Gates is One of Three CT Leaders to Receive the Lifetime Achievement Award
WINDSOR, Conn. – Heather Gates, President and CEO of nonprofit behavioral healthcare provider Community Health Resources (CHR), was recently honored as a Lifetime Achievement Award winner as part of the Hartford Business Journal’s 2025 C-Suite and Lifetime Achievement Award honorees.
Gates is one of three to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes individuals whose careers have left a lasting imprint on their organizations and Connecticut’s business community.
As the president and CEO of CHR, Gates built one of the largest organizations in the state, serving over 25,000 children, families and adults every year. “I am proud of our values and the quality of the services we offer to those most in need,” Gates shared in the HBJ feature article.
Gates is a fierce advocate for individuals served by CHR. In Connecticut, Gates serves on the Board of Directors of The CT Community Nonprofit Alliance (The Alliance). She was also recently elected as the First Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, the nation’s leading advocacy organization representing agencies like CHR that provide mental health and substance use services for people across the country, following which Gates will become the Chair in 2027.
Gates has transformed CHR into an award-winning Top Workplace, recognized most recently by USA TODAY, Newsweek, and the Hartford Courant as a national and state Top Workplace, as well as a 2025 Nonprofit Top Workplace. Gates had the honor of receiving the Top Leader award through the Top Workplaces survey on three occasions since 2016.
“I’m humbled and honored by this award, which would not be possible without CHR’s hardworking and compassionate workforce. We are a team and are focused on fulfilling CHR’s mission of inspiring hope for individual and community wellbeing,” she added.
The full announcement from HBJ can be read here and Gates’ feature can be read here.
About CHR: CHR is Connecticut’s most comprehensive, nonprofit behavioral healthcare agency, offering a broad range of services for people of all ages whose lives have been touched by mental illness, addiction, trauma, homelessness and more. Accredited by The Joint Commission, CHR was the first nonprofit in CT to meet all of the rigorous federal criteria as a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic and has repeatedly been named among the Top Workplaces in the state. Learn more at www.chrhealth.org.
September 8, 2025
For more information, contact mmcguire@chrhealth.org.