Chief Executive Nursing Officer State Operations and Community Health, NYS Office of Mental Health
Ms. Smalling is the Chief Executive Nursing Officer for the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH) and a registered nurse with more than 27 years of clinical, administrative, and public health nursing experience
Since joining the OMH Executive Team, Ms. Smalling is providing nursing leadership to address nursing issues systemically, ensure the presence of a nursing voice in policy making and working collaboratively with the Chief Medical Officer and the Executive Leadership Team to set the agencies strategic policies and plans. As the Chief Executive Nursing Officer for State Operations and Community Health, Ms. Smalling provides leadership and consultation to the 24 Chief Nursing Officers at OMH facilities; specifically, to drive the professionalization of the nursing workforce and actively promoting the dissemination of evidenced–based clinical nursing practices system wide.
Ms. Smalling leads several major OMH mission critical initiatives to improve the quality of mental health care and address the physical health needs and outcomes for individuals living with a serious mental illness. Ms. Smalling led the successful implementation of Tobacco-free campus-wide policies on 21 of the 23 OMH State Operated Psychiatric Hospitals, and is a lead member of OMH Tobacco Steering Committee, leading strategies to drive TUD treatment, including uptake on the use of FDA medications to treat TUD throughout OMH inpatient units and clinics. Ms. Smalling is a member of a long standing partnership between NYS OMH, DOH Tobacco Control, OASAS, NYSDOHMH and NYSPI Center for Practice innovation, implementing strategies to drive the dissemination of evidenced based practices to treat TUD, to reduce the incidence of smoking in the population of individuals living with a serious mental illness(SMI). She collaborated with DOH-OHIP on getting approval for the Medicaid expansion of TUD benefits.
Ms. Smalling has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from The Sage Colleges, a Master of Science in Nursing from Excelsior College and currently pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree. She is a member of the American Nurses Association, American Psychiatric Nurses Association, the Northeast New York Professional Nurses Organization and the Sigma Global Nursing Excellence, Tau Kappa at-Large Chapter. Several awards include Psychiatric Nurse of the Year, North Central Bronx Hospital, Albany Common Council 2019, 10th Ward, Black History Month Honoree and on March 7, 2019, she was awarded the NYS Empire Star Public Service Award for exemplifying the highest standards of public service.