CEO/COO
VITALITY UNLIMITED
Elko, Nevada
Ester Quilici graduated from the University of Santa Clara with a bachelor’s and turned to the business world and management. At the University of Santa Clara, Quilici learned lifelong lessons about service, critical thinking and the pursuit of individual values. Beginning in 1984, Quilici began to develop many of the Vitality Unlimited programs that are in operation today. Since then, Vitality Unlimited has grown from a one-administrator outpatient clinic in Elko, Nevada, to an agency that provides both residential and outpatient behavioral health treatment throughout the state. Vitality has diversified its services to become a community housing development organization, with projects that include transitional housing, multi-family affordable housing, senior housing, and housing for homeless veterans.
In 2017, she led the development of one of the first Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC) in the country, an original demonstration clinic in a rural frontier area in Nevada, followed by two direct federal expansion CCBHCs and finally a state expansion CCBHC. All of which are still operational and doing well.
In 2023, she helped found the Behavioral Health Association of Nevada. She is the treasurer of the nonprofit board, which was formed to be inclusive of any individual who works in or supports behavioral health. They are building a statewide coalition of behavioral health professionals, elected officials, leaders in the public and private sectors, and other interested individuals to work together to overcome the behavioral health and addiction challenges throughout Nevada.
Quilici credits Vitality’s success to the hard work of the many women who have believed in Vitality and the work it does. Although she did not expect to make a career at a behavioral health nonprofit, Quilici takes immense pride in the fact that her work at Vitality will continue to touch the lives of its clients for years to come.
E18 - Innovations Integrating Substance Use Care and Partnerships in the CCBHC Model
Monday, May 5, 2025
4:30 PM – 5:30 PM ET