Our Leadership

Amethyst Leadership Team

Amethyst employs the best and the brightest.

Amethyst employs the best and the brightest.  The Amethyst staff is made of highly qualified professionals including:

2 Ph.D. candidates
1 OCPS II (Prevention Specialist)
1 OCPS I (Prevention Specialist)

4 CDCA (Chemical Dependency Counselor Asst.)

3 LCDC III (Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor)

7 LICDC (Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor)

4 LISW (Licensed Independent Social Worker)

4 LPCC (Licensed Professional Clincal Counselor)

10 LSW (Licensed Social Worker)
17 Employees with Master's Degrees
3 Candidates in Master's Degree programs

From Finance to Case Management, every member of the Amethyst team is an asset to our Mission.  Our greatest asset is in the passion our staff offer everyday. Amethyst Leadership:

Virginia O'Keeffe, LCDC IIIE-OCPS II
CEO
Virginia (Ginny) O'Keeffe not only serves as CEO of Amethyst, but she is also one of the founding mothers of the agency. She and eight other recovering women founded Amethyst to address the needs of women in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, sexual abuse and trauma, as well as to meet the mental health and employment needs of these women and their children.

Amethyst's program model is anchored in the belief that women need long-term support to develop the skills necessary to achieve lifelong sobriety and economic independence. Amethyst is one of the few organizations in the country that allows women to bring their children with them into treatment. By allowing the children to live with their mothers during treatment, the family has the opportunity to recover and heal, helping to break the cycle of addiction. In her first ten years as the Executive Director, Ginny moved the agency from an $80,000 budget and one house to a $3.5 million budget, 100 transitional and permanent housing units, and a long-term treatment program meeting the addiction, trauma, mental health, and employment needs of women and their children. One of the largest women's treatment programs in Ohio, Amethyst is now nationally recognized as a best practice model for gender-competent treatment.

The past 27 years of Ginny's life have been wholeheartedly dedicated to improving systems that effect women and children healing from sexual abuse and those in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Her focus has been on advocating for women and mothers who are low-income, homeless, imprisoned, battered, or abandoned. Her message is not popular. It's easier to live if we don't think of the horror of incest, rape, sexual abuse, and the degradation of women. It's easier to believe that women choose to become addicted to drugs rather than to recognize that it's a way to dull the pain of trauma. It's easier to make policies if we don't have to take into account the essential needs of women and can keep doing things the way they've always been done. Nevertheless, she continues the work each day.

Professional Designations:

• Licensed Independent Chemical Dependency Counselor with Supervision Endorsement, since 1990
• Internationally certified Alcohol & Drug Counselor, since 1985
• Ohio Certified Prevention Specialist, since 1990,
• Certified Hypnotherapist, National Association of Transpersonal Hypnotherapists, since 2006

• 1990 Exemplary Service Award - ADAMH of Franklin County,
• 1995 President's Award for Outstanding Service - Columbus Area Council on Alcoholism
• 1998 Lovatt Award for Commitment to the Field of Recovery - Ohio Association of Residential Recovery Services
• 1998 Community Services Award - House of Hope for Alcoholics
• 2003 Women of Achievement Award - YWCA of Columbus
• 2006 Leadership Award - The Ohio Women's Network