Cherryl Ramirez has served as executive director of the Association of Oregon Community Mental Health Programs (AOCMHP) for 12 years. The association represents community mental health programs that manage and provide services for people with mental health and substance-use disorders and community developmental disabilities programs that provide case management services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The association also provides a wide array of trainings in the areas of mental health promotion and clinical services, suicide prevention and post-suicide intervention, and mobile crisis services, and it houses the Alliance to Prevent Suicide. Cherryl advocates for policies and resources to support and improve the community behavioral health and developmental disabilities systems in collaboration with behavioral health associations, human service advocacy organizations, and other system partners.
Cherryl served four years as president of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Directors Board and four years as its past president. She also represented the public behavioral health system on the Joint Task Force on Universal Health Care. Before her position with AOCMHP, Cherryl served as the executive director of the Association of Community Mental Health Authorities of Illinois for eight years.