New clinical chief named at Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma Valley

The beleaguered Hanna Boys Center is bringing on a new clinical care director as the 73-year-old institution strives to ensure it has a future in the wake of a series of employee-related legal scandals that have put its operational license at risk.

Stefanie K. Smith, an expert in childhood trauma and trauma-focused treatment, has signed on as chief clinical officer for the Sonoma Valley nonprofit facility. Most of its clients have suffered significant adversity, such as abuse, neglect or violence in their pasts, agency officials said.

Smith will oversee treatment for about ?100 at-risk youths, from eighth to 12th grades, who live at the Catholic residential center. She also will help inform broader strategies to improve the quality of students’ experience in the center’s classrooms, residential cottages and recreational activities, Chief Executive Officer Brian Farragher said.

“I think she will be a great fit because she has just an amazing background in the area of trauma treatment, and that’s a big step up for us,” Farragher said Tuesday.

Smith, who starts next month, will become a member of the senior management team at the organization, which is phasing out the former post of clinical care director held by accused child molester Kevin Scott Thorpe. The 14-year Hanna Boys Center employee held the job in June, when he was arrested for alleged criminal violations involving underage clients at the residential treatment center.

Thorpe has since been charged with 36 criminal counts involving four victims allegedly abused during different timeframes from 2006 to 2016. He also is at the center of two civil suits filed by two of the victims against him and his former employer. He is currently scheduled to be in court ?May 3 for a pre-trial hearing in the criminal case.

But Thorpe, who remains in jail with bail of $1.8 million, may have had as many as seven victims, which is the number cited by the California Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Division in legal papers seeking revocation of the Hanna Boys Center license.

The division announced in December that it intended to pull the center’s license in response to a series of documented missteps, including failures of supervision and care that allowed Thorpe’s regular molestation of seven children both on Hanna Boys Center grounds and on solo outings, the accusation states. In another case, a 22-year-old female staff member was found to have had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old on the campus despite signs of inappropriate contact that should have prompted action by her superiors, according to the list of allegations in the case.

The Boys Center has aggressively defended its license. It is calling for an administrative hearing, now scheduled to start May 21, and pursuing corrective actions that it hopes will prevent the need for a hearing altogether, officials said.

A spokesman for the licensing division said he could not comment on the pending legal case. In general, he said, a settlement agreement and a period of probation are two possible outcomes of revocation proceedings.

The center’s chief development officer, Chris Jones, and Farragher said they feel confident the organization can overcome its faults, which Jones described as isolated and “not systemic to what’s going on at Hanna.”

It’s painful to expose weakness in the system, he said, and tricky, as well, said Farragher, because the center’s work is built on relationships and one-to-one counseling as it strives to help its vulnerable young clients find peace and purpose.

New protocols and policies include training of both staff and students to better understand signs of predation and abuse; physical changes, including improved line-of-sight into all offices; GPS trackers on facility cars and new regulations governing transport of students; and an overall effort to build accountability and verification into every process and procedure, he said.

“We’re taking all the steps we possibly can take,” Farragher said, “and nobody wants to get this right more than we do.”

Jones said donors also have continued to display faith in the organization. Despite an anticipated decline in year-end contributions, given negative press and revelations, donations actually rose?4 or 5 percent over last year, he said.

“I think they’re heartened that we’re dealing with it, and we’re being very transparent,” Jones said.

Smith currently directs the San Francisco clinical psychology program at Alliant International University. Previously, she was director of research and evaluation at Huckleberry Youth Programs and served as an assistant clinical faculty member at UC San Francisco in its child and adolescent support advocacy and resource center. Before becoming a psychologist, Smith worked as a high school teacher.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.