About Us
We’re not just behavioral health people—we’re crisis people.
Connections has built a model that combines medical and recovery-oriented treatment that gets people connected to community-based resources and back to their lives faster. Our aim is for solutions, not just stop-gaps. Real support, not restriction. We have proven that our model improves access, creates hope, and makes the behavioral health crisis system work better, and we’re finding better ways to do it every day.
Our story
Originally founded by two emergency room psychiatrists, Dr. Chris Carson and Dr. Robert Williamson, Connections Health Solutions brings 30 years of experience serving individuals in crisis and operates two of the nation’s largest and most studied crisis response centers in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Since opening our doors, we have provided care and treatment for hundreds of thousands of individuals in crisis.
The Connections model of care has been adopted by SAMHSA and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing as a national best practice due to its “no wrong door” policy - accepting any individual in need of treatment and care, regardless of insurance - and our emphasis on quality.
As a pillar of the Arizona crisis system, Connections has formed strong partnerships with all members of the behavioral health community including local government, law enforcement and first responders, local providers, managed care organizations, behavioral health advocacy organizations, and many more. Our system knowledge and operational expertise has helped several communities in need and our reach continues to grow each year.
Data + Driven
We’re committed to delivering
high-quality care and outcomes
to
individuals and communities.
60-70%
individuals stabilized and discharged back to the community after 23 hours at a Connections center
30,000
people served by Connections in 2022
38
minutes is the average time for a person to go from door to provider at Connections 23-hour stabilization units
3.75
average days spent in a Connections subacute stabilization center
Our team
Colin LeClair
Chief Executive Officer
Colin LeClair joined Connections Health Solutions in 2019. Colin brings 20 years of experience implementing value-based healthcare delivery systems and improving healthcare access for our nation’s most vulnerable patients.
Prior to joining Connections Health Solution, Colin led business development, product development, and implementation for ConcertoHealth, growing revenue more than 8x over 4 years. Prior to ConcertoHealth, Colin was the P&L leader for OPTUMCare’s ACO business in California. Under his leadership, OPTUM’s ACOs led the nation in healthcare quality, medical cost savings, and patient outcomes.
Prior to Optum, Colin held a range of progressively expanding leadership roles at several of the nation’s most successful private equity-backed managed healthcare organizations, including WellCare Health Plans, Bravo Health, and HealthSpring.
Colin holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at The University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Chris Carson
Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer
Dr. Chris Carson is the co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Connections Health Solutions. He has extensive leadership experience in a wide variety of managed behavioral health systems nationwide and a strong background in crisis services.
Dr. Carson has developed acute psychiatric services in a variety of settings, beginning in 1993 with his role as medical director of the psychiatric emergency department at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, where he led the creation of the first crisis unit to serve the needs of the public behavioral health system in Tarrant County. He then went on to develop a crisis center at Green Oaks Hospital in Dallas and served as itsmedical director until 2005. In 2009 he co-founded Connections Health Solutions.
In addition, Dr. Carson is a national leader in managed behavioral health systems. He held various leadership roles at Beacon Health options including Regional Chief Medical Officer and the National Medical Director for Utilization Management, where he was responsible for the oversight of the medical management of all at-risk accounts nationwide.
Dr. Margie Balfour
Chief Clinical Quality Officer
Dr. Margie Balfour is a psychiatrist and national leader in quality improvement and behavioral health crisis care. She is Chief of Quality and Clinical Innovation at Connections Health Solutions And an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona.
Dr. Balfour was named Doctor of the Year by the National Council for Behavioral Health for her work at the Crisis Response Center in Tucson and received the Tucson Police Department’s medal of honor for helping law enforcement better serve people with mental illness. She contributes to expert panels for SAMHSA and the DOJ. Her pioneering work on crisis metrics has been adopted as a national standard, and she co-authored Roadmap to the Ideal Crisis System: Essential Elements, Measurable Standards, and Best Practices. Dr. Balfour is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and serves on the Quality-of-Care Council.
A native of Monroe, Louisiana, Dr. Balfour earned a BA in Biology at Johns Hopkins University followed by her MD and PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Cincinnati. She completed residency and fellowship in Community Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Laura Buckley
Chief Operating Officer
Laura Buckley is the Chief Operating Officer at Connections where she oversees national operations and supports initiatives to scale the company’s clinical model and shared services operations. Laura brings more than 15 years of operational expertise to Connections with a proven track record of building and scaling high-performing organizations.
Prior to joining Connections, Laura spent eight years building and launching new products and services for chronically ill patients at Fresenius Medical Care, the world’s leading provider of products and services for individuals with kidney diseases. She also held various market operations and product leadership roles at WellCare Health Plans, overseeing business process improvement, Medicaid expansion efforts, and Medicaid health plan operations.
Laura holds both a B.A. in Management and an M.B.A. in Finance from the University of Central Florida.
Dr. Holly DuBois
Chief Medical Officer
Dr. DuBois is a board-certified psychiatrist and recognized thought leader in the behavioral health industry known for her early adoption and promotion of technology-enabled behavioral health care. As chief medical officer, Dr. DuBois oversees clinical operations and clinical product development for the organization.
Prior to joining Connections, she served as the chief clinical officer at Mindstrong, a virtual mental healthcare company, where she led clinical product development and supported medical strategy across the largest division of the organization. Dr. DuBois was also instrumental in implementing a value-based model exclusively for the serious mental illness (SMI) population.
Dr. DuBois founded AvailTelemedicine, a successful physician practice rooted entirely in delivering high-quality, precise psychiatric services to individuals with serious mental illnesses. She has also held various medical leadership roles in both public and private health systems where she developed programs in intensive outpatient services, consult and liaison psychiatry, and 24/7 crisis telemedicine.
Dr. DuBois holds her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and her medical degree with clinical honors from The Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. She completed her residency in adult psychiatry at Stanford’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where she focused her senior studies on psychosomatic services.
Matt Miller
Chief Growth & Development Officer
Matt Miller joined Connections Health Solutions in 2022 as Chief Growth and Development Officer to lead the organization’s business development and growth strategy. Prior to joining Connections, Matt served as Senior Vice President, Behavioral Health at Magellan Healthcare where he led the company’s behavioral health business line. He has more than 20 years of experience in the health care industry focusing on strategic planning and growth, operations, business development and provider delivery system transformation.
While at Magellan, Matt served in progressive leadership roles in operations and network management, provider relations and business development with his last role being Senior Vice President, Public Sector. Matt graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College with a double major in Psychology and Criminal Justice. He enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.
Dr. Robert Williamson
Co-Founder
Dr. Robert Williamson is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Arizona at Connections Health Solutions. He has been providing emergency psychiatric services for twenty years and together with Dr. Chris Carson, oversaw the tremendous growth of Connections Health Solutions. Under Dr. Williamson and Dr. Carson’s leadership, Connections has grown to include the two largest Psychiatric Crisis facilities in the country and two novel outpatient clinics.
Prior to founding Connections Health Solutions, Dr. Williamson was the Medical Director for the Psychiatric Emergency Center at Green Oaks Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Williamson graduated from The University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio and completed his residency at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas.
Tiffany Zid
Chief Compliance Officer
Tiffany Zid joined Connections Health Solutions in 2020 as the Chief Compliance Officer, where she leads Compliance, Risk Management, and Quality at Connections.
Tiffany brings 18 years of experience in behavioral health from her role at Southwest Behavioral Health Services. She has worked in a variety of leadership roles within this organization, including as the director over residential programs for adults with serious mental illness, assisting in the expansion to New Mexico as the Vice President, and finally as the Chief Compliance Officer. Her experience in clinical and operations has provided an advantage for understanding and implementing Compliance, Risk Management, and Quality into day to day practice.
Tiffany earned her B.A. in Psychology from Arizona State University and her M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from the Illinois Institute of Technology. She is a licensed professional counselor (LPC) as well as Certified in Healthcare Compliance (CHC).
Colin LeClair
Chief Executive Officer
Colin LeClair joined Connections Health Solutions in 2019. Colin brings 20 years of experience implementing value-based healthcare delivery systems and improving healthcare access for our nation’s most vulnerable patients.
Prior to joining Connections Health Solution, Colin led business development, product development, and implementation for ConcertoHealth, growing revenue more than 8x over 4 years. Prior to ConcertoHealth, Colin was the P&L leader for OPTUMCare’s ACO business in California. Under his leadership, OPTUM’s ACOs led the nation in healthcare quality, medical cost savings, and patient outcomes.
Prior to Optum, Colin held a range of progressively expanding leadership roles at several of the nation’s most successful private equity-backed managed healthcare organizations, including WellCare Health Plans, Bravo Health, and HealthSpring.
Colin holds a B.S. in Business Administration from the Walter A. Haas School of Business at The University of California at Berkeley.
Dr. Chris Carson
Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer
Dr. Chris Carson is the co-founder and Chief Medical Officer at Connections Health Solutions. He has extensive leadership experience in a wide variety of managed behavioral health systems nationwide and a strong background in crisis services.
Dr. Carson has developed acute psychiatric services in a variety of settings, beginning in 1993 with his role as medical director of the psychiatric emergency department at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas, where he led the creation of the first crisis unit to serve the needs of the public behavioral health system in Tarrant County. He then went on to develop a crisis center at Green Oaks Hospital in Dallas and served as its medical director until 2005. In 2009 he co-founded Connections Health Solutions.
In addition, Dr. Carson is a national leader in managed behavioral health systems. He held various leadership roles at Beacon Health options including Regional Chief Medical Officer and the National Medical Director for Utilization Management, where he was responsible for the oversight of the medical management of all at-risk accounts nationwide.
Jesse Bland
Board Director
Jesse Bland joined Heritage Group in 2011 and is a Partner for the firm. Prior to joining Heritage Group, Jesse was an associate at Nashville Capital Network, where he focused on early-stage investments in healthcare and technology-driven businesses. Prior to that, he worked for Governor Sonny Perdue at the Commission for a New Georgia (CNG), a non-profit, non-partisan council created to engage Georgia’s top-level business and professional executives in helping bring innovation to state government. Among other CNG initiatives, Jesse worked alongside leaders from the Kauffman Foundation for Entrepreneurship in developing a model for commercializing intellectual property within the university system into the marketplace.
Jesse graduated summa cum laude with a B.B.A. in Finance from the University of Georgia and holds a J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School. He resides in Nashville with his wife and three children.
Rock Morphis
Board Director
Rock Morphis co-founded Heritage Group in 1986 and has served as a Partner of the firm since its inception. Over the past 30 years, Rock has served in numerous executive positions within Heritage Group’s portfolio of companies.
From 1995-2004, he served as Chairman, President, and CEO of Heritage Health Systems, Inc. HHS, through its subsidiaries, operated as a managed care organization and focused primarily on the Medicare Advantage market throughout the US. The Company was acquired by a public company in 2004. From 1992-1995, Rock served as Chairman, President, and CEO of Surgical Health Corporation, a company engaged in the development and management of outpatient surgery centers. After acquiring and developing 37 ambulatory surgery centers in the US, the Company was acquired by a public company in 1995.
Additionally, Rock has served on the boards of numerous business and civic organizations and as an advisor to many portfolio companies of Heritage Group. Rock is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and resides in Nashville. He and his wife have three children.
Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky
Independent Board Member
Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky is the former Chief Medical Officer of the US Medicaid program. He is currently the Managing Partner at Social Innovation Ventures where he invests in and advises companies and non-profits dedicated to eliminating disparities. He also advises federal and state regulators on how to incorporate human-centered design into policymaking, and previously operated a series of methadone clinics in Baltimore, Maryland. Prior to working on the front line of the opioid use disorder crisis, he served as the Chief Medical Officer for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, the nation’s largest health insurer, where he advocated to protect the program against several legislative efforts to significantly dismantle the program and led efforts to streamline Medicaid and make it more customer-centric. Before leading the Medicaid program, he co-founded the software company, Care at Hand, an evidence-based predictive analytics platform that used insights of non-medical staff to prevent aging people from being hospitalized. Care at Hand was acquired in 2016 by Mandela Health. Before Care at Hand, Dr. Ostrovsky led teams at the World Health Organization, United States Senate, and San Francisco Health Department toward health system strengthening. Dr. Ostrovsky has served on several boards and committees dedicated to behavioral health, interoperability standards, quality measurement, and home and community-based services including the National Academies of Medicine, National Quality Forum, Institute for Healthcare Improvement, and the Commonwealth Fund.
Andrey holds a Medical Doctorate and undergraduate degrees in Chemistry and Psychology Magna cum Laude from Boston University and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Andrey completed his pediatrics residency training in the Boston Combined Residency Program at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital where he was a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. He is currently teaching faculty and attending physician at Children’s National Medical Center.
Dr. Prakash Patel
Independent Board Member
Dr. Patel has 25 years of healthcare leadership experience and a proven track record of driving strategy and operations to deliver growth across a broad spectrum of healthcare areas. In particular, he has been an innovator at the intersection of the payor, provider, and technology landscapes and has driven solutions around integrated care models to meet the needs of those with chronic and complex conditions.
Currently, Dr. Patel serves as Senior Operating Advisor – Healthcare at GrowthCurve Capital, supporting the value creation strategies and execution capabilities related to investments in leading healthcare businesses. Previously Dr. Patel served as Executive Vice President and President for Anthem, Inc.’s Diversified Business Group, where he launched and led the business’s strategic direction and its multi-fold growth. Dr. Patel was responsible for delivering new sources of growth by advancing integrated behavioral and medical care models and developing innovative solutions to improve quality and health outcomes for consumers and customers.
Prior to his role at Anthem, Dr. Patel served as Chief Operating Officer of the GuideWell Enterprise and Florida Blue and President of GuideWell Health; and held executive roles with Magellan Health Services, Internet Healthcare Group, and Scheer & Company.
Bob Sheehy
Independent Board Member
Bob Sheehy is a co-founder and serves as the chairman of Bright Health Group. He is a seasoned healthcare executive with more than three decades of experience in healthcare innovation. At Bright Health Group, he is focused on driving business development and strategy to guide the company on its mission to provide a smarter, more connected health care experience that strengthens the relationship between patients and their care providers.
Prior to co-founding Bright Health Group, Bob advised private equity firms and venture capital firms on HealthCare. From 1986 to 2009, he led a wide range of innovative healthcare initiatives as an executive at UnitedHealth Group. He has also served on several for-profit and not-for-profit boards and was recently named one of the Twin Cities' most admired CEOs by Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
Bob currently serves on the boards of Radiology Partners, the University of Michigan School of Public Health Dean’s Advisory Board, and the University of Michigan Health System Board of Directors. He holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Health Services Administration, both from the University of Michigan.
Get in touch
Learn more about the impact we’ve had on the communities we serve or how we can help bring a comprehensive crisis system of care to your community.
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