Unwavering commitment to the Brooklyn community has led Stella Pappas, LCSW-R, ACSW, Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer at the Institute for Community Living to be recognized among the Top Brooklyn Women in Business by the Home Reporter, which is hosting the Second Annual Top Brooklyn Women in Business Networking Awards Dinner on Thursday, June 20 at 6 p.m. at the New York Marriott at Brooklyn Bridge, 333 Adams Street, in Downtown Brooklyn. The event honors influential women in business whose major achievements and community activities throughout the years have helped the borough grow.
Having joined the Institute for Community Living (ICL) in 2000 as Program Director for its fully-owned subsidiary, the Guidance Center of Brooklyn, Ms. Pappas guided this once free standing clinic through a time when managed care was taking hold in Brooklyn. Being one of the only clinics serving severely emotionally disturbed children, adolescents, families, and severely and persistently mentally ill adults in the area, Ms. Pappas saw its value and great potential to serve her community and even though she was faced with increased regulations, unfunded mandates, and waning revenue, she turned the clinic around to become a fully functional and growing establishment in order to continue meeting the great community need.
In 2006, Ms. Pappas was named Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President for the Institute for Community Living (ICL) overseeing a budget approaching $100M for program operations, ensuring the day-to-day implementation of agency policies and procedures, as well as ensuring annual financial, program, and administrative management goals and objectives of the corporation are met.
It is due to her devoted leadership skills in community mental health and addictions that Ms. Pappas was recently selected among hundreds of applicants from across the county to participate in a new national Executive Leadership Program of the National Council for Behavioral Health. Ms. Pappas is proudly one of 28 executives ultimately selected for this 10-month program, where she will receive executive coaching and training for healthcare providers to thrive in an ever-changing healthcare system.
As ICL’s COO and Exec VP, Ms. Pappas continues to oversee its Brooklyn offices. She persistently shares her time between ICL’s New York City and Brooklyn offices, making regular visits to keep a watchful eye on the community she holds near and dear to her heart.
“We are honored to have someone of Stella Pappas’ stature as one of our Top 50 Women in Brooklyn this year,” said Josh Schneps Co-Publisher Schneps Communications, which publishes Home Reporter. “What she has accomplished for ICL and the Brooklyn community in an extremely difficult economy made her an easy pick for us.”
Ms. Pappas’ dedication and support for Brooklyn is deep rooted and goes beyond her work at ICL. She also helped develop a community-based, clinically relevant summer program for children and adolescents at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY.
“I am honored to be included among the Top Brooklyn Women in Business,” Ms. Pappas said. “Working in the wonderful Brooklyn community, I feel privileged to have been able to help expand services to this community. I am very lucky to be at ICL where its mission is clear and where innovation is supported. I believe, just as I have always demonstrated, that exploring and seeking new opportunities is what helps make every day exciting and fruitful.”
Ms. Pappas received her Masters and Advanced Clinical Social Work Certificate from New York University’s School of Social Work and received her Bachelor of Arts in psychology with honors from New York University.
