Smart announces withdrawal from Riverside Recovery Services

MOUNT VERNON – After nearly 10 years at the helm of Riverside Recovery Services, CEO Amy Smart plans to retire Oct. 1.

“I think we have a really strong clinical team and a really strong leadership team for the first time in 9.5 years,” Smart said. “That's a blessing as I work on my exit plan.”

Smart's son, Flint Postle, will succeed her as CEO.

“He put in the effort and was ready to tackle this,” Smart said.

A recovering addict herself, Smart opened Riverside's first facility in Lawrence County in 2015, where she lived after spending five years at the Ohio Reformatory for Women.

She opened the Mount Vernon office in 2017.

“I came to a KSAAT (Knox Substance Abuse Action Team) conference at Kenyon College and heard about the problems Knox County was having trying to get a handle on the drug problem,” she explained.

“I thought, 'Now would be the perfect time to expand Riverside.'”

After opening the outpatient treatment center, Smart founded the first assisted living facility for women in the district in January 2018.

Riverside opened a sober men's home in July, followed by a second home for women and men.

The company expanded to Coshocton County in February 2021 and to Morrow County in spring 2023.

From prison to the podium

Smart said the biggest challenge in her journey to Riverside was the recent change in Ohio Recovery's housing requirements, particularly the perception that it was “just housing” and did not include treatment.

“It was a challenge for our referring physicians to realize that while we would continue to offer treatments, they would only take place in our practice and not at home,” she said.

Smart also grapples with the for-profit vs. nonprofit challenge. Several local centers, such as Behavioral Healthcare Partners and The Freedom Center, are nonprofits. Riverside Recovery Services is for-profit.

In Lawrence County, profiteering was not an issue.

“It’s a challenge to make people understand that it’s not about the money, but about the services we provide to our customers,” Smart said.

“The challenge is to make them understand that it doesn't matter if you're for-profit or nonprofit. We're still working together to make a difference.”

“I think we have worked hard to overcome that stigma between for-profit and nonprofit organizations,” she added.

Smart said one of her greatest accomplishments was when the Chamber of Commerce named Riverside Recovery Services Business of the Year in 2023.

“It was a recognition that a behavioral health program could gain recognition for our work in the community,” Smart said.

Her second biggest success was receiving the “Women in Business Leadership 2020” award from the Chamber.

Smart said the leadership award is reminiscent of the phrase “from prison to podium.”

“It didn't matter where I had been,” she explained. “I was able to show other women that it doesn't matter where you have been. You can achieve anything you want.”

Riverside Recovery Services: The Next Generation

Over the past 9 ½ years, all three of Smart's children have played some role in the company. Their son, Flint Postle, has been with Riverside for seven years and has been its clinical director for the past 1 ½ years.

“Flint is the one who has really got a handle on it and understands it and wants to keep it that way,” Smart said.

Postle is aware that by assuming the role of Executive Director, he will be taking on a completely new project.

“It's partly new, but the flip side is real excitement,” he said. “I've seen what Riverside has done in Mount Vernon over the last five years.”

“I know that as an agency we can always do more because we know that addiction is never over and is constantly changing.”

Part of the challenge of the transition is realizing that things have changed since I joined Riverside seven years ago.

“Addiction is different, the environment is different,” Postle explained. “The challenge is how we can adapt as an agency and continue the necessary work to combat addiction in our community.”

Postle noted that COVID-19 has made everything chaotic and said that people and authorities are sometimes distracted from their mission.

He wants to return to the roots of what Riverside is known for: being an agency committed to healing individuals, families and the community.

“I am grateful for all that Amy has done over the past nine years, but I look forward to taking the baton, building on the foundation she has laid and building something more meaningful that will continue to increase the impact on our community and the people we are privileged to work with,” Postle said.

“I really enjoyed the trip”

Before going to prison, Smart moved from job to job without admitting that she knew her calling. Incarceration helped her find it.

“Riverside is my destiny. Riverside has given me a purpose over the last nine years like I've never known before,” she said.

“I really enjoyed this trip, even though it involved many sleepless nights and many long hours.”

Now she is ready to stay home and play with her puppy.

“And I'm definitely going to sit down and write my book,” Smart said, adding that she recorded the events as she went along.

“People have said it is not often that people come out [of prison] and turn their lives around.”

Smart will officially retire on October 1. Over the next month, she will slowly adjust to the new situation, allow herself more days off and quiet her internal alarm clock.

“It's going to be hard not being in the office,” she admitted. “I think I'm at a point where I'm ready, and Flint is ready. That's a good point.”

“I've been talking and joking about retiring for a while. But I'm ready to hand over the reins to him.”