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Community

New CEO for Vera French

Vera French

One of the principal providers of mental health services in the Quad Cities has a new leader. Last week, Richard Whitaker began working as chief executive officer of the Vera French Community Mental Health Center in Davenport. 

Most recently he spent 12 years as chief financial officer for a similar organization in southern Indiana but applied for this job to return to providing direct help to clients, and designing programs.

Whitaker says one of the main reasons he was hired was to develop new programs. 

"Grow the services and the continuum of care in the community, to collaborate with our other health care partners and other service organizations in the community, and improve our quality and do what we can to make our services more accessible."

Last year, Vera French treated about 10,000 people, with a staff of 220, including psychiatrists, therapists, care coordinators, clinicians, and nurse practitioners.

In the 1990's, Doctor Whitaker spent a year in the Quad Cities working as a doctoral intern for the Marriage and Family Counseling Service.

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.