Beth Butler, CEO of CA GroupBeth Butler Named CEO of CA Group in Mercer County

For Immediate Release, February 25, 2016

For more information, contact Beth Butler or Shawn Thieman at Cheryl Ann Programs, 419-586-2369

Beth Butler, who now serves as Adult Services Director for the Mercer County Board of Developmental Disabilities (Board of DD), has been named as the new CEO of CA Group. The appointment, approved by the CA Group Board on February 12, will take effect on or before January 1, 2017.

CA Group was founded over 40 years ago as an arm of the Board of DD. In the new position, Butler will oversee CA Group’s transition into an independent entity that will continue to provide services to adults with developmental disabilities. In recent months, the Board of DD and the CA Group board have been working on a plan that will transition the DD Board’s traditional Adult Medicaid Services and Community Employment Services to CA Group, Inc.

The amicable split between the Mercer County Board of DD and CA Group is coming about because of new Medicaid regulations that no longer allow Boards of DD to both contract for services for adults and supply those services.

Though CA Group will continue to operate next to the Mercer County Board of DD’s offices on Mud Pike west of Celina, it will now have a more independent governing structure, including its new CEO. The Board of DD and CA Group will continue to help people with disabilities find the services they need and use them to work toward the best possible outcome.

Butler brings to the position over 20 years of experience in working with adults with disabilities. “We’ll still be very collaborate, we’ll still be partners with the Board of DD as providers, but we will also have the independence to plan and provide for services in a way that we see to be best,” Butler said. “The new arrangements allows us to focus even more intently on those services.”

Those services include helping adults with disabilities find and keep jobs in the community and through CA Group’s enclaves and workshop; providing recreation and leisure opportunities; transportation and homemaker and personal care services for people with disabilities.

Boards of DD throughout the state are seeing similar transitions as they all must meet the new Medicaid requirements. It is requiring a new vision for those who work with people with disabilities—but Butler said she hopes CA Group’s associates themselves will detect few differences in the way that their needs are met. “They really should not see a lot of changes,” she said.

Many of those changes may be in place later this year. Her priority, Butler said, remains the same. “This new position is coordinating adult services and seeing the big picture of how we can best provide those services,” she said. “I have a lot of energy for this, because it’s me. It’s who I am. My philosophies and beliefs center around seeing the future of people with disabilities, seeing that they have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else to do what they want to do with their lives, whether that’s getting a job, being part of their community, joining clubs, going to the movies or out to eat.

“I look forward to taking the services that CA Group already offers to the next level, and turning all the good that we’re already doing into something great in this new chapter.”

Several very qualified applicants applied for the job, but Butler stood out, said CA Group Board member Bob Schroeder. “We’re all excited to have Beth on board. This will be a challenging year for us, but with Beth’s help, we’ll get where we need to go without any issues,” he said. “We had a lot of good candidates for the job, but Beth made the choice an easy one.”

Butler, a lifelong resident of Mercer County, has a master’s degree in business administration and serves on the Ohio Association of Adult Services Board as its secretary. She is also a member of the Privatization Support Group. She was instrumental in developing Community Connections, a day services program in Coldwater that will now become part of CA Group.

Butler, who lives in Coldwater with her husband, Trent, and children, Jessica and Brett, was recently named president of the Coldwater Chamber of Commerce.