Hello CALO friends and families,

In an earlier email and press release we announced Alex Stavros and his partnership with the CALO team. Thank you to so many who responded so positively. It has been an exciting time for our organization. Growth and opportunity are central to how we think and what we do at CALO. Our ambition is to be the world class leader in trauma-informed treatment of youth. Every step we take is meant to take us closer to that goal.

With that in mind, I am happy to announce that we have created a new administrative position and added two wonderful people to our leadership team. We have added the position of Registrar to our Academic Department and Abby Mayer has just moved into that role. You will continue to interface with her relative to transcripts, credits, treatment team summaries, and IEPs.

Moving into the role of Academic Director is Krista Allison. Krista comes to us from Florida where she has completed all her coursework and other requirements for a Ph.D. in Education. She is currently working on her dissertation, which is focused on residential treatment. Her master’s thesis focused on attachment. Krista has a number of years of experience working in a residential treatment setting. She also has worked as a grant writer and in other venues where attention to detail and a need to understand the big picture have been a necessity. With her skills we foresee great things on the horizon in our Academic Department.

Chris Allison is also joining us from Florida. He is taking over for the wonderful Caleb Cottle, our former Program Director, who has gone back to school to complete an MBA. Chris comes to us with great energy and passion and is a natural in our setting. Chris has lots of leadership experience in business environments where he has overseen the training and management of large groups of teen and college student employees. Chris is, to the core, a compassionate human being with the personality to connect with almost anyone around him. We are extremely pleased he has agreed to join us. He will oversee all aspects of our milieu and all our residential coaches will answer to him.

With these additions, our leadership team is complete and is more experienced than ever. Please welcome these new additions to the CALO family.

Warmest wishes to all,

Ken

Daniel Holtman grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas with his mother and father and older sister.  Growing up he played all percussion instruments, was active in the Boy Scouts and had a great interest in computers.  He says, “my Dad was a programmer and gave me my love for computers.”

Attending Shawnee Mission East High School, Daniel played drums in a rock band and in the marching band.  He marched all four years of high school and was honored to play at the Peach Bowl and Citrus Bowl.  In 1990 Daniel spent two weeks on a Mission Trip to the Dominican Republic.  His group assisted in building a children’s hospital for the local indigent families.

Before his 1993 graduation, his high school orchestra was invited to The Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois.  The Midwest Clinic represents all 50 states and more than thirty countries and exists for education purposes in raising the standards of music education.   After graduation he continued his musical interest by helping the Kansas City Symphony with data entry and mailing lists. 

Through a mutual friend he met his wife, Jaime, and they were married in Overland Park in 1997. 

In 2002, Daniel pursued his love of computers by receiving his Network Administration Certificate from TechSkills.  He and Jaime then started their family and have two daughters, Anna and Kathryn.  They are looking forward to their third child, due in December of 2011.  Daniel and his family attend the Overland Park Baptist Church in Kansas.

Daniel came to CALO in August 2010 as the IT Administrator.  He currently resides part-time in Osage Beach and plans to relocate his family to this area in the next few months.  

Our daughter is home from CALO, in great shape, strong and healthy and I am writing to thank your entire Nurse Group for making this happen.  Mike Roberts, MaryAnne Duckworth, Joy Sorrell, and Lisa, whose last name I do not know, have been wonderful to work with in keeping our daughter safe and healthy.  And not only do we appreciate this, our daughter herself is aware of the wonderful, caring, and careful managing she had while at CALO.

Our daughter has asthma, allergies, and a lot of anxiety, which she tended to express in physical symptoms while at CALO.  This meant that at times she was difficult to assess, and even with her several visits to the ER for wheezing, and her sometimes severe allergic symptoms, at no time did we worry about her safety.  We received updates and phone calls, we felt we could call at any time, and sometimes did, and we really appreciated the nurses asking for our input as well when there was a non-emergency decision to be made about her medications.  We do know her best, and were grateful for the collegial spirit in managing her care and multiple medications.  We were also sent home with the most comprehensive and well put-together box of medications and paperwork I have ever seen.  This meant we did not have to scramble her first days home, to get appointments and prescription renewals.  The fact that there was always a nurse on staff made us feel very comfortable with our daughter at CALO.

Thank you, Ken, for providing such an excellent group of nurses to care for all of your students.  We have had so many anxious moments in the last couple of years about our daughter, and in contrast, the peace of mind your Nurse Group gave us while she was at CALO can not be measured.

Sincerely,

Annelieke Schauer

Misti Puckett was born and raised in South Dakota with 2 older adopted siblings.  Misti played softball in high school, enjoyed reading and graduated in 1997.  She met Travis and they married in 2001 and have two children, Raine 12 and Gavin 6.

Misti and Travis visited Lake Ozark, MO to spend time with Misti’s brother who is a Lake Ozark Police Officer.  They enjoyed the area and made it their home in 2009.  Misti joined CALO in August of 2009 as a Residential Coach, Travis joined the team shortly thereafter. 

Misti advanced to her current position of Neurofeedback Administrator and says, “It was a huge opportunity and it gives me the opportunity to help our students and I can work with the students individually”.

(See Neurofeedback 101)  Neurofeedback is a way of eavesdropping on brain activity to treat many psychological and physical disorders by training the brainwaves to operate at a more optimal level.  It is a noninvasive therapy that has been proven to help aggression, depression, anxiety, attachment issues, sleep disturbances, ADHD, PTSD, and so much more.

Misti is currently enrolled in Columbia College and pursuing a degree in Human Services.  She reports that to date she has read over 1000 books and continues to read in her spare time.  

Jeanna Osborn is CALO’s Canine Therapy Supervisor.  She and her husband Mike are parents to seven children including four biological sons, one foster son and two foster daughters.  Jeanna feels blessed to also have two grandsons & one granddaughter.  They share a home with four dogs.  Jeanna was raised in rural Johnson County Kansas and grew up surrounded with animals both large and small.  She began her journey training animals and canine handlers at Midwest K-9 Training after receiving a gift of a German shepherd, Sindee, who was dominate with a high drive.  She has been challenged to work with wolves and hybrid canines and was a horse wrangler for a commercial stable where she raised, trained, bred and showed.  She still enjoys long horseback rides on Sundays with her family.  She left corporate America after many years to pursue her passion to work with teenagers and animals.  Jeanna says working at CALO has incorporated her love for teens and animals and for her, “it doesn’t get any better than this”.

I have always believed there is great value in being able to know the inner workings of any work environment. To understand how and why the system function the way it does. To know what is working and what is not.  At CALO, I feel that it is even more important than in other settings. Being in the “trenches” with the students and staff gives a whole new perspective and reminds me why I do what I do every day. Monday was one of those astounding day where I had the privilege of taking off my admissions hat for a day and stepping into the role of a coach. I spent the day working on the front lines with our female students.  I worked with some amazing staff and some even more amazing students.  It was encouraging to see our students move through their daily activities with a focus on the importance of relationships in their lives.  I was able to see the amazing power of relationships at work: relationships between the coaches and the students, the students and their therapists, the students and the canines and how those relationships are utilized to create change.

One of the most impactful parts of the day for me was during a trust oriented recreation therapy activity. Students participated in the “leap of faith” a high ropes course event that requires students to scale our 30 foot indoor climbing wall then progress to a high ropes activity where they jump from a steel beam to a trapeze set high over the CALO milieu. The event requires a great deal of trust between to the recreation therapist and the student and support from the peers and staff below. Each student navigated the experience a bit differently and each student took varying amounts of time to complete the task. What I noticed throughout the process was that the task was not where the power laid. The power of the event lay in the relationship between the student and staff facilitating the event.  One young lady spent forty-five minutes on the steel beam attempting to convince her body to jump from the beam to the trapeze.  Throughout that time she relied extensively on the staff to coach her, ease her fears and to provide information in regard to her need for safety. While this young lady was not able to make the jump the power of those forty-five minutes in regard to building her sense of self-worth, her value as a person and her capability was enormous. She was able to discuss at a deep level how the experience impacted her and her goal to complete the “leap of faith” at her program graduation.  The experience allowed her to work through her immense fear and set goals for the future.

The value of being “in the trenches” provided me with a small window into what occurs every single day at CALO and how relationships truly are the catalyst for change here. It was a truly refreshing experience.

Coty Hays was born in Missouri, in the small town of Bolivar. Coty and his dad spent lots of time fishing on Pomme de Terre Lake.  In high school he was very active in sports, such as basketball, football, and golf. Coty played tight end and right outside linebacker and still holds the Boliver high school record for the longest touchdown pass to a tight end – 97 yards.  As a freshman his high school golf team took first place in Class 3A competition for best average score.  Coty says golf is fun but it’s also calming and gives him time to be by himself.  In 2004, he moved to the Lake Ozark area and earned his diploma from Camdenton High School.  After high school Coty was employed by Old Kinderhook as an assistant golf professional working in the Pro Shop and occasionally giving golf lessons.  Coty continues college classes and is pursuing a degree in Hotel and Casino management. Coty wants to manage a large company and loves the fast paced environment.  He says he feels like that’s where he belongs and eventually would like to live and manage a casino in Las Vegas, Florida, Texas, or Arizona. 

Coty has a daughter and two sons and currently resides in Lake Ozark, Missouri.  For fun, he enjoys movies; playing golf; video games; basketball and swimming.  Spring is his favorite time of year because winter is over and it’s not too hot and not too cold.  It’s also the prime time for hunting turkey and deer.  Coty likes to bow hunt and plans to go elk hunting in Colorado some day.   

Coty came to CALO in September of 2007 and is a lead residential coach.  He enjoys knowing every day that he has helped in making a difference for the students at CALO. As a person who overcame many obstacles himself as a teen, he takes pride in knowing he is a part of helping teens overcome their obstacles and leaving their future wide open for great possibilities.  

CALO staff is a collection of teams, not a collection of individuals. Really good teams aren’t just made, they are continually being refined as a normal, healthy part of functioning as a good team. During our most recent staff training, Dr. Ken Huey highlighted the five functions of a good team (a twist on Pat Lencioni’s book) and how important it is for CALO staff, as a whole, to embrace these functions.  The five functions are trust, conflict management, commitment, accountability and focusing on results.

To have a functioning team, one thing is a must and that is Trust.  Trust is the foundation of a good team.  Trust is about being vulnerable.  The only way to gain trust is if concerns or problems aren’t buried and there are no hidden agendas.  Trust is gained through time and evidence.   

The second function of a good team is Conflict Management.  Great relationships are not characterized by the absence of conflict, but actually the ability to repair after a break (conflict).  Things that are damaging to relationships include passive or sarcastic comments and gossip. 

The third function of a good team is Commitment.  Buy-in does not require consensus.  He highlighted with our staff that they “must believe in CALO and believe that the leadership team and therapists know what is best for our students."  A student recently commented that, “after 19 months in treatment (not all at CALO) CALO is the only thing that changed my life.”   The CALO team is changing lives!” 

The fourth item that creates a good team is Accountability.  High standards drive accountability.  Accountability often has a negative connotation, but it’s not necessarily negative.  Accountability is simply having high standards and taking responsibility, which includes both reprimands and praising.  It is not about keeping score. 

The final function of a good team is Focusing on Results.  That means there is no status or ego.  It’s not about us.  We must believe that “If the team fails, I fail” and “If I succeed, we succeed”. 

As I view the work we do with students at CALO, the Treatment Team, which includes our parents/guardians, is the team that must function at the highest level. The Treatment Team must be founded on Trust, have healthy and proactive conflict management, be committed, demonstrate accountability and be focused on results. The results being that we are changing the lives of the students that we work with everyday.

Keith Buschjost was born in Wardsville, Missouri.  His family moved from Missouri to Colorado to Tennessee and after his parents divorced, Keith was raised by his grandparents in St. Thomas, Missouri.  His grandparents live on a farm and taught Keith about hard work, manners, honesty and trust.  He credits them with teaching him the importance of family and relationships.  He says he's always wanted to share that with others.

After high school, Keith joined the Navy and spent three years traveling extensively.  His favorite travels took him to Venice where he felt the history and peacefulness of the culture was a wonderful experience.  After serving three years actively in the Navy, Keith returned to the states.  He soon went to work for Cole County Juvenile Office and spent nine years supervising and working with youth.

Keith has three daughters, Autumn 9, Cali 4, and Jacoby 2.  He talks about how beautiful his daughters are and shows great pride in being a single father to Autumn since the age of 6 months.  He has two brothers, one younger who serves in the Marine Corps and one older.  Other family members live in Jefferson City and include 12 aunts and uncles.

In June of 2009 Keith moved to Lake of the Ozarks and found CALO.  He says that CALO teaches students and staff about real relationships, about the importance of family environment and he feels it has given him the opportunity to give back.   Keith says, "CALO is an amazing facility and I love my work".

With CALO's steady growth there was a pressing need for another therapist on the clinical team.  After an exhaustive and careful nationwide search, CALO's clinical and leadership teams believe Evan Page was the best person for the job. Evan rose to the top of the hiring pool due to his integrity, thoroughness, work ethic, skills and passion of making positive differences in the lives of young people and their families. 

Evan joins CALO after relocating from Colorado where he completed his undergraduate and graduate work and launched his professional career. After completing his Bachelors of Arts in Counseling Psychology with a minor in Sociology, Evan worked at Doulos, a residential treatment center for teens in Colorado. There Evan mentored students struggling with depression, anger, self-destructive tendencies, and manipulation. This opportunity cemented Evan’s desire to counsel teens and from there he went on to received his Masters degree in Counseling from Denver Seminary. Evan is skilled in a myriad of therapies and specialties including group therapy, gang violence, family systems, couple counseling, parent-child counseling, substance use/abuse, addictions, grief and loss, social and peer influences, life skills and more.  Evan is also a member of the American Counseling Association and is Prepare and Enrich Certified.  In his free time he enjoys reading, hiking, skiing, and the guitar.

CALO welcomes Evan and we all look forward to learning more from him!