UCC-Affiliated Orion Family Services Names Stacey L. Parke Executive Director

Stacey Parke

Stacey L. Parke, MSW, LCSW, who currently serves clinical director of in-home and outpatient services at UCC-related Orion Family Services, has been named executive director of the children and family services agency. She begins her new role Jan. 11.

Parke, who has almost 25 years of experience in all facets of family services, currently is clinical director of in-home and outpatient services. Through her leadership, the clinical services department at Orion has developed a reputation for service innovation and excellence through strength-based, compassionate care. Her tenure as clinical director included expanding existing programming and organizing the therapists she supervised into region-based teams in order to provide efficient and effective therapy to clients. She hopes to bring similar strengths and growth to all of Orion.

“As executive director at Orion, my intention is to both build capacity (whether the focus is on an individual, a family, or the agency), and support the agency’s mission: healing the minds and spirits of children and families,” she says. “I want to create a center for excellence in the practice of community-based mental health that truly lives its organizational mission and values.”

Parke also brings to her new role a keen awareness of the important partnership between Orion, the United Church of Christ, and the UCC’s Council for Health and Human Service Ministries. A 2008 graduate of CHHSM’s Faith Based Leadership Institute (predecessor to the Nollau Leadership Institute), Parke most recently served as a featured speaker at the 2017 CHHSM annual meeting, and serves on a CHHSM task force formed to organize and assist agencies serving children and families.

“I discovered the United Church of Christ through my employment at Orion,” she says. “I was married in the church and am raising my children as ‘UCCers.’ As such, I feel I have a deep understanding of the mission and values of the United Church of Christ and how they inform the work of Orion and myself — both professionally and personally.”

She adds, “I feel strongly committed to Orion’s partnership with the United Church of Christ.”

In addition to serving as clinical director at Orion, Parke also has been a clinical supervisor at Orion. She began her career at Orion 23 years ago as an individual and family therapist.

Prior to Orion, Parke worked in various social work positions with the Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Association for the Help of Retarded Children, and Talbot Perkin’s Children’s Services, all in New York City. She earned a BFA degree from Webster College in St. Louis (1985) and an MSW degree from Hunter College in New York City (1994).