A career in caring: CEO Black retires after 28 years with McNabb Center

June 15--Andy Black nearly went for a career in law.

After a three-year stint in the Army, Black, the CEO of Helen Ross McNabb Center, returned to Knoxville in 1969 to get his bachelor's degree in psychology at the University of Tennessee on the GI Bill. He was working at Brownie's, a bar that later became Old College Inn, and contemplating applying for law school when some regular happy-hour patrons there turned his head in another direction.

"No, you need to get a master's degree in social work," Black said his customers, among them former UT College of Social Work professor and director Gid Fryer, told him. "So I looked at it, and I said, 'Yeah, I think so.'"

That decision led Black to a career that became not only a profession but also a passion. This month he is retiring from McNabb Center after 28 years, the last 11 as CEO. In 2003, his first year as CEO, the organization served about 7,000 children and adults; last year, it served about 20,000 in 21 East Tennessee counties.

Black started his social-work career at McNabb, doing second-year field placement there in 1976 while finishing his master's. But after he graduated, he went to work in the Fulton County Public Welfare Office in Atlanta.

When he came back to Knoxville, he found a job as a health planner, verifying certificates of need for organizations that wanted to offer new services or build new facilities.

"I was stuck in an office doing planning," Black said. "It was pretty dull stuff for me."

When he got an opportunity, he moved back to a "people" job: executive director of Catholic Social Services and Columbus Home. That gave him his "first taste of raising money" as he led the organization in a move from a run-down building on Magnolia to its headquarters on Dameron Avenue across from Knox County Health Department.

Those skills brought McNabb Center back to his door. Former executive director Ken Badal wanted to start a nonprofit foundation at McNabb to raise money.

"I've always wanted to be a local guy, so that fit the bill very well," Black said. "Plus, I knew (Badal), and I liked him. He was a good, solid administrator, and I knew I could learn a few things from him."

Black spent 16 years as development officer for McNabb Center before moving to CEO, and has raised more than $40 million for the nonprofit. During his tenure, the center grew tremendously, raising money, adding facilities and services, and contracting with the government to provide mental, behavioral and substance abuse services to people including some of the area's most disenfranchised populations.

Just in the past two years, McNabb merged with several agencies: Fortwood Center of Chattanooga, Youth Emergency Shelter of Morristown, Sexual Assault Center of East Tennessee, and Child & Family Tennessee.

That last merger was a little out of Black's comfort zone, because it violated a principle he's practiced at McNabb: not taking on debt. New facilities have always been paid for before they were built.

"We've always tried to have nice facilities," Black said, "so it's nice here for the staff and the people who are coming here. They're not Taj Mahals, but they're nice, and they're clean, and they're efficient, and they're paid for. Sometimes you have to grow a little slower using that model. But we like that model because you don't have to take your operating money to satisfy debt -- you can use your operating money to serve people."

Child & Family was a little different because, in the interest of adding its "unique services," Black said, "we took on some of their debt. But we have a plan to address that, and we are."

Today's McNabb Center is a far cry in size and services from the small facility whose founder used to gather volunteers to make home visits to clients who didn't show for appointments, "unheard of, in those days," Black said. But he said the "tone and tenor" of the nonprofit remains unchanged, thanks to the support of its Foundation, board, "caring and competent" longtime employees and the community as a whole. Current president Jerry Vagnier, who takes over as CEO on July 1, has been with the organization 25 years.

"Our responsibility is to organize and deliver the best quality care that we can, given the financial resources of the people we serve," Black said. "That means you're not going to be able to serve everyone, because there are not resources to serve everyone. It's not any fun to say, 'OK, we can't see you, but we'll put you on a waiting list.'"

The biggest change Black has seen in the past 30 years has been how mental illness is treated -- not only the improvement of medications and decrease in institutionalizing the mentally ill, but also the fact that mental illnesses are recognized as brain disorders caused by chemical imbalances, not just a matter of environment or choice.

Black thinks a big change came "when science determined that these are really diseases. Just like cancer is a disease, or heart disease, schizophrenia is a disease. It's not your fault that you have this disease."

Access to care continues to be a challenge. As providers learn more about best practices and as treatments continue to improve, getting that help "depends on your financial circumstances," Black said. "If you have health insurance, or you and your family have resources, then you can have really good access to quality care. If, on the other hand, you have the fewest resources and you have the most debilitating conditions, then access to care can be a real challenge.

"We treat people who typically have the fewest resources. All of us feel like, just because you happen to have the fewest resources doesn't mean that you ought not to have access to quality care. Because the one thing we've also learned in the past 25 years is that people can, and will, get better if they have access to care and they will participate in their treatment."

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