In Balance Ranch Academy
Tucson, AZ

In Balance Ranch Academy is pleased to announce that we have promoted Ugo Uche to the position of Assistant Clinical Director of In Balance Ranch Academy. Last year we promoted Tiffany Gallego to this position and recently realized that her role as the Director of the Transitional Living Program in Tucson is more than a full time job and she needed to focus all of her energies and time there as that program has continued to grow and flourish.

Ugo has been with In Balance Ranch for 4 and half years, and was the first therapist we hired after the program had grown so rapidly in the winter and spring of 2005. He has a Master's degree in Counseling and last year, he completed and secured his License as a Professional Counselor in the state of Arizona. And most importantly, he knows and cares about our students, parents, and educational consultants passionately.

The role of Assistant Clinical Director is to help create"seamlessness" to our clinical week; I will continue with my current schedule of Sunday through Wednesday and Ugo will change his schedule to Wednesday through Saturday. In this way, there will always be a clinical leader on campus to guide, support, and handle an urgent or emergent situation, and make all of the critical communications in a given situation.

I also want to announce the hiring of a new Primary Therapist, Meridith Cohen. She comes to us with a Master's degree in Social Work, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and has 12 years experience working in the field of youth and families, with a specialty in addictions. She also comes to us with 9 years of strong 12-step recovery and a real passion for working with teens.

We are expanding our clinical team to reduce caseloads and help the therapists continue to improve their quality of service.

We continue to be truly blessed to have amazing staff to provide an exceptionally professional and caring environment for mental health treatment and addiction recovery, and I am proud and grateful to be part of this team.

Take care, Shannon