Leadership

James L. Cavanaugh, Jr, MD
Founder, President and CEO
Chair, Board of Directors

Dr. Cavanaugh is the founder of the Isaac Ray Center, Inc., and serves as the Chair of its Board of Directors. His long and distinguished career includes roles as practicing psychiatrist, educator, administrator, and consultant.

In his capacity at the IRC, he has been responsible for leading the organization to its position as the largest nonprofit forensic and correctional mental health program in the country, currently providing services to the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) of Cook County. He also has served as professor of psychiatry at Rush Medical College, where he was director of the Section on Psychiatry and the Law for thirty years (from 1978 to 2008). In addition, Dr. Cavanaugh is the founder and Senior Associate of Cavanaugh and Associates, a forensic psychiatry consultation service in Chicago.

Throughout his career, Dr. Cavanaugh has been engaged in a broad range of evaluation, consultation, and intervention issues related to individuals who are a danger to others. He has served as an expert consultant on these issues to such organizations as the U.S. Secret Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Chicago Police Department, and the Illinois State Police Department. In addition, Dr. Cavanaugh has played key roles in the evaluation of such high-profile criminal defendants as John Wayne Gacy and John W. Hinckley, Jr., among others.

Dr. Cavanaugh is board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and in forensic psychiatry by the American Board of Forensic Psychiatry. He also has served as an examiner for both boards. He is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and abstracts on a variety of forensic psychiatry topics, and is the recipient of numerous grants and contracts from public and private sources. He also is a past president of the Illinois Psychiatric Society and editor emeritus of the periodical, “Behavioral Sciences and the Law,“ published by John Wiley and Sons. Dr. Cavanaugh received his A.B. degree from Williams College, and his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

Thaddeus (Ted) Garlewski, PhD
Director of Mental Health Services
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) of Cook County

Dr. Garlewski has been a member of the leadership team of the Isaac Ray Center since 2001, and has been the Director of Mental Health Services at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) since 2007. In his role, he is responsible for the development, coordination, and administration of mental health services and programming at the JTDC.

Under Dr. Garlewski’s direction, the IRC has built a team of full- and part-time professionals, including psychiatrists, psychologists, advance practice nurses, licensed clinical social workers, and mental health specialists. Working together, this team provides services to JTDC residents that conform to the best practices within the field of adolescent psychiatry, including strict adherence to standards of security, safety, and confidentiality necessary within the correctional environment.

In addition to his administrative responsibilities at the JTDC, Dr. Garlewski represents the Isaac Ray Center to numerous community and governmental partners including the Cook County Health and Hospitals System, the Cook County Court Services, and the Cook County Probation and Parole Board, as well as to such professional organizations as the Illinois Coalition on Mental Health and the Illinois Coalition for Advocacy.

Before assuming his position at the JTDC, Dr. Garlewski served as IRC’s Director of Psychology for the Cermak Health Service of the Cook County Jail from 2001 to 2007. Prior to that, he was the Psychology Services Coordinator for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, Division of Adult Institutions. He also has broad experience in a variety of practice and educational settings.

Dr. Garlewski received his Ph.D. in psychology from Nova University and is licensed to practice psychology in Illinois and Wisconsin.

Bruce Bonecutter, PhD
Director of Psychosocial Services
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) of Cook County

Dr. Bonecutter, who joined the Isaac Ray Center in 2006, is Director of Psychosocial Services at the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). He has been responsible for the start-up development and ongoing supervision and quality management of the psychologists, social workers, and mental health specialists who deliver mental health services to JTDC residents.

He has more than 30 years’ experience in the mental health field, with wide experience working at treatment centers, hospitals, and mental health entities in the nonprofit, private, and public sectors.

Before joining the Isaac Ray Center, Dr. Bonecutter was clinical director at a private residential treatment center where he guided the start-up and development of a multi-disciplinary mental health services program for female adolescents and young women. He also served as Executive Director of the Greater Northern Region of the Illinois Department of Human Services (Division of Mental Health), and has held positions at large institutions and regional facilities involving inpatient and community mental health services and quality assurance systems.

Dr. Bonecutter is a founding member of the Board of Overseers at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) Institute of Psychology, and also is a clinical assistant professor of psychology in the University of Illinois at Chicago’s (UIC) Department of Psychiatry. He has been a featured speaker at workshops and professional conferences on the local and national levels, and has been widely published in professional handbooks and journals. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology, an M.A. in psychology/social science research methodology from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in psychology/anthropology from Michigan State University.

Lynelle Thomas, MD
Interim Director of Psychiatric Services
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) of Cook County

Lynelle Thomas, MD will assume the position of Interim Director of Psychiatry. For the past three years she has served most effectively as a staff psychiatrist at CCJTDC under the terms of our contract. Dr. Thomas received her Bachelors of Science degree from Duke University and her medical degree from Rush Medical College. After completing a pediatric residency at the University of Chicago, she practiced pediatrics in Chicago’s Woodlawn, Kenwood and Altgeld Gardens public housing communities. Providing treatment in these high need settings raised her interest in the relationships between physical health, mental health, environmental and sociopolitical factors. She then completed adult, child and adolescent psychiatry training, as well as an NIMH-funded research fellowship, at Yale University School of Medicine, after which she accepted an Assistant Professorship at the Yale Child Study Center. In addition to teaching and supervising psychiatric and pediatric trainees, she directed the Yale-New Haven Hospital Pediatric Emergency Psychiatry Service. During this period she also consulted for several research and non-profit entities included the Yale University Program on Poverty, Disability and Urban Health; New York City’s Outward Bound Program; and the Connecticut Health Foundation. She also worked with the Connecticut Legislature on issues related to children’s behavioral health. To date, Dr. Thomas prefers to describe herself as a primary care physician, as she approaches her work with a focus on anticipatory guidance, prevention and early intervention with children and caregivers. Dr. Thomas views her position at the JTDC as an extension of her community service. She looks forward to supporting and expanding programs aimed at promoting the well-being of children and families with this new appointment.

Nancy Fowler, APRN, BC, CNP
Coordinator of Psychiatric Services
Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC) of Cook County

Nancy Fowler, APRN, BC, CNP has been appointed to the newly created position of Coordinator of Psychiatric Services. Ms. Fowler received a Bachelors of Science in Nursing degree from DePauw University and her Masters of Science in Nursing from Rush University. She completed her residency in psychiatry advanced practice nursing at the Pediatric Mood Disorders Clinic at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is board certified by the American Nurse’s Credentialing Center as a Family Psychiatric and Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Ms. Fowler’s nursing practice has included community and mental health nursing in a variety of settings. She has managed in-patient, partial hospitalization, and out-patient psychiatric and behavioral health services, and was the recipient of the Franciscan Award for Managerial Excellence, St. Margaret Mercy Health Care Centers, for three consecutive years. She has also been awarded the Luther Christman Award for Clinical Excellence in Nursing and the Mary Beth O’Halloran Nurse Mentorship Award in Psychiatric Nursing, both from Rush University Medical Center. She has been the senior psychiatric nurse practitioner for the IRC at JTDC since 2007.