RCA hires former Hazelden Betty Ford executive to run Maryland center

A former executive at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation will serve as CEO of the second Recovery Centers of America (RCA) treatment facility scheduled to open this year. Barbara Kistenmacher, PhD, will run the company's Bracebridge Hall center in Earleville, Md., scheduled to open Aug. 1.

Kistenmacher formerly directed Hazelden Betty Ford's New York operation. Among the focus areas of her academic training were motivational interviewing and trauma.

According to the RCA website, the company is scheduled to open three more facilities (Bracebridge Hall and two centers in Massachusetts) this calendar year. Its first facility in what is intended to be a major Northeast chain offering a continuum of care and allowing more area residents to receive services closer to home opened in New Jersey in March.

Kistenmacher grew up in Cecil County, Md., where Bracebridge Hall is located on a 557-acre waterfront campus. County health officials reported 19 opioid-related deaths in the region between January and September of last year. “I am looking forward to addressing an issue that is devastating this community,” Kistenmacher said in a June 23 news release.