Cottonwood Tucson is pleased to welcome Adam Perkins, MBA, ACHE, as its new Chief Executive Officer. With nearly two decades of healthcare leadership experience, Adam brings a deep commitment to patient safety, operational excellence and compassionate, person-centered care.
Adam has held executive and operational leadership roles at nationally recognized residential treatment and crisis mental health organizations. However, his career in behavioral health began on the front lines as a Mental Health Therapy Technician at the Oregon State Hospital.
Finding a Better Way
During his early career, Adam also became a Certified Nursing Assistant – a path he had never previously considered. One experience in a maximum-security unit helped define the kind of healthcare leader he wanted to become.
A patient had become dangerously upset after his dentures were broken during a room search. Instead of focusing only on the patient’s reaction, Adam worked to understand what had happened. After reviewing the hospital’s policies, he discovered that established search protocols had not been followed. That failure contributed to both the damage and the patient’s distress.
The experience left Adam with an important question: How can we do this better?
That question has continued to guide his approach to leadership. For Adam, continuous improvement is not simply about strengthening policies or operations. It is about creating safer, more respectful environments for patients and giving employees the clarity, resources and support they need to provide exceptional care.
Why Behavioral Health?
Before establishing his career in behavioral healthcare, Adam worked in a variety of fields, including wildland firefighting, finance, farming, towing and correctional healthcare administration. While each experience taught him something valuable, he discovered that his greatest strength was connecting with people – particularly those who needed someone to listen.
“Behavioral Health is a field where there are a lot of people that need to be heard,” he says. “Once we hear and understand, then we can help.”
That belief closely aligns with Cottonwood Tucson’s longstanding philosophy of recognizing and supporting each patient as a unique individual capable of healing and change.
Building on Cottonwood Tucson’s Legacy
Adam was drawn to Cottonwood Tucson by its history, its reputation for successful clinical outcomes and the dedication of its employees. For more than 35 years, Cottonwood Tucson has helped individuals and families find understanding, healing and hope through integrated treatment for mental health and substance use disorders.
“We are truly standing on the shoulders of giants,” he says of Cottonwood’s history of caring. “Cottonwood Tucson has a long legacy of successful clinical outcomes. Long standing employees have given their heart and soul to helping others and it’s truly my honor to stand shoulder to shoulder with them to turn the page in the next chapter of the Cottonwood Tucson story.”
As CEO, Adam intends to honor that legacy while helping Cottonwood Tucson continue to evolve. His priorities include supporting employees, strengthening clinical and operational practices, building a culture of trust and accountability, and ensuring that patients and families remain at the center of every decision.
A Hopeful Future for Behavioral Healthcare
Adam believes strongly in the future of behavioral health because he has witnessed what can happen when individuals receive appropriate care at the right time. Effective treatment can restore hope, rebuild families, strengthen communities and change the course of a person’s life.
He also sees behavioral healthcare entering an important period of transformation. The field is becoming more integrated with physical healthcare, more focused on measurable outcomes and increasingly responsive to the needs of patients and families. Although challenges remain around access, affordability, stigma, workforce development and continuity of care, Adam believes those challenges create opportunities to improve how care is delivered.
“I believe behavioral healthcare can be both deeply human and operationally excellent,” he says. “My role as a leader is to create the environment in which employees can do their best work, patients feel respected and hopeful, families feel supported, and organizations remain strong enough to serve their communities for generations to come.”
Leadership Grounded in Trust
Adam’s leadership philosophy centers on creating environments in which people can succeed – patients in their recovery, employees in their professional growth and organizations in the communities they serve.
He believes effective leadership brings clarity, stability, accountability and hope to complex healthcare environments. That begins with building trust, communicating candidly and ensuring that employees have the tools, direction and support necessary to do their best work.
Under Adam’s leadership, Cottonwood Tucson will continue building upon its distinguished history while looking toward a future defined by compassionate care, exceptional outcomes and hope for every individual and family it serves.
