OPEN MINDS Consultants & Advisors

Joseph F. Rutherford, M.B.A.
Senior Consultant, OPEN MINDS

Areas of Expertise

Joseph F. Rutherford, M.B.A., OPEN MINDS Advisory Board Member, is the chief executive officer of Avita Community Partners, a Georgia community service board. He brings the OPEN MINDS team extensive professional experience in managing community-base behavioral service delivery, including financial and technology management.

In his work with Avita, Joe has been responsible for bringing both new management systems and new service lines to the organization. Prior to joining Avita, Joe was the Assistant Director of Northside Mental Health Center in Tampa, overseeing the administrative functioning at this organization including the supervision of the business office, management information systems, human resources, clinical records, the in-house pharmacy, purchasing, and facilities management. He also served as the risk manager for Northside, managing all incident reports and securing all insurance coverages.

Before becoming the assistant director at Northside, Mr. Rutherford was its Director of Management Information Systems with responsibility for direction and oversight of all technology functions at the organization. He was also involved in the creation of the Florida Health Partnership, a partnership of five mental health agencies bidding on the implementation of the Medicaid Waiver in District 6. Mr. Rutherford also became a certified independent consultant with CMHC Systems, Northside's software vendor, and was involved in management activities ranging from new system implementations to managed care information systems setup.

Mr. Rutherford started his career working as a Licensed Psychological Examiner for the Clinton City School System. After three years in this role, he was appointed as the Assistant Administrator and Director of Quality Assurance for the Helen Ross McNabb Mental Health Center. Mr. Rutherford directed the implementation and management of the first computer system at McNabb Center.

Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Mr. Rutherford received his B.A. and Master degrees in psychology in 1979 and 1982 respectively from Tennessee Technological University. In 1995, he completed a Master's in Business Administration (MBA).