Laurence J. Berger

Laurence J. Berger has served on the Retreat board since 2006, and has been a member of both the finance and the executive committees. He is currently Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer for NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System, one of the nation’s largest. He is responsible for providing administrative leadership, assisting with System development and working with the System’s continuing care group of facilities. He also provided consultation and oversight for a recently completed multi-year international health project in the UK.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Berger held several leadership positions in mental health administration at NewYork-Presbyterian, as well as Yale University School of Medicine's Psychiatric Institute, and the Institute of Living, a nonprofit psychiatric treatment center, in Hartford, Connecticut.

Early in his career, Mr. Berger also worked for the US Department of State and the US Peace Corps on health and humanitarian assistance programs in SE Asia. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Psychology and Philosophy from Northeastern University and his MHA from the University of Minnesota. Mr. Berger and his wife live in New York City. They have two grown children who reside in New York and California.

"Through my professional affiliations in the various mental health administration positions that I held over the years, I became associated with the Brattleboro Retreat as a sister institution and formed many collegial relationships with its leadership. Based on that association, when my daughter entered grad school at the School for International Training/World Learning, I felt it would be a great way to combine a new found connection to the Brattleboro community with the desire to support an institution that I had come to know and highly regard."