Josh Gardner, MBA

Josh Gardner serves as Chief Financial Officer of Engage Young Adult Transitions, bringing 14 years of experience in accounting, finance, and organizational leadership, including 12 years focused on behavioral healthcare. His expertise includes behavioral healthcare finance, revenue cycle management and insurance reimbursement, financial strategy, budgeting and forecasting, accounting and reporting, operational leadership, and building financial systems that support sustainable behavioral health organizations.

Josh earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Southern Utah University in 2015 and an MBA from Southern Utah University in 2019. He began his career as an auditor with EY before moving into behavioral healthcare. Since then, he has held progressively broader leadership roles with The Hope Group, including Accountant, Controller, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Director, and Chief Operating Officer.

Throughout his career, Josh has worked at both the technical and strategic levels of behavioral healthcare finance. Rather than working only at the executive level, he has personally built financial dashboards, forecasting tools, performance metrics, revenue cycle processes, and operational systems used to guide organizational decision-making. His experience includes cash-flow management, long-term financial planning, behavioral healthcare revenue cycle management, insurance reimbursement, financial reporting, budgeting, forecasting, and continuous improvement.

At Engage, Josh works closely with clinical and operational leaders to build the financial and organizational foundation necessary to provide high-quality treatment to young adults and their families. He views financial strength not as an end in itself, but as a prerequisite for sustaining excellent care, investing in employees, improving systems, and allowing a behavioral healthcare organization to fulfill its mission over the long term.

Josh is particularly interested in the intersection of finance, operations, and continuous improvement in behavioral healthcare. His perspective combines hands-on knowledge of financial and revenue cycle systems with the organization-wide experience he developed serving as a CFO, Executive Director, and COO. He has presented on financial strategy and financial management in behavioral healthcare for treatment conferences, trade organizations, and industry audiences and has contributed to professional education through articles, podcasts, webinars, interviews, and other industry content.

Josh is most proud of helping build organizations that provide meaningful treatment while creating strong employment opportunities for the people who deliver that care. He was drawn to behavioral healthcare in part because of the creativity, entrepreneurship, and problem-solving required to build organizations that can continue improving over time.

Outside of work, Josh is an avid endurance athlete. He competed in track and cross country at Southern Utah University and continues to participate in marathons and HYROX competitions. Most of his remaining free time is spent with his family, including coaching and watching his two sons play soccer. He is also a longtime fan of The Office.