Holly Hill Child and Family Solutions has named James Sherry its new CEO.
Originally from Australia, Sherry has lived in the states for five years. He has a background in coordinating public health, and most recently served at a nonprofit focused on helping children with Autism. He said he sees his interest in the two fields under the same category.
“What I really like are places that I can clearly see that I can make a difference,” Sherry said.
Holly Hill Child and Family Solutions was originally an orphanage. The 137-year-old institution now specializes in serving girls only in its residential facility, and also offers non-residential services that include therapy, case management and supervised visitation to clients and families.
Holly Hill board member Erin Wilkins said the search for a new chief executive officer took upwards of “six or seven months.”
As Holly Hill’s new leader, Wilkins said Sherry will be focused on growing the organization’s support base and its team in an effort to better serve children impacted by the current mental health crisis.
“There is a huge need for mental health services in our community, and we are seeing children caught up in the middle of it and COVID, and fortunately we’re recognizing the need for more mental health services, and especially children’s needs. So, we have a lot of clients to serve,” Wilkins said.
Weighing the work the case managers and therapists at Holly Hill have done over the course of the pandemic, Sherry said his new role as CEO is the easy one.
“Not all of the stories of success are quite so easy to tie up in a ribbon,” Sherry said. “It’s everything from making small, incremental steps to literally kids’ lives being saved because of the work that the team here does. So, my job is easy. I just get to support them while they create and deliver these fantastic services. It’s a privilege.”