Leadership at NorthStar Day.
Together, they define our standard of excellence, thoughtfully shape our comprehensive program, and personally mentor our team to ensure every child receives transformative, compassionate care.
Brandi Rials, PsyD
Dr. Brandi Rials is the Chief Clinical Officer and co-founder of NorthStar Day and Palm Beach Behavioral Health and Wellness. In addition to her executive leadership, she oversees clinical operations and standards, serves as the Clinical Director for NSD and PBBHW's psychology training programs, and has been a faculty member teaching graduate-level courses in lifespan development and expressive arts therapies with children.
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Dr. Rials specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of neurodivergent children and adolescents, including presentations of ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorders, disordered eating patterns, anxiety, and academic differences. She offers therapeutic services for individuals, groups, and families and conducts neurodevelopmental, diagnostic, and psycho-educational evaluations. She also provides consultation services, clinical oversight, trainings, and APA continuing education presentations for providers in the community.
As a Florida Licensed Psychologist, Dr. Rials subscribes to a holistic approach to treatment, incorporating social, emotional, academic, nutritional, and physical health components into her clinical recommendations and interventions. With compassion and understanding, she works with a child's entire system to help build strengths and attain individualized growth.
Kelly Everson, PsyD
Dr. Kelly Everson is a Florida Licensed Psychologist who co-founded NorthStar Day and serves as its Executive Director of Psychological Services and Training Director.
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Dr. Everson specializes in the psychotherapy and assessment of children, adolescents, and families, and has worked with people diagnosed with autism since 2006. Her experience spans group therapy with adolescents and parents, individual therapy, and family therapy. She says she feels renewed every time she sees change in a client, particularly a social victory.
Alongside autism, she works with ADHD, mood disorders, peer pressure, and bullying. She has extensive experience completing full psychological and psycho-educational evaluations, and she often attends Individualized Education Plan meetings alongside the families she works with.
Dr. Everson is a certified facilitator in John Gottman's Bringing Baby Home program for new parents, and she regularly holds parenting workshops in the community.
Jonathan Stevens, MD, MPH
Dr. Jonathan Stevens is NorthStar Day's Chief Medical Officer. He holds board certification in adult psychiatry, in child and adolescent psychiatry, and in obesity medicine, and has worked across hospital and outpatient settings since completing his training in 2009.
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He completed his residency in adult psychiatry and his fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital in Boston. He earned his medical degree and his Master of Public Health at New York Medical College, and his bachelor's degree at Swarthmore College.
Before NorthStar Day, Dr. Stevens was Chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Chief of Outpatient Services at the Menninger Clinic in Houston, and held a faculty appointment in the Menninger Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Baylor College of Medicine. Earlier he was medical director of a pediatric psychiatry inpatient unit in Massachusetts and the physician in charge of an outpatient clinic for a Michigan health system.
Dr. Stevens treats mood disorders, ADHD, anxiety, OCD, and the behavioral presentations that come with autism and other developmental differences. His own practice runs past the ages NorthStar Day serves, to adults and to cases that pair a psychiatric diagnosis with addiction.
He has published peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on psychopharmacology, several of them on stimulant treatment and medication levels in children. His clinical interest is in how an individual metabolizes a psychiatric medication, and in managing the side effects that come with one.
James McManus, LMHC
James McManus is the Chief Executive Officer of NorthStar Day, Florida's first multidisciplinary program designed specifically for neurodivergent children. Drawing on experience in mental and behavioral health since 2007, James is building NorthStar Day to close a critical gap in specialized care for the state's most underserved young patients, ages 5–12.
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James's career has been defined by a consistent pattern: identifying where young people and families lack access to specialized care, then building the solution. After gaining extensive experience as a counselor and clinical director, in 2014 he founded a Palm Beach Gardens residential treatment center specializing in complex trauma. He grew the boutique program, built on a family systems approach that treats substance use and mental health concerns as issues affecting the entire family unit rather than the individual alone, into one of the most respected adolescent behavioral health companies in the country. Over nine years, James led it through sustained growth, culminating in the company's successful sale, while maintaining an unwavering commitment to high ethical standards and strong relationships with payers and colleagues.
With NorthStar Day, James is applying that same proven approach to a younger population. Where that program addressed a gap in adolescent care, NorthStar Day addresses a similarly urgent and underserved need: comprehensive multidisciplinary support for neurodivergent children.
James holds a Bachelor's degree from Florida State University and a Master's degree from Palm Beach Atlantic University. He began his clinical career at the Caron Foundation's Hanley Center, where thousands of hours of individual, family, and group therapy shaped the treatment philosophy that would later become the foundation of the program he went on to found.
James is widely regarded as a highly ethical, empathic, and visionary leader in mental and behavioral health. His work has always been driven by a deep commitment to ensuring that young people and their families, regardless of age or diagnosis, have access to the specialized, compassionate care they deserve. NorthStar Day represents the next chapter in that lifelong mission: bringing a first-of-its-kind, multidisciplinary model of care to Florida's neurodivergent children and the families who support them.
One team. One place. One plan.
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