Staff Spotlight, Shamane McAdams

Tell us about yourself! 

My name is Shamane McAdams (she/her), and I am a Behavioral Health Technician (BHT) Manager at Veritas Collaborative’s Child and Adolescent Treatment Center in Durham, North Carolina. I have been working with Veritas for over six years! Fun fact: my first day of work was also my birthday! It remains the only year I have ever worked on my birthday.

What does a typical day look like for you at Veritas Collaborative? 

There is no typical day for me! I usually jump from meeting to meeting, problem-solve clinical staff challenges related to patient needs, train new hires, and check in with my staff on urgent items that need addressing.

What would you like people to know about the role of a BHT Manager?

BHT managers often manage the largest departments while juggling many tasks/roles that touch every on-site department. We work alongside other site leaders to ensure the needs of our patients are met.

What motivates you to show up for work each day?

Frontline staff are the glue that holds residential facilities together. These staff don’t always receive the recognition and appreciation they deserve. What motivates me to show up for work are my employees. They care immensely about our patients, and I am so grateful for the work that they do. I absolutely make it my duty to try my best to ensure they feel how much value they bring to this organization. I show up because they show up.

If you could do another job just for a day, what would it be? 

I would be a food blogger. I am a huge foodie. Discovering new places and new foods brings me so much joy. Sharing these moments with people I care about makes it even better. I have an entire spreadsheet of restaurants I enjoy, organized by price and other essential factors.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

I didn’t know how to pronounce my middle name until I was in high school. My dad is the only person who ever uses my middle name, which is Nicole (pronounced nee-kole). One day, I asked him why he’d been saying it wrong, and BAM, to my surprise, it was me who was saying it incorrectly. You learn something new every day.