Dianna L. Huddleston

dianna L. Huddleston, LCSW, is a veteran leader and advocate for the mental health and well-being of Hoosiers. She holds a bachelor's in Social Work and Women’s Studies from Ball State and a master in Social Work from Indiana University. dianna has over 30 years of experience as an administrator and clinician working in a variety of settings, including adolescent treatment centers, adolescent inpatient units, school-based services, outpatient services, and community-based services. She has worked in the Indiana Community Mental Health system since 1993 and joined Aspire in April 2014.

As Senior Director of Outpatient Services, she oversees the behavioral health teams for Aspire. She directs the teams of therapists and facilitators to develop individualized treatment strategies for clients, many of them in the at-risk population who have been referred by state agencies or the justice system. Before her time at Aspire, she served as the Director of the Child and Adolescent Community Living Program at Wabash Valley Alliance, where she developed and implemented a policy to create a System of Care for a Medicaid-funded residential program. Previously, she has held various roles such as social worker with the Salvation Army, adjunct instructor for Purdue University, field and camp director for the Girl Scouts, and directed development for the Lafayette Urban Ministry.

Huddleston has extensive experience partnering with community organizations to promote successful outcomes for those most in need. She received the 2012 Indiana Council Award for her outstanding work on the Department of Child Services Initiative Project that implemented a DCS/CMHC service contract to provide more comprehensive care to families in need. Huddleston participated in the Governor’s Commission for child fatality review for eight years. She has been the board chair of Partnership for Healthy Hamilton County Board Chair for the last three years. In 2011, she received the Cecilia Weber Advocate Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness for promoting progressive attitudes toward the treatment of the mentally ill.

She is also well versed in crisis prevention and has been a Certified Therapeutic Crisis Intervention Trainer since 1994. She received a certification in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace from the University of South Florida. She also serves on the Youth and Parent Engagement subcommittee of the Juvenile Justice and Cross-System Youth Task Force which is designated under the Commission on Improving the Status of Children in Indiana (CISC). She was recently appointed by the Hamilton County Commissioners for a four-year term on the Hamilton County Community Corrections Board.