Former health care official is McKee's pick to head state hospital agency. What to know.

PROVIDENCE − Gov. Dan McKee − without any announcement − has appointed Richard Leclerc, the retired president and CEO of Gateway Healthcare, as the new director of the state's sprawling, $327-million-a-year Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals.

The appointment came to light at 5:29 p.m. on Friday when the Senate Committee on Health & Human Services scheduled a confirmation hearing for Leclerc next Thursday.

On Monday, McKee's office belatedly confirmed the unannounced appointment by the governor in a letter to the Senate dated January 22.

"I am proud to nominate Richard, who has significant federal and state experience in mental and behavioral health which will be crucial to our Administration’s goal to improve health outcomes across Rhode Island,” McKee said Monday.

"I know that Richard's decades spent in the healthcare field have prepared him to hit the ground running on day one," McKee said.

In response to Journal inquiries, the governor's office provided copies of Leclerc's submissions to the Senate, including a financial disclosure statements in which he identified his affiliation with the Faulkner Consulting Group, which has netted  $3,140,834 from the state so far this year, and $7.3 million last year in consulting fees in connection with a behavioral health initiative.

Sen. Joshua Miller, the chairman of the committee that will hold the confirmation hearing, confirmed on Friday night that he and other senators met with Leclerc last week.

Miller said Leclerc made a good impression and has the kind of background he considers important in the top job of the state agency that oversees the two state-run Eleanor Slater Hospital campuses in Cranston; Zambarano, the stand-alone state psychiatric hospital; and a wide array of mental health care programs.

"To me it is always important to have a provider perspective, and he's a longtime provider, and I think that is really important," Miller said.

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Leclerc was president and CEO of Gateway Healthcare, the largest nonprofit behavioral healthcare provider in Rhode Island, until his retirement from there in 2016.

He was last in the news in 2019 when Newport Mental Health hired him as the project director for a new nationally funded expansion project, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics.

The $4-million CCBHC project, funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, had Newport Mental Health as the lead agency along with Thrive Behavioral Health in Warwick and Community Care Alliance in Woonsocket.

The collaboration was aimed at expanding the services of the participating centers to thousands of Rhode Islanders with little or no health care insurance, including many who had gone untreated. The aim: to enable people in this predicament to receive mental-health treatment.

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At that point, Leclerc also chaired the Governor’s Council on Behavioral Health and served on the National Council for Behavioral Health.

According to McKee's office, "Leclerc has over four decades of experience in the healthcare field. He most recently served as a consultant for BHDDH where he supported the development of statewide Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) in Rhode Island, providing strategic guidance on federal compliance, budgeting, and staffing."

"He previously served as project director at Newport Mental Health where he was responsible for implementing millions of dollars in federal grants, including the implementation of evidence-based practices, care coordination agreements, and outcome measurements.

"He was also an adjunct professor at Rhode Island College and a Policy Associate at the Substance Use and Mental Health Leadership Council."

If confirmed by the Senate, Leclerc will succeed Louis Cerbo, the longtime deputy director who took over from McKee's last BHDDH appointee, Richard Charest, on an interim basis when Charest moved into an expanded role as the state's Health & Human Services secretary last spring.

According to Leclerc's LinkedIn page, he worked for Gateway Healthcare for 31 years before retiring in 2016. Gateway describes itself as "Rhode Island’s largest nonprofit behavioral health organization providing treatment, intervention and prevention services."

With Leclerc's appointment, McKee will have one less acting director in his Cabinet. The state's interim director of health and state epidemiologist – Dr. Utpala Bandy – gave notice on Jan. 19 that she will retire on March 31.

The job has not been advertised, but McKee spokeswoman Olivia Darocha told The Journal in late February that "two candidates have been interviewed by the Governor’s Office."

While Bandy promised to "be available to volunteer time as needed for a smooth transition," she also named Dr. Staci Fischer, the agency's chief administrative officer, as the on-staff doctor who would perform "those functions ... via delegated authority ... that the Director of Health specifically has to do."

Fischer was the transplant infectious disease specialist for the transplant team at Rhode Island Hospital for 15 years.

"The current salary for the Department of Health Director is $175,383. The discussion around the specifics of the salary is ongoing as the Administration works through the hiring/interview process," DaRocha said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: McKee appoints Richard Leclerc to oversee RI's state hospital agency