David A. Sharar, PhD

Director of Business Development / Program Director of the Center for Behavioral Health Workforce Innovation

Graduated University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008

Specialty areas: workplace behavioral health and recovery; managed behavioral health; integrated care; cultural adaptation of “western” interventions; outcome measurement

Dave Sharar has been with Chestnut Health Systems for over 36 years and served as CEO for about 8 years before re-joining the Lighthouse Institute (LI) in October of 2025 (Chestnut is an integrated provider of community health and behavioral health largely focused on the medically under-served. With a staff of 800, about $80m is annual revenue, 13 service delivery sites, 118 distinct clinical programs, and 8 research centers, Chestnut offers a full continuum-of-care). For over 15 years, Dave was Managing Director of Chestnut Global Partners – a domestic and international workplace behavioral health/employee assistance firm with 600 employer customers, 1 million covered employees, and 123 network providers in 120 countries. His international work focused on the adaptation of “western” based program models and interventions to fit local cultural context in countries such as Brazil, China, Russia, and Hungary.  He was also a Research Scientist at LI where he conducted program evaluation, outcome studies, and industry analysis in the fields of employee assistance, managed behavioral care, work-life, and substance use treatment. He co-developed a validated outcome tool to measure workplace effects of interventions known as the Workplace Outcome Suite (WOS). The WOS was endorsed by EAPA as a “best practice” outcome measure and was freely used by over 400 employee assistance/well-being providers as a Pre/Post intervention measure of 5 workplace outcomes.

One of Dave’s roles in LI is to develop and lead a new Behavioral Health Workplace Innovation Center (BHWIC) to do evaluation research, outcome measurement, product development, trend analysis, and dissemination of findings in the following areas:

• Methods to prevent and respond more effectively to behavioral health issues among employees.
• Examination of employer sponsored behavioral health and wellness benefits.
• Improvement of workforce recruitment and retention in behavioral health provider settings.
• Supportive employment models for people in recovery.

Ph.D. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Focus: Occupational Social Work

M.S. Northern Illinois University, DeKalb. Focus: Community Mental Health

B.A. Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. Sociology and Psychology

Selected Publications: 

Herlihy, P., Sharar, D., & Robey, M. (2022). The Workplace Inclusion Scale: Another Tool for EAPs. The Journal of Employee Assistance, 52(1), 12–15. http://hdl.handle.net/10713/17482

Attridge, M., Sharar, D., DeLapp, G., & Veder, B. (2018). EAP Works: Global results from 24,363 counseling cases with pre-post data on the workplace outcome suite (WOS). International Journal of Health & Productivity, 10(2), 7–27.

Truman, S. D., Sharar, D. A., & Pompe, J. C. (2011). The Mental Health Status of Expatriate Versus U.S. Domestic Workers: A Comparative Study. International Journal of Mental Health, 40(4), 3–18. https://doi.org/10.2753/IMH0020-7411400401

Maiden, R. and Sharar, D., eds. Global perspectives of Employee Assistance Programs. London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group; 2016.

Burgess, K., Lennox, R., Sharar, D. A., & Shtoulman, A. (2015). A Substance Abuse Intervention Program at a Large Russian Manufacturing Worksite. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 30(1–2), 138–153. https://doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2015.1000159

Li, P., Sharar, D., Lennox, R., & Zhuang, W. (2015). Evaluating EAP counseling in the Chinese workplace: A study with a brief instrument. Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, 30, 66–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/15555240.2015.1000143

Jacobson, J. M., Pastoor, J., & Sharar, D. (2013). Predicting practice outcomes among social work employee assistance counselors. Social Work in Mental Health, 11(5), 460–472. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332985.2012.749827

Sharar, D., Popovits, R., & Donohue, E. (2010). Telephone counseling in Employee Assistance Programs: Is it effective? Is it legal? Journal of Compensation and Benefits, 26(1), 10–14. http://hdl.handle.net/10713/4133

Sharar, D. (2010). General mental health practitioners as EAP affiliates: Do they emphasize the workplace in EAP cases? WorldatWork Journal, 2Q, 49–57.

See all Publications

Appointments and Awards: 

Lifetime Achievement Award, Illinois Employee Assistance Professionals Association (2021)

Member of the year, Employee Assistance Professionals Association Annual Conference, Denver, CO (2011)

Psychologically healthy workplace award, International Assistance Program of Caterpillar, Inc. and Chestnut Global Partners, Illinois Psychological Association Annual Convention, Northbrook, IL (2005)

Alpha eta honorary society for outstanding healthcare professionals, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL (1988)

Illinois Association for Behavioral Health, Executive Committee of the Board (2021–2023)

Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health, Editorial Review Board (2009–present)

Employee Assistance Research Foundation, Board of Directors (2008–2019)

Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) (1990–current)

Employee Assistance Society of North America (1995–2015)

National Behavioral Consortium (2000–2018)

Related Links:

David Sharar LinkedIn

David Sharar Bibliography