Human services director receives award

Karen Bennett, executive director of the Greene County Human Services Department since 2000, was the recipient of the Staunton Farm Foundation’s 2013 Albert B. Craig Jr. Award for Innovation in Behavioral Health.
The Staunton Farm Foundation, Pittsburgh, is a family foundation established in 1937 in accordance with the wishes of Matilda Staunton Craig, who wanted her estate to be used to benefit people with mental illness.
Following the direction set in her will and in response to current needs, the trustees of the Staunton Farm Foundation make grants to support treatment, services, and systems improvements for children, youth, and adults with behavioral health issues. Grants are limited to non-profit organizations that benefit people in these 10 counties of Southwestern Pennsylvania: Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Greene, Indiana, Lawrence, Washington and Westmoreland.
“Karen’s leadership and creativity have been invaluable. Greene County has an integrated model of human services, in that all departments are managed under one umbrella. Their model allows for the most effective streamlining of human services, with centralized management, communication and location. She has always put the consumer’s interest at the forefront and is an advocate on both the local and state levels. It is a privilege to be associated with Karen and her tremendous work,” said Staunton Farm’s Foundation President Rob Ferree.
Dr. Albert B. Craig, Jr., for whom the award is named, served as the president of the Staunton Farm Foundation until 1991. During his years on the board of trustees, he gave from a reservoir of creativity, kindness, and generosity of spirit, challenging trustees and staff to search for the best ideas to improve mental illness in Southwestern Pennsylvania.
Craig brought to the Foundation the same concern for people and love of inquiry that were apparent in his career as a professor of physiology and pharmacology at the University of Rochester Medical School. He led the Staunton Farm Foundation in its work to improve the lives of people with mental illnesses by supporting programs of proven merit as well as those that test new approaches to advancing mental health.
The purpose of the Albert B. Craig, Jr. Award is to recognize people who have challenged society to think in fresh ways about problems and solutions in mental health, to forge new paths, whether through uncommon partnerships or new ways of serving people with mental illnesses, or who have invented a product or process that has alleviated mental illness.
Recipients of the award need not reside in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but their contribution must have impacted individuals in this region.