Marni Stahlman

Marni Stahlman has a 33-year career in C-suite health care delivery management in medical, educational and mental and behavioral health care organizations. She is currently the President/CEO of the Mental Health Association of Central Florida, Inc (www.mhacf.org) one of the oldest nonprofits in Central Florida (1946) and the leading community-based nonprofit dedicated to promoting mental wellness and equity of access to mental health care by providing mental health services, support and information to the members of the Central Florida community. Additionally, she has been an Adjunct Professor in the department of Social Innovation at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL since 2017.

Prior to her current role, Marni was President/CEO for five years of Shepherd’s Hope (www.shepherdshope.org) the largest free and charitable clinic system in Florida with 5 locations that cumulatively provided, through her tenure, over 221,000 free, acute care and specialty care patient visits to the uninsured.  Preceding Shepherd’s Hope, Stahlman was the Senior Director of Operations at United Cerebral Palsy of Central Florida (www.ucpcfl.org) for six years where she oversaw pediatric physical, occupational and speech therapy outpatient services, across seven locations, for approximately 800 patients.

Stahlman’s behavioral care expertise arose when she was made the first female CEO of a large hospital in Central Florida, of Laurel Oaks Behavioral Healthcare, an 80-bed adolescent in-patient and out-patient facility with 150+ employees and an onsite Charter School.  While there, Marni developed companywide clinical and performance management protocols for a national behavioral healthcare network, re-engineered the system’s clinical programs, and initiated new on-site/home based clinical programs while successfully leading a JCAHO re-accreditation. Previously she was the State Administrator of Rehab Provider Network – Florida, Novacare, Inc., where she led a statewide initiative to create a rehabilitation therapy network for 100+ affiliate clinical practice sites in 40 Florida counties.

Consecutively in 2015 and 2016, Marni was recognized by the Orlando Business Journal as a CEO of the Year and in 2018 was one of ten people featured in Orlando Weekly’s annual “People We Love” edition. In 2017 she was recognized by the Women’s Executive Council as Woman of the Year in Healthcare.  In 2016 Marni received the prestigious Bud Bell Florida State Advocate of the Year award from the Florida Community Health Action Information Network. Additionally, she was selected in both 2014 and 2015 as a Women Who Mean Business nominee by the Orlando Business Journal and in 2014 was a Women of Distinction Nominee for the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council.

In 2014 she completed her second three-year appointed term as a lay member to the Florida Bar Grievance Committee for the Ninth Judicial Circuit and from 2008-2012 was a Florida Supreme Court appointee to the Florida Bar’s Citizen’s Forum.

In 2017 Marni was elected as the Vice Chair of the Orange County Primary Care Access network and was also appointed by the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners to the Health Council of East Central Florida where she served until 2018. She concurrently served, from 2014-18, as a member of the Public Policy Council for the Florida Association of Free and Charitable Clinics. Marni served as the Vice Chairwoman of the Orange County Government Educational Facilities Authority from 2003-2018 and also served a two-year appointed term from 2012-2014 as the Chairwoman of the Disability Advisory Board for Orange County Government. A member since 2016, she is currently a Trustee and Program Chair for Florida Executive Women, was voted in 2021 into membership for the International Society of Female Professionals and was again appointed by the Orange County Board of County Commissioner to serve on the Health Council of East Central Florida until 2022.

A Central Florida “native” since 1975, Marni Stahlman was raised in Winter Park, and is a graduate of Winter Park High School.   She is mother to her 13-year-old daughter Lily Mae, trainer to the family’s 85 lbs. chocolate Labrador “Ellie” and has been married to her husband Paul for 16 years.  She holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Tampa, a dual M.S. in Counseling and Psychology from Troy State and Ph.D., ABD in Clinical Sexology from Maimonides University.