Colonel Kent Crossley Tapped as Executive Director of Centerstone Military Services

NASHVILLE, TN--(Marketwired - Sep 29, 2015) - Centerstone, one of the nation's largest nonprofit providers of behavioral healthcare, has appointed Colonel Kent Crossley (retired) as executive director of Centerstone Military Services. In this role, Crossley, a 30-year veteran of the United States Army, will oversee programming, operations, business development and fundraising activities related to services for military and veteran families.

"We are delighted to welcome Kent as executive director of Centerstone Military Services," said David C. Guth, Jr., CEO of Centerstone. "His insight and leadership will be invaluable as Centerstone seeks to expand how we support veterans, service members and their loved ones. Our team looks forward to working with him to continue to build the services we provide the military and veteran communities."

Centerstone is dedicated to ensuring that service members, veterans and their loved ones have the resources and support they need to lead healthy and fulfilling lives beyond military service. In addition to Centerstone's outpatient offices located in Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee, the organization regularly taps into its national provider network of more than 500 therapists to reach military and veteran families close to home -- wherever, whenever and however they need help -- in person, online, on the phone. Centerstone has established a variety of specialized programs and services to meet needs including combat stress, trauma, homelessness, depression, addiction, marriage issues, parent-child relationship repair, and other invisible wounds of war.

Crossley joins Centerstone following a distinguished military career that includes extensive overseas peacekeeping and nation-building missions during Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and in Europe.

A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Army War College, Crossley has served in multiple command and leadership positions, most recently as Commander of the 364th Civil Affairs Brigade. In this role, he supervised the training and deployment of US-based military, civil service employees and civilian contractors in Iraq. As the senior Civil Affairs commander in the country, he also was responsible for the planning and execution of the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP), a military operation tasked with the reconstruction of Iraq's infrastructure, education, economic, governmental and other functions.

Before joining the brigade, Crossley served as Chief in the Center for Army Lessons Learned in Ft. Leavenworth, Kan., where he oversaw the analysis and integration of lessons learned by combat units that improved military operation effectiveness and reduced casualties.

Crossley previously held the position of Commander of the 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), one of the most decorated special operations units in the U.S. military, before becoming Special Forces Operations Officer in Iraq, where he was directly responsible for the planning and implementation of all Special Operations conducted in the country.

Also a 15-year U.S. Forest Service civil engineer, Crossley retired from military service in 2010 to become operations integrator and production manager with the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) in Washington D.C., a defense contractor working with the military to reduce improvised explosive device casualties and develop equipment for IED detection.

Most recently, Crossley served as owner and president of Libre Energy Utility Professionals, a small business that reduces energy consumption in commercial and industrial buildings.

Crossley will be based at Centerstone's Nashville, Tenn., headquarters.

About Centerstone
Centerstone, a nonprofit organization, is one of the nation's largest behavioral healthcare providers. It offers a range of treatment, support and educational programs and services to individuals who have mental health and addiction disorders and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Each year, the organization serves more than 142,000 people of all ages at 157 locations across Florida, Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee. It also operates the Centerstone Foundation, Centerstone Research Institute, Advantage Behavioral Health, Centerstone Military Services and Centerstone Health Partners. For more information about Centerstone, please visit www.centerstone.org.