DAVID BALLENBERGER:
President of NextStep Solutions Inc. in Rochester. Ballenberger's oversight includes product design, implementation, marketing, and sales of patient-management information systems. This includes promoting a new suite of Web-based products – NextStep Practice Pro, NextStep MS, and NextStep PHM – intended for private practices, residential service providers, and hospitals. The systems are designed by behavioral experts to accelerate the documentation and evaluation of client treatments. Ballenberger has 34 years of experience in social work, from direct care and counseling to administration, with emphasis on behavioral treatment program development. He has held senior leadership positions serving adults, families, and children through residential, outpatient, and community support programs at such organizations as Rose Hill Center, Camp Oakland Youth Programs, Rubicon Odyssey, and Boysville of Michigan. He has provided direct care to delinquent, neglected, and abused adolescents; operated an adolescent substance abuse program; and directed outdoor education, independent living, group homes, family counseling, aftercare, and school social work programs. He has designed programs in independent living preparation; supervised independent living, day treatment, short-term residential care, and aftercare; developed the first group home program in the state of Indiana; managed the transition from public agency to private nonprofit status; and designed early intervention programs. Expert in developing and implementing programs, he has used and developed technology for staff training and program management and streamlined evidence-based practice and accreditation compliance processes. Ballenberger is president of the National Association for the Mentally Ill for Michigan and a director of the Mental Illness Research Association and the Mental Health Association of Michigan. He is also an active member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, Michigan Federation of Private Child and Family Agencies, Michigan Alliance of Children's Agencies, and Michigan League of Human Services. Ballenberger received his bachelor's degree in social work from Siena Heights College and his master's in social work from Wayne State University.
