SalusCare CEO Stacey Cook was named among the top 30 nonprofit executives in Southwest Florida by The Community Foundation for 2023, and SalusCare’s Chairperson of the Board Marshall Bower was named among Southwest Florida’s Most Influential Icons at Board Leadership.
Every year, The Community Foundation honors and celebrates the top 30 nonprofit executives in Southwest Florida who have made an impact in the previous year. The influential and inspiring leaders are some of the region’s most effective decision-makers and power influencers. The nonprofit executives will be recognized Dec. 14, 2023, The board leadership awards, announced by the Foundation in its newsletter, will be celebrated Feb. 6, 2024, from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Crowne Plaza Bell Tower.
“As SalusCare celebrates 10 years since forming after the merger of two-longstanding service organizations, it’s gratifying to be recognized for the strength of the organization and its leadership,” said Chairman of the Board Marshall Bower. “Stacey is a passionate, driven nonprofit leader, who takes to heart the significant role of SalusCare to the whole community.”
SalusCare CEO Stacey Cook served as interim president/CEO at SalusCare since October 2015, before being named president and CEO in May 2016. Cook graduated from the Lee County public schools. She earned her master’s degree in social work from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2001 and was licensed as a Clinical Social Worker in 2003. Prior to joining SalusCare, she served in various leadership roles at David Lawrence Center through Lee Mental Health.
The top nonprofit executive honor was established by the South Florida CEO Network, an initiative of The Community Foundation, and the Nonprofit Education Grantmaking Fund, as part of a larger vision of nonprofit leader appreciation, recognition, and cultivating a culture of regional generosity. Honorees are selected from a group of roughly 300 top executives. Surveys are sent to business and community leaders to determine who would make this year’s list.
Bower is president and CEO for The Foundation for Lee County Public Schools and has been serving as chairperson of the 9-member SalusCare Board since 2013, when SalusCare was formed by the merger of Lee Mental Health and Southwest Florida Addiction Services, forming the largest mental health and substance abuse treatment agency in Southwest Florida.