Julie Gough serves as an Administrative and Operations Support Specialist at HWS Best Health Counseling, where she supports client access, staff coordination, and executive workflows. Her work focuses on creating organized, efficient systems that reduce barriers to care and help ensure clients can connect with services as smoothly as possible.

With a strong background in behavioral health and nonprofit services, Julie has spent her career supporting individuals and families navigating complex mental health and social service needs. Her experience includes leadership roles in psychiatric and behavioral support programs, crisis intervention as a Licensed Family Support Specialist and Suicide Hotline responder, and direct service work with organizations such as Refuge of Hope Ministries Men's Homeless Shelter and the Canton YWCA Women's Homeless Shelter. In those roles, she supported individuals experiencing homelessness, human trafficking, and acute mental health crises.

Julie has also worked in private practice and crisis response settings, including youth mobile crisis services, where she provided de-escalation and immediate support during high-stress situations. These experiences have shaped her strong understanding of both healthcare and community-based support systems.

Her approach to operations work is collaborative and service-focused. She sees her role as building the structure that allows clinical teams to focus on providing compassionate, client-centered care. Julie is experienced in EMR and billing systems, database management, executive coordination, and maintaining HIPAA-compliant workflows. She is also a QMHS+3 and Licensed Family Support Specialist.

Julie believes effective support comes from empathy, clarity, and consistency. She strives to create an organized and steady environment where both clients and staff feel supported and valued. One of her proudest accomplishments was helping establish the partnership between Refuge of Hope Homeless Shelter and HWS Best Health Counseling, improving access to mental health services for individuals in need.

Outside of work, Julie enjoys working in her butterfly garden and caring for local wildlife. One of her projects last year was raising and releasing 29 monarch butterflies.

Her favorite quote is from Maya Angelou: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”