Leslie Lipson
Main Line Health
Wallingford,PA
6
Certifications
18
years of professional experience
Passionate Senior Behavioral health leader guiding outpatient and crisis services with a Licensed Clinical Social Worker credential and a strong command of operations, finance, and quality. Directs multidisciplinary teams, managing $3M+ across services and supervising 25+ staff across the service line, builds new clinical programming, and improves 8+ reporting dashboards for leaders across complex health systems. Partners with executive, governmental and clinical stakeholders to expand access, optimize best practices and clinical workflows, and strengthen patient experience.
Work History
Director, Women’s Emotional Wellness Center
4 Years 7 Months- Led a large multidisciplinary team through major operational transitions, while maintaining over a 4.0 Employee Engagement score through culture-building, clear accountability, and sustained team support.
- Collaborated
- Partnered with health system's women's boards to drive program innovation, raised funds for these initiatives; supported media interviews and internal/external presentations to raise service line visibility.
- Recognized as behavioral health leader for modeling and piloting new clinical initiatives. Led cross discipline initiative to deploy evidenced based questionnaires via EPIC MyChart for suicide, depression, and anxiety assessment tools. Collaborated with SAMHSA on the development of the agency's initial SAFE T assessment tool. Built dashboards to monitor measureable patient over time. Saved Main the health system more than $500K by replacing a third-party screening vendor with Epic-built behavioral health functionality.
- Reduced investment support by approximately $500K through stronger provider productivity and budget execution while expanding encounters and revenue.
- Led outpatient behavioral health operations, staffing, quality, and fiscal stewardship while aligning priorities to service-line goals.
- Developed and scaled new clinical programs, launched a psychiatry residency, advanced accreditation readiness, and supported crisis continuum initiatives and community partnerships.
- Trained and mentored emerging behavioral health leaders and clinicians
Manager, Women’s Emotional Wellness Center
1 Year 11 Months- Managed monthly 100 patient access requests across outpatient women’s behavioral health services, coordinating intake and scheduling workflows.
- Managed day-to-day operations for outpatient women’s behavioral health services, balancing staffing, workflow, and quality priorities.
- Partnered with physicians and interdisciplinary teams to improve care pathways and strengthen the patient experience.
- Aligned operational priorities with clinical needs to support access, service quality, and consistent team execution.
Consultant
11 Months- Advised on the continued development, and served as a principal trainer, for Chester County, PA's newly launched Crisis Intervention Training(CIT) for first responders.
- Identified process gaps across mental health and substance use services to support targeted operational improvements.
Director of Crisis Services
10 Years 6 Months- Managed crisis services budgets monthly across multiple levels of care while balancing revenue and expenses.
- In partnership with Chester County's Office of Mental Health and Intellectual Disabilities and PA's Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, designed and developed the agency’s newly launched crisis continuum in Chester County, including crisis intervention, a consumer-run warm line, bridge medication services, and crisis residential programs for residents and families.
- Developed and oversaw Crisis Services’ advisory board. Attendees included payers, core providers, County Drug and Alcohol, Juvenile and Adult probation, Chester County prison, NAMI, local emergency departments, school districts, hospital liaisons
- Owned and managed operating budgets across crisis levels of care ($3-$4M), ensuring revenue and expenses stayed within budget parameters.
- Secured additional funding from County Office’s of Mental Health and Substance Abuse to develop additional programming and hire staff to support new initiatives
- Provided 24/7 on-call leadership support to staff and managers for emergency consultation and service delivery.
- Designed and launched a Crisis Residential Program in Lancaster County (2013-2017), overseeing program build, staffing, and implementation of policies and procedures.
- Supervised and trained dozens of Masters level volunteers and student interns
- Served as a super user for agency’s adaptation of new EMR
- Charter member, Chester County Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Steering Committee; co-developed biannual CIT training for law enforcement and other emergency responders.
- Co-authored statewide RFP responses and secured awarded contracts, including COPE (Lancaster Acute Crisis Diversion Program); expanded peer services by developing Chester County’s CPS-run Warm Line.
- Ensured ongoing compliance with federal, state, and county regulations; led successful state, county, and payer audits.
Education
Master of Social Work - Social Work
Bachelor of Arts - Sociology
Skills
Behavioral health operations management
Budget stewardship
Strategic priority alignment
Program development to meet community and stakeholder needs
Cross-functional project management
Standardization of SAMHSA sanctioned clinical assessment tools
Service line growth planning
Epic workflow optimization
Clinical documentation improvement
Patient access workflow
Regulatory compliance
Accreditation readiness
Staff development
Stakeholder engagement
Cross-functional collaboration
Partnership development
Certification
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists and Professional Counselors
Presentations, Magazine Features and Blogs
- Women’s Emotional Wellness Services and Heart Health Initiative at Main Line Health, Society for Professional Women, Main Line Chamber of Commerce(2026)
- "How Generosity is Changing Women’s Lives", (2026), "Outpatient groups offer therapy, support during challenging times: (2021) Main Line Health Women’s Health Source Magazine
- "Championing Women’s Mental Health: The Women’s Emotional Wellness Center", Publication of the Chester County Medical Society, (Spring 2025)
- Main Line Health Blogs(2021,2022,2024)
- Mental Health Procedures Act and Commitment Process in Delaware and Chester Counties(2000 to 2018)
- An Overview of Basic School Based Crisis Intervention Response Model, Annual Regional Suicide Prevention Symposium(2010)
- Additional presentations on women’s behavioral health, geriatric behavioral health, suicide prevention and intervention for community organizations, school districts, hospital systems, and forensic agencies.
Additional Experience
- Consultant, Chester County Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse(2019) Montgomery County Office of Mental Health (2002)
- Clinical Program Manager, Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems (Project REACH) | 1998–June 2008
- Partial Hospital Specialist, P.A.T.H. Inc. | 1994–1997
- Staff Therapist / Student Intern, Drexel Behavioral Health Center | 1992–1994
- Student Intern, National Association of Social Workers (Washington, DC) | Summer 1993
Timeline
Director, Women’s Emotional Wellness Center
Main Line Health
11.2021 - 06.2026Read More
Manager, Women’s Emotional Wellness Center
Main Line Health
12.2019 - 11.2021Read More
Consultant
Chester County Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse
01.2019 - 12.2019Read More
Director of Crisis Services
Holcomb Behavioral Health Systems
06.2008 - 12.2018Read More
The College of Wooster
Bachelor of Arts from Sociology
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University of Pennsylvania
Master of Social Work from Social Work
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