The Longer Version

I’m a psychologist by training, but an innovator in practice. My career has been about building things: clinical training centers and programs, community partnerships, policy initiatives, academic infrastructure.

I've always worked for organizations that were scrappy underdogs. Where dollars were hard to find, staffing slim, and grit and resilience were keys to building and maintaining effective services and team cohesion. I've learned how to do more with less, and still produce substantive impact.

I’ve run clinical training programs in Chicago and Vancouver. I’ve served on a federal advisory committee, co-authoring reports to Congress. I chair a rural behavioral health policy board in Nevada—appointed by a Democratic governor, reappointed by a Republican. I’ve lobbied Congress. I’ve secured over $5 million in federal and private grants. I've helped universities start doctoral psychology programs and training placements. I’ve navigated accreditation, built community partnerships in disinvested neighborhoods, and led university divisions.

Through all of it, I’ve been the person others come to when they’re stuck. When they have a hard decision, a complex stakeholder situation, a program that won’t come together, a high-stakes ethical problem, funding innovation, a policy landscape they can’t read. I help them think it through and move forward.

Osten-Garner Advisory makes that official. It’s the work I’ve always done—now available to leaders who need a strategic thought partner, not a consultant with a slide deck.