Interim Leaders Share Thoughts On Their New Roles With CareNet

When Bryan Hatcher stepped down as CareNet President, he did so, he said, knowing the organization was more than prepared to continue its growth and innovation as a behavioral health provider.

Hatcher and the leaders of Atrium Health’s Division of FaithHealth devised a “dyad” role of interim leadership designed to allow growth to continue. Fulfilling the two roles of leadership are Brian Davis as interim operations director and Janie Taylor as interim clinical director.

Davis has been director of community and congregational engagement for the Division of FaithHealth since April 2020, and is familiar with CareNet partly through his work in the organization’s Health Farmer partnership with the North Carolina Agromedicine Institute. Taylor has been director of CareNet’s Eastern region office for nine years.

Davis says his work even before joining Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist gave him a solid foundation for his new role. He was associate executive directortreasurer for 14 years at the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, where he led seven departments and helped establish an organizational culture “that fostered deeper levels of trust-value-respect, not only internally among the employees but externally in their work with congregations and clergy.”

Similarly, Taylor says her work both as a CareNet regional director and before that as clinical coordinator of the East Carolina University Family Therapy Clinic “afforded me the opportunity to learn that I can’t take myself too seriously, I have to be flexible and pivot quickly, and I must bring my best to people – wherever they are in their respective journeys.”

In her new role, Taylor says she prefers the “shepherd/servant leadership model,” and plans to merge that methodology with being in a collaborative model. I like to ‘do with’ not cause people to feel they have been ‘done to,’” Taylor says.

Davis says he views collaboration as flowing horizontally and vertically across organizations.

“As a leader, I like to bring opportunities and problems to colleagues as I learn about them, and engage as many people as possible in the planning and preparation process for addressing these issues, because we are in this together,” he says. “I realize that there are situations where someone is looked to for direction, and I have no problems making decisions and giving directions in those situations, but as much as possible, I think organizations function more effectively when pushing decisions from the top down is the exception rather than the norm.”

Davis and Taylor both say they hope to continue CareNet initiatives, some already underway, while also growing the organization.

There are so many important efforts underway across CareNet, and I do not want to lose momentum during the interim, so I want to keep these efforts moving forward,” Davis says. “I am convinced that we are doing many things right and well, but I do not want to miss opportunities to improve where we can in preparation for the permanent leaders that will be coming.”

Taylor says her primary focus will be offering support to members on the CareNet team, especially in clinical operations.

“As we explore who we are as a network, I would love for us to think big but realistically, to examine how to provide best care, and to learn from each other. And, if I can help one person feel better about this journey, it will be a great day (and transition),” she says.

Taylor notes that she and Davis, in the dyad model of interim leadership, each recognize how the approach can foster “the future growth potential we anticipate.”

“Our roles have a measure of delineation between operations and clinical responsibilities, but the model will not work if the co-directors do not have high trust in one another coupled with a genuine desire to collaborate,” Taylor says. “Brian is the ideal person to fill the admin role. I will do my best to bring the clinical aspect. Our goal is to help prepare the network for the next chapter of its work and mission.”