Acadia Healthcare

Corporate Project Director of Nursing (DON) Remote w/Travel

Acadia Healthcare  •  Franklin, TN (Remote)  •  7 days ago
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Job Description

Corporate Project Director of Nursing (DON)Remote | Nationwide Role | 95-100% Travel

Lead With Purpose. Make an Immediate Impact Across Behavioral Health.

Acadia Healthcare is the largest stand‑alone behavioral healthcare provider in the United States, operating 313+ locations across 42 states and Puerto Rico. Our purpose is simple but powerful: Lead Care With Light - combining clinical excellence, compassion, and innovation to elevate mental health and addiction treatment nationwide.

About the Role

The Corporate Project Director of Nursing (Project DON) is a highly visible, mission‑critical leadership role responsible for delivering interim nursing leadership and operational support across Acadia facilities nationwide. This role is ideal for a seasoned nursing executive who thrives in fast‑paced environments, excels in change leadership, and is passionate about improving patient outcomes and stabilizing teams.

Important:

This role requires prior behavioral health experience in an inpatient psychiatric setting.

What You’ll Do

  • Serve as interim CNO or DON at facilities experiencing leadership transitions
  • Provide hands‑on operational and clinical support during critical periods
  • Partner with local leadership to stabilize teams, improve performance, and ensure compliance
  • Support onboarding and transition of permanent nursing leadership
  • Drive quality, safety, staffing optimization, and regulatory readiness initiatives
  • Act as a trusted leader during high-acuity, high-impact situations

Key Responsibilities

  • Oversees daily nursing operations to ensure safe, high‑quality patient care
  • Ensures compliance with Joint Commission, CMS, and state regulatory standards
  • Leads staffing and workforce planning based on acuity and census
  • Drives quality improvement, patient safety, and performance initiatives
  • Manages budgets, productivity, and resource utilization
  • Coaches and develops nursing leaders and frontline teams
  • Conducts rounding, supports crisis response, and ensures operational continuity
  • Contributes to strategic planning and organizational performance goals

What Makes This Role Unique

  • 95-100% travel across the U.S. (including occasional weekends)
  • Opportunity to impact multiple facilities and teams
  • Exposure to diverse behavioral health environments
  • Backed by strong corporate support and leadership resources
  • Ideal for leaders who enjoy turnarounds, stabilization, and high-impact work

Qualifications

  • Master’s degree in Nursing (Psychiatric/Mental Health preferred) required
  • 6+ years of nursing experience required; 10+ years strongly preferred
  • Prior experience working with the target patient population required
  • Minimum of 5 years of experience at the Director of Nursing level or higher required
  • Active RN Compact License required
  • Experience in a freestanding inpatient psychiatric setting required.
    • Experience in a Residential Treatment Center (RTC) and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) environments would be a bonus.
  • Current RN license in good standing required
  • CPR and de‑escalation/restraint certification required (training available upon hire)
  • First Aid certification may be required based on state or facility guidelines

While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of the requirements of the job, management reserves the right to add or remove duties from particular jobs when circumstances (e.g. emergencies, changes in workload, rush jobs or technological developments) dictate.

We’re committed to inclusion and equity.

Acadia Healthcare is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and strive to create an environment where every team member feels valued and supported.

Your time matters to us.We appreciate every application and review each one carefully. While we may only contact candidates whose experience most closely matches the role, we’re grateful for your interest and for considering us in your career journey.

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Acadia Healthcare

About Acadia Healthcare

Headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, Acadia Healthcare was established in January 2005 to develop and operate a network of behavioral health facilities across the country.

Acadia Healthcare’s mission is to create a world-class organization that sets the standard of excellence in the treatment of specialty behavioral health and addiction disorders.

Acadia’s management style and philosophy is one of collaboration and flexibility as we create an energetic and team-oriented service delivery system. Our organization values input from employees, physicians, and all strategic alliances. As evidenced in our mission statement, Acadia Healthcare’s mission is to create behavioral health centers where people receive care that enables them to regain hope in a supportive, caring environment. We want Acadia to be synonymous with excellent care, phenomenal customer service and an unparalleled commitment to our patients, staff, physicians, and community.

As a leading provider of behavioral healthcare services in the United States and Puerto Rico, Acadia Healthcare operates 253 treatment facilities across 39 states. Our network of treatment facilities offers multiple levels of care for various behavioral health and substance use disorders. At Acadia, our primary goal is to meet patients where they’re at in their treatment process. We do this by providing a multitude of levels of care, including detoxification, residential treatment for addiction, residential treatment for dual diagnosis, acute psychiatric inpatient hospitalization, medication-assisted treatment (MAT) services, and an array of outpatient programming options, ranging from partial hospitalization programs (PHPs) and intensive outpatient programs (IOPs) to traditional outpatient services. Our network of treatment facilities creates greater access to care, reduces the stigma associated with mental illness and addiction, and offers those in our communities a safe environment in which to receive the treatment they need.

Industry
Healthcare & Social Services
Company Size
1,001-5,000 employees
Headquarters
Franklin, TN
Year Founded
Unknown
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