President

Mario Tonti, D.S.W.

has been with Beech Brook since March of 1990. Mario has been a social worker for more than 40 years. He holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from New York University and a Doctorate in Social Welfare from Columbia.

Mario came to Cleveland in 1976 to teach social work at Case Western Reserve’s School of Applied Social Sciences. In the years that followed, he served as Director of Community Services at Benjamin Rose Institute and Director of Community Services at Bellefaire/Jewish Children's Bureau. In 2004, Dr. Tonti developed Tapestry, a SAMHSA “System of Care” grant for children and youth who have severe emotional issues.  

Among Mario’s many professional awards are the Lifetime Achievement Award from Region III of NASW and the prestigious Woodruff Foundation Award for Mental Health Professional of the Year. He is currently a board member of the Voices for Greater Cleveland’s Children and the Mental Health Advocacy Coalition. In 2010, he received the prestigious Leadership in Nonprofit Management Award from the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

Chief Executive Officer

Debra Rex, M.A., M.Ed.,

joined the staff of Beech Brook in 1991 in a leadership role and soon after became Assistant Executive Director and then Chief Executive Officer as part of a two-person Executive Office Team with Mario Tonti.
 

Debra holds both a Master’s degree in Communications with a cognate in Business Management and a Master’s degree in Community Agency Counseling. She has devoted her entire professional career to the service of children and families, from her first position as Assistant Director and then Director of the Upward Bound program of Baldwin-Wallace College. She then became the founding Executive Director of Bellflower Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse.

Debra is currently a board member of the Cleveland Free Clinic and serves on the Advisory Committee of the Hospice of the Western Reserve. In her Beech Brook role, she chairs the Summit County Alliance of Child Caring Providers, is a board member of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies (OACCA), and is on the Steering Committee of the Mental Health Advocacy Coalition (MHAC). Debra has also served on the national committee of the Child Welfare League of America which set standards in governance and administration of child welfare agencies.

Recent professional honors include Lobbyist of the Year, awarded by Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies; the Suzanne B. Harrison Award for Exceptional Service to Children; Ohio Association of Child Caring Agency’s Virginia Colson Award for Exceptional Service to Children and Families.

Vice President, Staffing and Special Projects

Paula V. Atwood,  L.I.S.W.-S., E.M.B.A., CCDCIII-E., M.S.S.A.

Vice President, Finance

Mike Burke, C.P.A.

Vice President, Clinical Services and Clinical Director

Mark Groner, M.S.S.A., L.I.S.W.-S.

Vice President, Operational Support

Thomas Royer, M.P.A.

Vice President, Out of Home Care

Jean Solomon, R.N., M.S.N., M.A.

Vice President, External Relations

Nancy Peppler, M.S.S.A.