Lisa D. Alford is Commissioner of the Department of Adult & Long Term Care Services for Onondaga County.
Lisa joined Onondaga County in 2007 as Commissioner of the Department of Aging and Youth. Under her direction, the department focused on collaborating with local agencies and service providers to ensure the citizens of Onondaga County easy access to programs and services designed to enhance their quality of life and strengthen our community. Most recently, she had been the Deputy Commissioner and Executive Director of the Office for Aging.
Commissioner Alford previously served as Child and Youth Services Director for P.E.A.C.E., Inc. of Syracuse where she supervised the Head Start, Early Head Start, and the Big Brothers Big Sisters program from 1996-2007.
Active in her community, Lisa is a member of the Board of Directors of the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York and the OASIS Senior Education Program. She is on the American Heart Association Community Action Committee and the NYS Behavioral Health Services Advisory Council. She is a member of the Junior League of Syracuse, the League of Women Voters and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., an international community service organization. Lisa also serves on the NY Connects State Long Term Care Advisory Council.
She holds a bachelor’s degree from Hampton University and a master’s degree from The Ohio State University.
Marla Byrnes is President of NAMI Syracuse.
Marla Byrnes worked as a psychiatric nurse at Hutchings Psychiatric center for 30 years. She has been involved with NAMI Syracuse for 25 years as a professional, a family member and a person who has experienced depression.
She currently is the president of NAMI Syracuse, which is the local division of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
She facilitates a monthly family support group with Ann Canastra. She has offered presentations throughout the community on mental illness, fighting stigma, and “Ending the Silence” in middle and high schools.
She believes we must talk about mental illness to break through the shame, embarrassment, and stigma that keeps people from seeking help.
Ronald C. Fish, PhD, is the Clinical Director for Psychological HealthCare.
Psychological HealthCare is a group of 75 clinicians located in the greater Syracuse area.
Dr. Fish is a clinical psychologist with extensive experience in a wide variety of treatment modalities and populations. He specializes in programs integrating behavioral health and medical care.
He is a Master Trainer for the Trauma Resiliency Model with expertise in the treatment of patients with complex trauma. He has developed behavioral medicine programs employing a psycho-educational approach for fibromyalgia and diabetes.
In addition, he has published papers on couples therapy and hypnosis and uses hypnosis for pain management. He has taught extensively on stress management, fibromyalgia, depression, and marital therapy. He is a psychologist member of the Peer Support Team for the Syracuse Police Department. He is currently working with a variety of medical provider groups on burnout prevention and treatment.
He is the proud husband of Linda Stone Fish and father of four wonderful adult sons.
Paul Joslyn has been Executive Director of AccessCNY since August 2016.
Prior to joining AccessCNY, Paul held senior management positions in both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations including serving as Chief Operating Officer of Unity House of Cayuga County and President of RCB Fund Services, an organization that distributes recovered funds to victims of securities fraud. Paul serves on the board of the CNY Behavioral Health Care Collaborative, LIFEPlan CCO NY, and the Inclusive Alliance Independent Provider Association.
AccessCNY serves over 3,300 people a year who have either a mental health diagnoses, developmental disability or physical disability. The agency’s services empower individuals to create and achieve their own success in a community where all people belong.
In 2015 AccessCNY was created from the merger of two agencies that served individuals with disabilities: Enable and Transitional Living Services. The agency expanded again in 2018 with the merger of Spaulding Support Services. Onondaga CASA, a program that serves abused and neglected children in foster care became part of AccessCNY in 2019. In 2020, the agency formed a partnership with L’Arche Syracuse to provide administrative and operational oversight of L’Arche’s residential programs. AcccessCNY looks to continue to grow to meet the needs of our community.