Our Leadership Team
Deanna Watson is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been serving individuals and families in the Will-Grundy County area for the past 30 years. She graduated from the University of St. Francis in Joliet, IL in 1989 earning a double major in social work and psychology. Deanna attended the George Williams School of Social Work at Aurora University achieving a master’s degree in social work in 1994, with a specialty in mental health.
Deanna worked for Cornerstone Services, Inc (a large nonprofit in Joliet, IL) for 22 years. Deanna is currently the Clinical Director for Alliance Counseling & Coaching, LLC (offices located in Channahon, Joliet, and Plainfield) and has been part of their executive team for the past 15 years. Alliance Counseling & Coaching, LLC has 27 therapists that proudly serve our local communities.
Deanna has experience working with an array of populations including adults, families, adolescents, and persons with disabilities. She provides individual, marriage, and family therapy. She has experience treating severe forms of mental illness. At Alliance, Deanna provides direction and mentoring to the team of therapists in addition to seeing her own clients.
Deanna has been married to Karl Watson for the past 33 years. She has lived in the Will-Grundy area for over 35 years. They have three adult children and are blessed with seven beautiful grandchildren. Deanna’s father struggled with serious mental illness and alcoholism. Her mom died of lung cancer during Deanna’s high school years.
Deanna is the co-founder of the Mental Health Matters Fund. Establishing and growing this nonprofit stems from a personal passion for seeing people achieve wellness by accessing treatment. Her goal is to reduce deaths by suicide in our area by working with the local communities to promote awareness and education. Deanna is proud of the community she lives in. She knows there are many people who want to make an immediate and positive difference by partnering with us to make this nonprofit successful, meaningful, and sustainable.
Katie Diaz-Hughes is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor who has been serving children, adolescents and adults in the community for 20 years. She graduated from North Central College in Naperville, IL in 2005 with a double major in Psychology and Community Conflict Resolution. She went on to complete her master's degree in Community Mental Health Counseling from Capella University in 2012.
Katie has volunteered and worked in many facets of community mental health since 2004, when she first began volunteering in the domestic violence shelter at the Guardian Angel Home in Joliet, IL. Upon graduation, she stayed on for three years as a part-time children’s counselor in their Groundwork program while also working full-time as a Crisis Counselor/ Hospital Liaison for SASS of Will County. In 2007 she transitioned from serving children, adolescents, and families to working full-time with adults in the Behavioral Health Program at Cornerstone Services, Inc in Joliet, IL. In 2013 Katie transitioned into private practice where she worked for Alliance Counseling and Coaching as a therapist. In 2015, Katie partnered with longtime friends to create and open her own private practice, Evolve Therapeutic Center, in Minooka, the community she grew up in.
Katie has a passion for mental health, wellness, and suicide prevention. She seeks to make the world a better place by creating a ripple of change whenever and wherever she can. She has worked with an array of different populations including children, adolescents, couples, families, and adults with severe and chronic mental illness. Specializing in the areas of grief and trauma, Katie chose to become a Yoga Alliance 200-hour certified teacher in 2020 to further enhance her work in these areas and to promote/enhance overall mental health and wellness. Community is something that is near and dear to Katie’s heart. The communities she has worked in have been the very same communities she has grown up in, lived in as an adult, and chosen to raise her family in. She has three sons and is married to her high school sweetheart. She is actively invested in her large extended family of aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, and nephews. She fully believes, “It takes a village;” not only to raise children but to live well and be supported. Katie is the co-founder of the Mental Health Matters Fund because she is passionate about mental health and wellness, passionate about reducing the loss of life by suicide in our community, and passionate about doing better. Katie believes this isn't something we should seek to do, but something we need to do. She believes when enough people pause long enough to listen, understand, and take action we can reduce stigma, promote awareness, and support and encourage each other to, "Say Yes to Help!” It is her passion to ensure as many individuals as possible have access to mental health services. This is a mission she is deeply honored and motivated to take head-on with a group of equally passionate and like-minded women. Katie often says, “Together, we can do hard things." She believes that with hope, faith, and compassion, change in how we, as a community, treat and respond to mental health conditions is possible.
