GREENFIELD — The regional Opioid Task Force will be looking for a new full-time director soon.
Current director Marisa Hebble announced this week that she’s taken a new job with the state Executive Office of the Trial Court, where she will coordinate a new statewide project to help communities foster better connections between their criminal justice system and their addiction treatment system.
She said the goal will be to make it easier to divert those who come into contact with the court system through drug abuse problems into treatment instead of jail.
Despite that, Hebble said her involvement with the Task Force will not end with her departure. She’ll be based out of the new Greenfield District Court building on Main Street, and she’ll continue to act as a consultant to the group.
“This was a very difficult decision. I love my current position and this work has been professionally and personally rewarding beyond compare,” she said. “I live in Franklin County, and I’m super invested in this work, so it was difficult. I’m staying on as consultant to the Task Force for as long as they’ll have me.”
Hebble was hired as the regional anti-drug organization’s first full-time employee in the spring of 2014. Prior to that, she served as the coordinator of the Northampton Prevention Coalition. She’s also worked as a health specialist for the Strategic Planning Initiative for Families and Youth and as a prevention specialist for the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The Task Force has also hired two new staff members, Deb Neubauer of Amherst and Tess Jurgensen of Ashfield.
Neubauer, a professional yoga and mindfulness instructor and local health educator, will teach yoga to inmates at the Franklin County House of Correction, while Jurgensen holds a degree in public health science and has worked for the state Department of Public Health’s western regional office and the Northampton Needle Exchange.
You can reach Tom Relihan at: trelihan@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 264 On Twitter, follow @RecorderTom
