Region 4 Director

Sylak, executive director of the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Lucas County for more than a dozen years, was previously the founding executive director of Lucas County Treatment Alternatives to Street Crimes (TASC), Inc, and past president of National TASC. He is also the past president of the Ohio Justice Alliance for Community Corrections. Sylak currently serves as the president of the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities, vice chair of the Lucas County Family and Children First Council, and secretary of the Toledo/Lucas County Homelessness Board. A licensed independent chemical dependency counselor, Sylak focuses his OneOhio board work on improving access to behavioral health treatment services, re-establishing quality emergency psychiatric services, reducing homelessness, and developing strategies to reduce the number of people with behavioral health disorders in the criminal justice system. A Toledo native, Sylak received a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Toledo.

Sylak sees his service on the board as a chance to use his professional skills, such as grant-writing and collaboration outreach, to address the opioid epidemic. On a personal level, he lost a nephew to a drug overdose and sees hundreds of families in his area experience the same tragedy annually: “This knowledge serves as motivation to do what I can to reduce opioid-related deaths and fight the stigma associated with substance use disorders.”