Founder, President & CEO of the Institute for Community Living (ICL) Dr. Peter C. Campanelli took his farewell tour of the not-for-profit agency he founded in 1986 as he stepped into retirement last week.
Having served as ICL’s President and Chief Executive Officer for 27 years, Dr. Campanelli launched the agency inside a refurbished garage in Brooklyn and guided it into becoming one of the largest behavioral health agencies in the country. ICL is renowned for its integrated health approaches and programs helping individuals and families with psychiatric, intellectual and/or developmental disabilities.
Today, ICL provides over $96 million in services annually to a population that is often relegated to benign indifference. ICL is dedicated to helping those who are mentally ill, substance abuse involved and homeless, and many who suffer from chronic co-morbid medical conditions that considerably shorten both the length and quality of their lives. At its core, the mission of ICL has always been to improve the quality of life of the people served. Initially accomplished through housing, the agency has since expanded to provide evidenced-based treatment and interventions through Assertive Community Teams, clinics, primary care and rehabilitation programs.
Due to Dr. Campanelli’s innovative leadership, disparities in access to behavioral health services have been reduced while service outcomes and effectiveness have been improved. Throughout the course of his career, Dr. Campanelli has tirelessly and broadly advocated on local, state and national levels to ensure the availability and accessibility of behavioral health services, for persons residing in underserved and, often, impoverished communities. His goal has been to ensure that they can readily access services as good as those available to more prosperous individuals through leading universities and medical centers.
Dr. Campanelli holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Rutgers University, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, and is a licensed Clinical Psychologist in New York and New Jersey. Dr. Campanelli has served as Board Chair and member of the Association of Community Living, Mental Health News, and as a Board of Directors member for the Human Services Council of New York City, and most recently was one of the Region 2 Board of Directors for the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare. He is also a former Board of Directors President of the Coalition of Behavioral Health Agencies. Dr. Campanelli is a past recipient of the Peterson Prize for Community Service from Rutgers University. His work has been recognized twice with the Gold Medal Award from the Hospital and Community Psychiatry Division of the American Psychiatric Association and the Congressional Community Corporate Partnership Award from the Honorable Edolphus Towns.
Dr. Campanelli states: “I am in debt to the many staff and board members who have served and helped build the organization into what it is today. I will always be dedicated to the mission of ICL and will support it in every way possible.”
