Behavioral health and substance use
Twenty-five years inside treatment.Now in service of the people who lead it, and the families who need it.
Consulting with professionals, organizations, and families, across the full continuum of care.
Experience includes
Onsite Workshops · Harmony Foundation · Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation · Caron Foundation · Addiction Intervention Resources · NAATP · TPAS · Barney Recovery · Estes Park Restorative Justice Board
What Jim does
The work is different. The first question never is.
What does this person, this program, or this family actually need next? Everything here follows from the answer.
Professionals
Clinicians, managers, and directors ready for the next level of leadership.
- Executive mentorship Private counsel from someone who has already held the seat you are moving into.
- Professional introductions Introductions across a field where most doors still open because someone made a call.
- Board relations Preparing for a board, presenting to one, and being useful in between.
- Manager-to-leadership career planning The step from running a shift to running a program, mapped before you take it.
- Organizational fluency Budget literacy, and knowing what your decision costs the department next door.
- Program development and launch Taking a service from an idea to staffed, open, and admitting.
Organizations
Treatment programs, nonprofits, and privately held companies at a decision point.
- Structure review Whether the org chart you have matches the work you actually do.
- Strategic planning Where the program is going, in a form a board can act on.
- Organizational support Steady help through a leadership change, a growth year, or a hard one.
Families
Families and individuals trying to find the right help, and to talk about it.
- Recovery support for families and individuals Someone to think out loud with while a family works out what comes next.
- Treatment selection and communication Which level of care fits, and how to raise it with someone who does not want to hear it.
About Jim
A career spent building the teams and systems the field still uses.
Jim Geckler, a recognized leader in behavioral health and substance use, brings 25 years of practical experience across the substance use and behavioral health continuum, from intervention through residential and outpatient care to sober living and case-management-supported recovery.
The continuum Jim has worked across
- Intervention
- Residential treatment
- Outpatient care
- Sober living
- Case-managed recovery
He has developed teams, systems, policies, and procedures that continue to be used and recognized as best practice.
Jim's experience spans individually owned organizations and small nonprofits, where he could pivot quickly, to large organizations requiring alignment across committees, to privately held companies where change came at the direction of ownership. Across all of these settings, Jim has maintained a consistent commitment to providing services ethically, retaining and growing high-performing employees, and balancing mission with margin, while keeping a discerning eye on the direction of the behavioral health and substance use treatment field.
While serving on the board of NAATP, the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers, Jim developed and led the Workforce Committee, created in response to the challenges the field faced during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. A strong advocate for the value and importance of alumni engagement, Jim led alumni services initiatives at both the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation and the Caron Foundation. He currently serves as co-chair of TPAS, Treatment Professionals in Alumni Services, where he works to positively impact alumni program leaders across the country. A strong believer in technology's role in supporting people in recovery, Jim also serves on the advisory board of Barney Recovery, a fully integrated platform and app that allows for two-way engagement.
Having reached a point in his career where his passion lies in serving agencies across the field, Jim now makes himself available to consult with programs, leaders, and families searching for help through Jim Geckler Consulting.
Experience
Where Jim has worked and served.
The organizations Jim has helped run, and the boards and committees he has served.
Operating leadership
- Onsite Workshops President Elevated the alumni experience and increased engagement by empowering and supporting alumni leadership. Oversaw operations, clinical services for workshops and Milestones programming, and business development in partnership with alumni relations.
- Harmony Foundation Chief executive officer Led philanthropy, technology change, development of the physical plant, and new therapeutic elements including a labyrinth and a twelve-step trail. The doors never closed through the COVID-19 pandemic or an emergency evacuation during a fire in Rocky Mountain National Park, with Jim and the leadership team serving clients and staff throughout.
- Caron Foundation Executive vice president Signature Services, client experience, and alumni services. Jim integrated clinical care with alumni care for Signature Services, and focused on client engagement and support across all signature programming.
- Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation National director of alumni and community relations Led the Leadership Development Institutes, managed client grievances across all facilities, lectured, and built alumni services. Jim created Hazelfest, a national music gathering on the grounds of the Minnesota campus that raised money for client scholarships.
- Addiction Intervention Resources Chief operating officer Improved systems and built programs supporting interventionists and case managers across an international operation. Developed a case management program that supported people in their recovery after treatment.
- Saint Paul Sober Living House manager Launched the organization's first LGBTQ+ house, which continues to serve the community today.
Boards and committees
- TPAS Current Co-chair Treatment Professionals in Alumni Services, working to positively impact alumni program leaders across the country.
- Barney Recovery Current Advisory board A fully integrated platform and app that allows for two-way engagement. Jim is a strong believer in technology's role in supporting people in recovery.
- NAATP Board member and founding Workforce Committee chair The National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers. Jim developed and led the Workforce Committee, created in response to the challenges the field faced during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Estes Park Restorative Justice Board Board member Supported community-based programs, conflict-resolution services, and community conversations designed to build bridges in Estes Park, Colorado.
Speaking
A requested voice on leadership and the people who do this work.
Available for conferences, symposiums, and leadership training inside organizations.
- LeadershipGrowing managers into leaders who can run a program, hold a budget, and answer to a board.
- Program developmentTaking a service from an idea to a launched, staffed, working program.
- Staff engagementRetaining and growing high-performing employees in a field that loses too many of them.
Jim has spoken on the stages of multiple symposiums and the Global Exchange, and is frequently requested to present at leadership trainings within organizations.
Get in touch
Tell Jim what you are working on.
Whether you are leading a program, sitting on a board, planning your own next step, or looking for the right help for someone you love, the first conversation is a simple one.
Email Jim- jim@jimgeckler.com
- Phone
- 612-237-2760
- Works with
- Programs, leaders, and families nationwide