CHARLENE SEARS-TOLBERT

Founder and CEO

With a career spanning over thirty years in community-based organizations and passionately leading programs that served the marginalized and disenfranchised citizens, Charlene Sears-Tolbert is the Founder and CEO of CST & Associates. CST & Associates provides consultation, accreditation and regulatory evaluations, grant writing (cradle to grave), quality-improvement services, strategic planning, and program development to organizations worldwide. CST & Associates has successfully won millions of dollars in federal, state, and local funding for various community-based organizations.  CST & Associates also provides personal development services through retreats, workshops, and individualized coaching.

Charlene majored in Human Services Management at the University of Massachusetts/Boston, she received a master’s degree with honors in Psychology from National Louis University, and completed doctoral coursework with honors in Organizational Psychology at Walden University.  She has served as an adjunct professor of psychology for over nine years.   She utilizes academic and experiential knowledge to custom design personal and business strategies.

She is part of a prestigious cadre of professionals that are certified surveyors for the international Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) where she assesses and offers consultation to behavioral health organizations on conformance to over 1,500 professional standards. She is an internationally certified counselor, intensively trained in experiential therapies, a published author, and a national keynote/motivational speaker.

CST & Associates provides educational & consultative services within a trauma informed framework which utilizes evidence-based practices. Charlene and her team has significant expertise in the following areas: Substance Use and/or Mental Health Programs, Community Health Care, Women and Children/Family Services, Youth Services (including Community Schools and other alternative programming); Human Trafficking, Criminal Justice Populations, Employment & Self-Sufficiency, Homelessness, Food Insecurity, and Reentry/Transitional Services.

CST & Associates will handle all the technical components of your organizations so you can focus on what you do best!

Charlene is a gifted educator and facilitator.  Give her a topic and she will take care of the rest!