The Franklin County Board of Commissioners appointed two new members on July 28 to the Maryhaven Board of Directors as the nonprofit continues to struggle to stay afloat amid financial troubles.
The nonprofit, which provides behavioral health services to central Ohio, has been under severe financial stress for the last several years and has received financial help from the city of Columbus and Franklin County.
The two new appointees are Bishop Herman D. Ware Jr., senior pastor of the Oakley Full Gospel Baptist Church and Don L. Brown, president and principal at Brown & Company, CPA, LLC.
Ware previously worked as a fiscal officer at the Association of Health Care Journalists and an administrative assistant to the dean of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s College of Business, according to a copy of his résumé obtained by The Dispatch.
Brown was the Franklin County administrator from June 2005 to Dec. 2014, according to his résumé.
Maryhaven amended its constitution July 10 so the Franklin County Commissioners could appoint three directors. Other appointments could be considered in the future, County Administrator Kenneth Wilson said.
“It’s no secret that Maryhaven is facing financial difficulties and needs a strategic financial plan to achieve sustainability,” Wilson said. “It is our hope that our new appointees, along with the current board members, are able to provide enhanced governance that will allow the administrative leadership to implement a solid financial road map for recovery.”
Maryhaven has submitted a financial sustainability plan to Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board (ADAMH) for Franklin County for their review and comment, Wilson said.
The Maryhaven Board will provide oversight during the implementation of the plan and engage in the search for Maryhaven’s new CEO, Wilson said.
In July, Maryhaven’s CEO Oyauma Garrison resigned amid the nonprofit’s financial distress in a “mutual agreement” with Maryhaven’s Board of Directors. Garrison had been CEO since 2022. The board is still searching for a replacement.
In case the new appointees cannot steer Maryhaven toward financial recovery, Wilson said it’s the county’s hope that “a newly energized board as well as an experienced new CEO will have all the tools they need to make sure Maryhaven reaches financial stability.”
Maryhaven’s spokesperson did not return multiple phone calls seeking a comment.
Move to appoint Maryhaven board members comes after recent scrutiny
Maryhaven, a nonprofit first established in central Ohio in 1953 that has served more than 350,000 men, women and children, provides numerous mental health and addiction services for the region. That includes 24/7 detox services, inpatient and outpatient treatment and counseling and gambling addiction help.
In June, a letter from ADAMH to Maryhaven leadership expressed “profound concern” over Maryhaven’s financial status and its future ability to provide “critical” behavioral health services in central Ohio.
The letter, written by Erika Clark Jones, CEO of the ADAMH Board, alleged that Maryhaven is too reliant on borrowed money, and reviews of Maryhaven’s financial records show it failed to provide a “detailed financial sustainability plan” through 2028 by a November 2025 deadline. Maryhaven, the letter stated, has operated at a loss for every month of 2025 and 2026 to date.
Maryhaven reportedly owes more than $2.4 million, and its reliance on what’s meant to be one-time funding or borrowed money, has increased, Clark Jones wrote.
In December 2025, Maryhaven received a $1 million loan from the city of Columbus in response to its financial struggles. The loan came just three months after the organization received $1.5 million in OneOhio Opioid Settlement funds from the Franklin County Commissioners via the county’s ADAMH Board.
Some of the factors involved with the financial struggles, according to Maryhaven, involve fewer patients than anticipated in 2026, problems with electronic health records systems that led to delayed reimbursement and not receiving payments for services to uninsured patients.
Boomer Schmidt, a spokesperson for Maryhaven, said in an emailed statement in June that the addiction treatment center is, like other nonprofits, in challenging times. Among those challenges are changes to Medicaid eligibility, which impacts reimbursement to Maryhaven for services.
The nonprofit provided more than 6,200 services to non-Medicaid eligible clients in 2025, which cost Maryhaven more than $550,000, Schmidt said in an emailed statement in July.
“As a safety-net organization, we do not refuse services to those that cannot pay and we have been forced to make difficult decisions to ensure we are able to continue to provide best-in-class care to anyone in need that walks through our doors,” Schmidt told The Dispatch in June.
Business and consumer issues reporter Samantha Hendrickson contributed to this report.
Dispatch reporter Nora Igelnik can be reached at nigelnik@dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Amid financial strain, Maryhaven gets 2 county-appointed board members
Reporting by Nora Igelnik, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
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By Nora Igelnik, Columbus Dispatch | USA TODAY Network
