worked in business development for Republic Health Corporation where he helped implement Republic's strategy of joint venturing their acute care hospitals with physician groups. In addition, Dr. Herschman spent eight years with OrNda HealthCorp, where he was operationally responsible for three acute care hospitals totaling over 500 beds. Prior to OrNda/Republic, he acted as Regional Vice President of Operations for Horizon Health, a multi-unit psychiatric management company. Dr. Herschman holds a Ph.D. in child and adolescent psychology from the University of California, Irvine, and a B.A. from the University of California, San Diego.

Speaking to all Aspen Education Group executive directors last week, Phil expressed praise and gratitude to Dredge for his numerous contributions over the years.
"Jim is an outstanding colleague and friend. His dedication and passion for our business is exceptional. During his tenure, he made important contributions to Aspen with his strong leadership, and helped build a stronger infrastructure. He will be missed."

Of his goals for Aspen's future, Herschman says: "One of my primary objectives for this division is to bring in someone to oversee our quality improvement programs including our highly regarded best practices. We are conducting interviews and anticipate this new person to join the team this fall."

Herschman works out of CRC Health Group's Carlsbad offices.

Aspen Education Group is the nation's leading provider of therapeutic education programs for struggling or underachieving young people. Aspen's services range from short-term intervention programs to residential treatment, and include a variety of therapeutic settings such as boarding schools, outdoor behavioral health programs and special needs summer camps, allowing professionals and families the opportunity to choose the best setting to meet a student's unique academic and emotional needs. Aspen is a member of CRC Health Group, the nation's largest chemical dependency and related behavioral health organization. For over two decades, CRC Health has been achieving successful outcomes for individuals and families.

For more information, visit www.aspeneducation.com or www.crchealth.com.