Deb Spradlin, director of the Department of Behavioral Medicine at Mercy Hospital Clermont, was recently named manager of the year by Business Career, Inc.

“I feel very humbled by the recognition and very proud,” Spradlin said Feb. 29. “This award is really for the staff here at the hospital who do so much to help eliminate the stigma that still surrounds mental illness.”

Spradlin, who received the 30 pound, obelisk shaped award at the downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel awards ceremony and banquet Feb. 26, was one of six finalists up for the manager health care hero category award.

Spradlin, who has been the director of the behavioral medicine department for the last three years and lives in Anderson with her husband Jeff Lydenberg and two daughters, thinks that she was nominated by the more the 50 staff members that she manages (and many other community members) for the hero manager award because of the positive initiatives that she has helped to put into place regarding the mental health community, including her instrumental leadership in forming the mental health alliance (formed in 2006) that has now expanded out of Clermont County to encompass the entire Greater Cincinnati area.