ACU’s 2018 Award Recipients 


Clinician of the Year

Our 2018 Clinician of the year is Amanda Brooks, LCSW, CADC! ACU is proud to recognize her years of dedicated service at PCC Community Wellness Center providing integrated behavioral health services to underserved populations. Ms. Brooks has brought a unique behavioral health perspective to her new role as the Chief Population Health Officer for PCC, an organization that provides essential care to West Chicago at eleven sites. Since joining the PCC Community Wellness Center in 2011, Ms. Brooks has attracted over $1 million in grant funding and facilitated the implementation of telehealth and Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT). She also helped launch PCC’s first integrated, direct-access Chemical Dependency Clinic, which increases access to medication-assisted treatment. Ms. Brooks is highly active in behavioral health student training and her passion for substance abuse treatment goes above and beyond. ACU is honored to present Ms. Brooks with the 2018 Clinician of the Year award.

Amanda Brooks, AM, LCSW, CADC


Organizational Excellence

ACU is proud to recognize Greater Portland Health, located in Portland, ME, for their dedication to expanding quality care to Portland’s disadvantaged. The organization provides primary care services, homeless health care services, school-based health services, HIV, Hep C and latent TB treatment, behavioral health and oral health services. Greater Portland Health has rapidly grown to nine sites since opening in 2009, now serving over 10,000 people – despite being in a state that did not expand their Medicaid program. Our 2018 Organizational Excellence Award goes to greater Portland Health. Congratulations to all!


Congressional Champion

Congressman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina is our 2018 Congressional Champion. As a senior Member of the House of Representatives, Congressman Butterfield led the fight to extend funding for the National Health Service Corps in Congress. As funding for the NHSC faced expiration, he rallied his colleagues to support this important program, garnering bipartisan support for his bipartisan bill, the NHSC Strengthening Act of 2017. Congressman Butterfield truly understands the critical role the NHSC plays in recruiting clinical providers to underserved communities, and has seen firsthand the positive impact of the program at health facilities across his rural North Carolina district.  We greatly appreciate his successful effort to extend funding for the NHSC and are proud to name him as our Congressional Champion for 2018!

Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-NC)