Meet The Team
Clarence Jordan
Chris Botten, MBA, is the Chief Executive Officer of Via Positiva Center for Behavioral Health Innovation (CBHI), where he leads a national movement to transform behavioral health through relational care, spiritual integration, peer leadership, and systems innovation. With a strong foundation in finance, operations, and strategy, Chris brings visionary leadership to CBHI’s multi-product innovation platform focused on systemic impact and sustainable growth.
Clarence Jordan, MBA has more than three decades of experience in behavioral health. He has a Master’ degree in Business Administration from the Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, California. He has more than twenty years’ experience in Managed Care, seventeen of which was spent with Carelon Behavioral Health, formally Beacon Health Options, where he served as Clinical Programs Director. In this role, he provided strategic direction and leadership for the company’s national Wellness & Recovery programs. Clarence was responsible for various initiatives to operationalize Beacon Health Options’ commitment to recovery-based principles in the delivery of behavioral health services. He is best recognized as a subject matter expert in Peer Services and Peer Program development.
During his tenure at Carelon, he served on numerous National Boards, Committees, and Work Groups. He is the recipient of numerous National Awards for his work in the field. He has contributed to several publication including the best seller “You Are Not Alone.” He has served on two Committees for The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. This committee work also resulted in the publication of the report “Ending Discrimination Against People With Mental and Substance Use Disorders, The Evidence for Stigma Change.”
Clarence has deep roots in the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and has served multiple terms on its National Board of Directors. Prior to that, as the NAMI Tennessee state office Director of Multicultural Outreach Initiative, he developed and wrote “A Family Guide to Mental Health: What You Need to Know.”
In 2022, The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) selected Clarence to serve as a member of a Subject Matter Expert Panel to advise SAMHSA on the development of National Standard Guidance for the certification of Peer Specialists. In 2023, the National Practice Guidelines was released to all stakeholders and the public on peer specialist certification.
Clarence received the Consumer Leadership Award at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA) 2010 National Voice Awards, as well as its 2012 VOICE Awards Fellowship. In 2014, the National Council for Behavioral Health named him its Peer Specialist of the Year.
Clarence is a former naval officer, and his recovery journey is chronicled in National Council Magazine’s “50 Years, 50 Stories of Recovery” special issue to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Community Mental Health Act.
