Home » The 2026 OPEN MINDS Workforce AI Summit

The 2026 OPEN MINDS Workforce AI Summit


Leveraging AI To Become An Employer Of Choice In
Behavioral Health

Rick Rowley
Summit Chair & Senior Associate,
OPEN MINDS

The behavioral health workforce is facing unprecedented challenges—from recruitment and retention to burnout and rising demand for services. At the same time, artificial intelligence is emerging as a powerful tool to help organizations reimagine how they support their teams, streamline operations, and improve care delivery. This all-day summit brings together thought leaders, executives, and innovators to explore how AI can be harnessed to meet today’s workforce challenges and position your organization for long-term success as an employer of choice.

9:50 am – 11:00 am ET

Reclaiming Time For Care: AI Documentation That Expands Capacity

Workforce AI Summit

Of all the resources in health care, clinician time is perhaps the scarcest. This session examines how automated documentation and note generation tools encourage note completion and transform time saved into increased appointments week after week. We will explore documentation use cases, how to measure accuracy and ease burden, and how to forecast the conversion of minutes saved into staff workload. Attendees will also discover how to align clinical, compliance and revenue stakeholders to maximize efficiency. 

Jessica Fenchel, MA

Jessica Fenchel is the COO at Access Services, where she supports the delivery of diverse community-based programming for children, adults, and families in Eastern Pennsylvania.  Access Services is a nonprofit organization building community through the delivery of services in Behavioral Health, Children and Families Services, and Intellectual Disability and Autism Programming. 

Jess has been at Access Services for over 10 years, during which she was key in the startup of innovative initiatives across multiple service spaces including crisis, forensics, schools, and homelessness.  Jess believes that help should be helpful and that the people we serve deserve our best.  She has led in partnership building to realize integration between behavioral health and physical health, driving solutions for vulnerable populations.  Jess’ work to develop new models of partnership between law enforcement and crisis systems has led to overall reductions in arrest for those experiencing mental health crisis. 

Jess received her undergraduate degree from Messiah College, her master’s degree from Lasalle University in Clinical Counseling Psychology, training in Applied Behavior Analysis from the University of North Texas, a certificate in Nonprofit Management from Lasalle University, and a certificate from the Global Trauma Recovery Institute.  Jess is an avid sports fan, especially the Buffalo Bills, and loves being active outside with her husband, three kids, and dog.

Leadership & Management Certificate Program Course | Domain: Technology & Analytics | Credit Hours: 1.25

11:15 am – 12:30 pm ET

Retention, Burnout & Morale: Measuring Workforce ROI With AI

Workforce AI Summit

Workforce value is about more than speed. This session will explore how providers can track morale and burnout metrics to impact recruiting cost, vacancy days, overtime and avoidable turnover. Examples include how to pair pulse surveys with workload indicators, how to attribute changes to specific tools and how leaders can translate staff experience gains into a growth story for stakeholders and payers. We will explore the pragmatic realities facing behavioral health systems today and will examine use cases of currently evolving roles as well as emerging roles capable of filling the gaps. 

Liz Worth

Leadership & Management Certificate Program Course | Domain: Organizational Performance Optimization | Credit Hours: 1.25

12:30 pm – 1:45 pm ET

Summit Lunch & Learn

Summit Lunch & Learn


2:00 pm – 3:00 pm ET

From Errors To Accuracy: AI For Less Rework & Cleaner Revenue 

Workforce AI Summit

As we all know too well, small errors at the beginning of the revenue cycle can create heaps of wasted time and rework downstream. This session focuses on how behavioral health organizations can strengthen benefits coordination and eligibility verification through smarter technology-driven workflows. The ultimate goal? Preventing denials before they start. And the best part is—denials prevention isn’t just hypothetical. Automation is opening the door to less chasing and more critical thinking in the revenue cycle, in addition to improved clean claim rates, higher first-pass pay rates and reduced rework. It’s all made possible by near real-time insights that start at the beginning of the revenue cycle. Join us to learn more about the next era of revenue cycle management, and how behavioral health organizations can use it to their advantage. 

Brandie D. Williams, M.Ed, Ed.S

Brandie has over 21 years of experience serving individuals with Behavioral Health needs and Developmental Disabilities.  For the past 16 years, Brandie has worked at the Rappahannock Area Community Services Board, a non-profit organization dedicated to education, recovery, treatment, and wellness of individuals affected by mental health and substance use disorders and developmental disabilities.  In her role as Deputy Executive Director, she brings subject-matter and operational knowledge of integrated care, data analytics, and behavioral health care to support the use of analytics to improve clinical performance, patient health, and organizational efficiencies.  In addition to day-to-day operations, Brandie oversees reporting and analytics to inform a data-drive quality improvement process.  Throughout her professional career, Brandie has fostered a deep passion for the opportunities created by advanced science and technology in the health and human services quality improvement space. She believes building and growing a high-quality workforce is the foundation for meeting our community’s needs. 

Leadership & Management Certificate Program Course | Domain: Technology & Analytics | Credit Hours: 1.0