Kennebec Behavioral Health gets new medical director, assistant director

Dr. Janine Taylor has been promoted to medical director of Kennebec Behavioral Health, a mental health and substance abuse services organization in Waterville according to a news release frm the organization.

Also, Dr. Arlene Almazan has been promoted to assistant medical director.

Both Taylor and Almazan have extensive experience with Kennebec Behavioral Health and providing psychiatric care to the people the organization serves, according to KBH.

Taylor earned her undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College and her medical degree at the University of Vermont College Of Medicine. She completed pediatric residency training at Maine Medical Center in Portland and then joined the Air Force. She stationed in Georgia, working as a general pediatrician for four years; then in the Washington, D.C., area, where she completed psychiatric residency training and child psychiatry fellowship training. Taylor next served as chief of psychiatry at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington. After 11 years of military service, Taylor returned to Maine, where she had grown up.

Taylor has worked at KBH for nearly 15 years, providing psychiatric evaluation and treatment for children. In 2011, she was appointed assistant medical director, adding supervisory and administrative duties to her ongoing clinical duties. She has maintained board certification in child and adolescent psychiatry since 2001, according to the release.

Almazan graduated from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine-Philippine General Hospital and did her psychiatry residency at The Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine at the Texas Medical Center in Houston. She did her training in diverse clinical settings in the Houston area, and she did a year of the Psychodynamic Fellowship of the Houston Galveston Psychoanalytic Institute during her residency training.

Almazan has been with Kennebec Behavioral Health at the Skowhegan clinic for 14 years. Almazan’s major professional activity has been providing clinical treatment services for adults, and more recently working as the clinical consultant for the agency’s residential treatment facilities, along with clinical supervision of adult psychiatric providers. She was also an independent psychiatric consultant for the Colby College Student Health Center for three years. She is a cofounder of Health Assistance and Network Development in the Philippines, a nonprofit whose mission is to help close the gap in health care and public health access for the Filipino poor in communities torn by natural disasters, according to the release.

Schlager assumes presidency of Maine Medical Association

Dr. Robert Schlager, a family physician from Newport, became the 167th president of the Maine Medical Association on Thursday. He succeeds Dr. Charles Pattavina, an emergency physician from Winterport.

A Wisconsin native, Schlager came to Maine in 2012 to become chief medical officer at Sebasticook Valley Hospital in Pittsfield. He is vice president and senior physician executive at the hospital, which is part of the Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems. He received his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He completed his residency in family medicine at the University of Maryland.

Dr. Kenneth Christian, an emergency physician from Holden, has become president-elect. Christian is a native of Alabama and has practiced in Maine for over thirty years. He is a graduate of Yale University and Georgetown Medical School.

Dr. Amy Madden, a family physician from Belgrade, continues to serve as chairwoman of the association’s thirty-member board of directors. Madden grew up in Scarborough and is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School.

The association represents the interests of over 4,200 Maine physicians, medical students and residents in training. Founded in 1853, its mission is to promote the health of Maine residents, advance the quality of medicine and support Maine physicians.

Johnson, Webbert & Young elects Garvan to partnership

Carol J. Garvan of Gardiner has joined the partnership of Johnson, Webbert & Young law firm and has been appointed chairwoman of class action practice.

The firm litigates in New England, with offices in Augusta and Portland, and is the largest plaintiff’s employment and civil rights firm north of Boston, according to a news release from the firm.

Since beginning her career in 2010, Garvan has dealt with class actions against wage theft and discrimination, and civil right cases challenging workplace sexual harassment and other abuses of power.

After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University and earning her law degree from U.C. Berkeley School of Law, Carol clerked for Judge Kermit Lipez of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston. She has been recognized multiple times as a New England Rising Star by Super Lawyers.

Bangor Savings Bank Foundation seeks grant recommendations

Voting is open for the Bangor Savings Bank Foundation’s annual Community Matters More grant-making initiative. Through this charitable program, votes from the public decide the nonprofit recipients of more than $100,000 in Community Matters More grants.

The program, in its 11th year, will award the top two vote-getters in nine regions of Maine and Rockingham County, New Hampshire, including write-ins, a $5,000 grant. All other nonprofits on the ballot will receive a $1,000 grant, according to the foundation.

Community Matters More voting ends Feb. 28. Voting can be completed online at www.bangor.com/cmm. Also, paper voting ballots are available at all Bangor Savings Bank branches and at each of the nonprofits listed on the ballot. Grant winners are announced in April.

Compiled from contributed releases

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