In 1973, Lenore Behar assumed the position of Chief of Child Mental Health Services in the state office of the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services. The major responsibilities of this position were to plan, develop, monitor, advocate for and provide technical assistance and training to the child mental health services in the area mental health programs serving 100 counties of North Carolina. Other responsibilities of this office were to manage resources, provide leadership for program development and financing of programs, ensure quality services to children and their families and to foster coordination of child mental health services with all other child serving agencies within the public and private sectors. Since the late 1970's, the provision of child mental health services in North Carolina has been recognized among the most outstanding of the 50 states, having progressed to a level of high quality services integrated with other agencies, and approaching a full continuum of care for its children. Lenore Behar had a key role in the Willie M. lawsuit in North Carolina, both in negotiating the settlement agreement and designing and initiating service system changes. Although her position with the State of North Carolina broadened considerably since 1973, she continued to be responsible for services to children with mental health problems and their families, with the title of Chief of Child and Family Services.

In August 2000, Lenore Behar assumed a new role with the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Abuse Services as the first Director of Child Research and Program Development. Lenore Behar carried out the responsibilities of this position in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University. In September 2001, Lenore Behar left her position with the State of North Carolina and became a full-time faculty member at Duke, where she had had an appointment since 1978. Her major responsibility at Duke was to serve as Associate Director of the National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. This center provides the leadership and coordination for the treatment/service research and development sites which are federally funded through the Donald J. Cohen Child Traumatic Stress Initiative at the Center for Mental Health Services. Lenore Behar has also worked as a research associate at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute's National Training and Research Center for Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Children at the University of South Florida and as a consultant to the Alisos Institute in Santa Barbara California and the National Technical Assistant Partnership for Children's Mental Health at the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC. She is currently the director of Child and Family Program Strategies, an organization dedicated to providing consultation on systems development and systems change. Please visit her curriculum vita for more details.