Gina Lasky is a licensed psychologist with 16 years of hands-on experience in the behavioral health public sector. Her clinical experience includes numerous nonprofit community-based organizations, a public hospital, and one of the State of Colorado’s state hospitals. She specialized for five years at the state hospital in treatment of dangerousness, treatment of serious mental illness, and traumatic brain injury. Working on numerous multi-disciplinary medical and behavioral health teams sparked her interest in team development and leadership in the public sector. Dr. Lasky went on to a fellowship in public sector psychology administration and evaluation at the University of Colorado, School of Medicine and had the opportunity as part of this training to work at the Colorado Department of Health Services Office of Behavioral Health. 

In 2011, Dr. Lasky served as the director of behavioral health for Axis Health System, a community behavioral health agency transforming into an integrated healthcare organization serving five rural counties in Colorado. In that position, she and the director of psychiatry led the opening and development of an integrated care clinic. As the director of an acute treatment unit, crisis services in five counties, and outpatient behavioral health, she oversaw clinical program development, quality improvements, and directly supervised clinical managers and providers. Part of her focus was moving integrated care into all aspects of clinical programming, including crisis services, inpatient, and outpatient behavioral health. She learned about the challenges of implementation of integrated care, which furthered her interest in the unique leadership required and the importance of team development as essential elements of this innovative model. 

Dr. Lasky consults with organizations nationally on behavioral health system design, integration of behavioral health and primary care, and team development. Projects include work with a state hospital on an improved risk assessment protocol; research for Colorado’s Office of Behavioral Health on evidence-based crisis interventions and lessons learned from states that transitioned crisis systems and incorporated interventions into the continuum of care; partnering with the SAMHSA/HRSA Center for Integrated Health Solutions on projects related to workforce and team development within integrated care; and conducting assessment of readiness for integrated care for organizations wanting to transition from traditional care to team-based integrated care. 

Since joining HMA, Dr. Lasky’s project work includes behavioral health system design and integrated care. She worked on community partnerships between and among community-based organizations addressing the social determinants of health and traditional healthcare in addition to other projects designed to create healthy, equitable, and sustainable communities. 

She earned her doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Denver, and her master’s degree in public leadership with a specialization in multi-sector management from George Washington University.

Fun Fact
Hobby is hiking and wildlife photography