Fairlee — Dr. Christopher Overtree has been named executive director of The Aloha Foundation.
The foundation operates residential summer camps, Aloha, Aloha Hive and Lanakila; Horizons Day Camp; Ohana Family Camp; and Hulbert Outdoor Center.
Overtree is a camper alumnus of Lanakila, a boys’ camp, and spent 17 years on its staff, eventually becoming assistant director. He also served for three years on the board of The Aloha Foundation.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Princeton University and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with a clinical internship at Dartmouth Medical School focusing on community mental health for children and families. He went on to become an assistant professor and graduate program director at New England College in Henniker, N.H.
He is currently a senior lecturer in clinical psychology and director of the Psychological Services Center at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and will start at The Aloha Foundation on Aug. 15.
Overtree has won several awards for teaching and community service and is also an author, sought-after public speaker, and consultant to schools and mental health and human service agencies, where he specializes in program development, institutional climate and healthy organizational systems.
He is a licensed clinical psychologist in both Massachusetts and Vermont and has extensive training and experience with Aloha’s Success Counseling model, The Aloha Foundation said in a recent news release.
Overtree is “exactly the right person to lead the foundation, and we are all so excited to have him back with us,” said Posie Taylor, Aloha’s interim executive director.
— Staff report