Karen Richmond
Committees:Facilities
Finance & Budget (Est. 11/29/04)
Karen Y. Richmond was appointed as a member of the Authority Board by Governor David Paterson on March 8, 2010.
The executive director of the Children’s Home of Jefferson County since 1997, Mrs. Richmond has been with the agency since 1983, serving first as a bookkeeper and later as finance director. Under her leadership, the organization’s staff grew in 14 years from 40 to 150 employees, and the annual number of clients served from 200 to 2,000. In addition to therapeutic residential treatment programs for troubled youth, the agency operates community-based foster care, mental health systems management, case management, and delinquency prevention programs in Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence Counties. Affiliated programs include Big Brothers Big Sisters of the North Country and the Watertown Teen Center. This year, the Children’s Home will open a mental health outpatient treatment clinic to fill the gap created by the closure of Watertown’s Mercy Behavioral Health and Wellness.
Mrs. Richmond is president-elect of the Watertown Sunrise Rotary Club and a director of the Watertown Family YMCA. She serves on the Jefferson County Community Services Board and its Mental Health Subcommittee, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, and the New York State Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies Board of Directors.
A former member of the Belleville-Henderson Central School Board and Henderson Recreation Commission, Mrs. Richmond also has been an active volunteer for the American Red Cross, Jefferson County SPCA, North Country Goes Green Irish Festival, and United Way of Northern New York.
Mrs. Richmond has served as a member of the Authority Board since March 8, 2010.
