Amie Niles appointed director of operations

United Counseling Service of Bennington County (UCS) announced that Amie Niles will serve as its new director of operations starting December 1, 2024. Amie is a graduate of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and has served as a Mental Health First Aid trainer since 2016. She was recognized by UCS with the Peter D. Scully Award in 2020 for dedication and professionalism in communicating with colleagues and clients.

“We are thrilled to announce the promotion of Amie to director of operations,” said CEO Lorna Mattern. “This decision reflects Amie’s exceptional leadership, commitment, and deep understanding of our organization’s mission.”

Amie started her career at UCS in 2000 as a residential direct support provider at the agency’s Autumn House group home and moved through the agency as a level II supervisor at Autumn House, case manager for the Community Rehabilitation and Treatment (CRT) division, then manager at the Union Street group home for several years. She then returned to CRT as an outpatient CRT community resource manager, which involved managing housing programs, serving as representative payee, and supervising case managers.

Most recently, Amie served as the Unified Electronic Medical Record Vermont (UEMRVT) Project Coordinator and supervises the Health Information Management (HIM) team. In her new role, she is responsible for overseeing internal organizational processes and infrastructure.

Amie looks forward to starting this new role at the agency where she started her professional career. “I’ve always valued UCS—I’ve stayed here for 24 years,” says Amie. “I really value continuing to be able to look at how we serve our clients in the best way possible, how we can make it more efficient both for clients to get services, and for those staff providing services, and truly continue to make UCS a place that’s easy for people to get care.”

Amie will replace Amy Fela, who has been promoted to Chief Operating Officer.