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Allashia is affectionately known as Allie and is the youngest of four, born in Mount Vernon, New York, to southern parents both from the Carolinas who migrated to New York with their parents in the early 1960's. Allashia is a “New Yorker”, more specifically a “Westchester County Girl” in that she has resided there most of her life, with the exception to her years serving in the United States Army immediately following high school.
Allashia is a first-generation college graduate, having received both her bachelor’s in psychology and Masters in Mental Health Counseling from Mercy College. She is a New York State professional, Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor and an Advanced Certified Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counselor. Allashia served as one of the first mental health counselor-adjuncts in the Mental Health Counseling Graduate Program at Mercy College as a result of discovering her voice of advocacy early on. Allashia began her journey towards completing a doctoral degree (PhD) in Human Services with a focus on Social & Community Services but had to pause due to personal reasons; she intends to resume said studies very soon.
Allashia has a wide range of experience across the healthcare spectrum, having certification and training in varied areas including but not limited to medical billing, credentialing, medical assistant, phlebotomy, medical crisis management, call center triage, diabetes training, staff development and more. She has also provided leadership to clinical teams across healthcare which include care coordination/case management, managed care organizations and community mental health for more than 15 years. During this time, she developed a particular love for the Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model, first as an ACT team leader and, more recently, overseeing ACT teams as Senior Director of Clinical Services and then as the Vice President of Community Programs at Mental Health Association of Westchester. In her recent role, Allashia had oversight over several clinical community-based programs such as ACT, Mobile Crisis Response Teams, Single Homeless Assessment Center (SHAC), Adult Sex Offender Programs and more, coupled with involvement in other community affairs, trainings & development. During her time with MHA, Allashia was able to develop actionable solutions to improve care, programmatical structure, processes and workflows and exercise innovation and forward thinking even during the most challenging conditions such as COVID-19.
Allashia is a sought-after motivational speaker, mentor and self-published author, within the Black church and the faith-based communities at large. Her clinical interests are guided by an extensive history with the Black church, a passion for helping marginalized communities, centering the voice of people with lived experience, and combatting stigma to help people become their healthiest and best version of themselves.
Allashia serves alongside her beloved husband, Pastor Bryan E. Harris, as spiritual leaders of the Unity Temple Church of God in Christ in Brooklyn, NY, is a proud member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc. (one of the “Divine Nine” Black Greek Letter Organizations), is a member of the Leadership Westchester Alumni Association (LWAA) but overall, her greatest joy is found in being a mom and role model to her two beautiful girls.
Please join us in welcoming Allashia Smith-Harris to our staff.
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