Joe Roszak has accepted the position of Executive Director at Kitsap Mental Health Services (KMHS) effective January 2008. Roszak will take on the leadership role at KMHS when Larry Keller retires from the position at the end of this year.

Roszak comes to KMHS from Fulton, New York where he served as Executive Director of Oswego County Opportunities Inc., a human services agency comprised of eight divisions, including mental health, delivering services to 24,000 clients annually at 62 work sites. Previously he served as Executive Director of Riverside Center in Winston, Oregon for 16 years.

A native of Wisconsin, Roszak received his undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin, where he was named to Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges.  He obtained his graduate degree from Southern Illinois University.

Roszak currently holds seats on the boards of the New York Community Action Agencies Association, Integrated Community Planning, and Oswego County Workforce Investment, and is the Chair of Government Relations for the Oswego County Chamber of Commerce, as well as former state president of the Oregon Employers Council.

“I am looking forward to the privilege and the challenge of heading an agency with the reputation and prestige that KMHS enjoys in its community and in the state of Washington”, says Roszak, “and my family and I are also looking forward to being back in the beautiful Pacific Northwest again.”

Current Executive Director, Larry Keller, founded Kitsap Mental Health Services, celebrating its 30^th anniversary this year, and has served as its only chief executive.  During his tenure the agency has grown from a small agency serving a few hundred clients to an organization employing nearly 400 and serving over 5000 clients in five locations around Kitsap County.

“It’s hard to leave an agency where I have spent virtually all of my career,” says Keller, “however, the decision is made so much easier knowing that it will be in Joe’s capable hands. The (KMHS) Board of Directors has made an excellent choice.”