Becky Sladek, MS, MS
Becky develops, implements and evaluates strategic initiatives that help achieve the mission and long-term goals of the department. She serves as a strategic project manager and advisor on new and emerging projects and helps identify and develop fundraising opportunities and proposals in collaboration with Department leadership. She led the department’s communication efforts for twelve years and has more than twenty years’ experience in marketing, communications, public relations, and advancement with particular expertise in the fields of medicine and mental health.
She currently leads an effort to bring therapeutic communities and therapeutic community practices to Washington State for people living with serious mental illness (SMI). Therapeutic communities that provide housing, mental health treatment, support services and a sense of purpose through meaningful work have been developed around the world with well documented measures of success. The Garvey Institute has several projects underway in this space and the portfolio continues to grow. Learn more
Her other area of interest is financial empowerment for adults living with SMI and helping family members in their difficult role of managing their loved one’s finances. She led a Garvey Institute Innovation Grant that assessed whether a long-term stay at a psychiatric hospital is a suitable time to introduce financial literacy programs for patients with serious mental illness, and is currently piloting a financial empowerment class at the Frank Chopp Center for Behavioral Health and Learning based on that study. She is also co-PI on a study that is testing a self-paced online training that teaches family money managers of people living with SMI how to make collaborative financial decisions with their loved ones that encourages autonomy, independence and mutual trust. Learn more
Becky received a Master’s degree in Science Journalism from Boston University and more recently, a Master’s degree in Personal Financial Planning and a certificate in Financial Therapy from Kansas State University. Outside of work, she volunteers as a tax counselor with AARP Tax Aid, is pursuing a Certified Financial Planner designation, and hopes to finish the scarf she started crocheting in 2024.
