Minot native named to lead North Central Human Service Center

MINOT, N.D. – The North Dakota Department of Human Services has selected Minot native John Butgereit as regional director of the North Central Human Service Center in Minot.

Butgereit has been the statewide telehealth coordinator for the department’s eight regional human service centers, their three satellite clinics and the North Dakota State Hospital since March 2020. Early in the pandemic, he led an effort to rapidly expand access to tele-behavioral health services for vulnerable North Dakotans. He was also instrumental in implementing statewide centralized behavioral health screenings using telehealth to serve individuals who went to a human service center seeking walk-in behavioral health services.

He joined North Central Human Service Center in 2014 as a licensed clinician providing individual, family and group therapy to individuals with mental health needs. Later, he was named the center’s clinical unit supervisor and was responsible for conducting assessments and providing clinical supervision of seven master’s level mental health therapists and graduate students working towards licensure.

He also previously worked in the private sector, where he provided therapy services in an acute psychiatric hospital. Before that, Butgereit spent four years working at a residential treatment center for adolescent males, where he developed individualized treatment plans and facilitated therapeutic groups of at-risk youth.

Butgereit is a licensed professional clinical counselor. He earned a master’s degree in counseling from Boise State University and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of North Dakota.

He will assume the regional director position on May 3. His appointment follows the April 30 retirement of Laurie Gotvaslee.

The department operates eight regional human service centers and three satellite clinics and provides medically-necessary behavioral health services to vulnerable North Dakotans. The centers primarily serve individuals with persistent, serious mental illness and substance use disorders, including pregnant women and others who use intravenous drugs.

North Central Human Service Center serves residents of Burke, Bottineau, McHenry, Mountrail, Pierce, Renville and Ward counties.