Melissa Merrick Celebrated for Leadership, Advocacy

By Southcentral Foundation Public Relations and Corporate Communications

Southcentral Foundation Executive Vice President Primary Care Services Melissa Merrick.

Southcentral Foundation Executive Vice President Melissa Merrick accepted the Social Worker of the Year award at the biennial conference of the National Association of Social Workers Alaska Chapter on Sept. 22.

While most know her as the executive leader of SCF’s primary care services, Merrick began her work with the organization 16 years ago as a behavioral health consultant. Trained in family-focused services and licensed as a social worker, Merrick has a passion for smooth transitions between medical and behavioral services and bringing teams together to improve access to integrated health care. She worked for many years to help grow SCF’s integrated behavioral health program and expand behavioral health integration beyond the primary care clinics. Merrick has also played key administrative and clinical roles in several other quality improvements at SCF, including the current approaches to medication assisted treatment, rural health care delivery, early childhood mental health, and persistent pain management.

Merrick is a past board member for NASW-AK and also presented a breakout session on “Leading with Social Work Values” at the NASW-AK Biennial Conference on Sept. 20.

For more information about the Southcentral Foundation leadership team, click here.