Frank A. Ghinassi, PhD, ABPP is President and CEO of Rutgers Health University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) and Senior Vice President of the Behavioral Health and Addictions Service Line at RWJBarnabas Health. As President and CEO, Dr. Ghinassi is responsible for the strategic oversight and direction of a statewide system of academic, behavioral health, addiction services, training, and funded research. UBHC, one of the largest providers of behavioral health and addictions healthcare in the country, offers a wide range of clinical and support services across all diagnosis, and across the lifespan. These services include inpatient units, partial hospitalization programs, intensive outpatient programming, case management, traditional outpatient treatment, correctional health care, several Certified Community Behavioral Health Centers, a wide range of peer specialist helplines including ones for military service members, veterans, mothers of children with special needs, law enforcement officers, child protection workers, a statewide suicide prevention hotline, a clinical research and training institute, as well as an array of other specialty and care and support services. In his role as Senior Vice President, Dr. Ghinassi directs the strategic development and operations of behavioral health and addictions, fostering synergies between Rutgers Health and RWJBarnabas to enhance high-quality, fully-integrated and interdisciplinary academic care throughout New Jersey.
Additionally, he is a Professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology; a Professor of Psychiatry at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School; and a Core Faculty Member at Rutgers Global Health Institute.
Prior to joining UBHC, Dr. Ghinassi was the Vice President for Quality, Patient Safety, Regulatory Compliance and Health Information Management at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian Shadyside, where he was a member of the Executive Management Group. Dr. Ghinassi also functioned as an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where he was actively involved in the training of Psychiatric Residents and Doctoral Psychology Interns.
In previous positions, he served as Director of Mood and Anxiety Partial Hospitalization and Residential Services at McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School. While in Boston, he was also an Instructor in Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and was actively involved in the training of Pre- and Post- Doctoral Psychology Interns and Fellows.
As a frequent invited presenter at national professional meetings and conferences, Dr. Ghinassi has been an active member on SAMHSA planning committees, CMS commissioned technical expert panels, NCQA expert panels, and National Quality Forum advisory groups. He serves as chairman of the Quality Committee of the National Association for Behavioral Health (NABH), where he was the 2007 recipient of the National Quality Award, recognized for his leadership on key projects, committees and expert panels aimed at improving the measurement and delivery of behavioral healthcare. Dr. Ghinassi is also the chair of the Addiction Treatment Quality Workgroup for NABH, and is the 2024 Chair of the NABH Governing Board. Dr. Ghinassi serves on the Boards of the New Jersey Hospital Association and the New Jersey Association of Mental Health and Addiction Agencies.
From 2003 to 2016, Dr. Ghinassi served as a Player Development Educator and Evaluator for the National Football League and as a psychologist for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Pittsburgh Penguins and for a number of local college and university departments of athletics. He has also long served as a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, an international institute for the enhancement of corporate leadership and executive coaching.