Victoria Sofro grew up in Northern California and attended USC School of Social Work, where she was certified in psychosocial rehab counseling. She had her first exposure to people with mental illness in her early twenties through taking care of a family member. She later worked as an art therapist for a group called the […]
Stephen Mayberg, PhD, retired as Director of the California Department of Mental Health in December 2010, after serving in this capacity for more than 17 years. During his tenure, he embarked on an ambitious agenda that included major initiatives to reform the mental health system. These reforms reflected changes based on programmatic research, and program […]
Gloria Sheppard is Mental Health Clinical Program Head at the American Indian Counseling Center in Cerritos, California. Transcript
Jerry Wengerd first worked in a psychiatric hospital as a conscientious objector and found his true calling there. He earned his master’s degree summa cum laude from California State University Fresno in 1975. Wengerd served as Director of Mental Health in Mariposa County (1980-88) and in Fresno County (1988-2005), where he was also Director of […]
John Sheehe is the Co-Occurring Disorders System-wide Coordinator for LAC-DMH, part of the Office of the Medical Director. He earned his BA at San Francisco State and spent several years in the airline industry before returning to school to become certified as a Chemical Dependency Counselor and then to complete a Master’s in Social Work […]
Carol S. Hood earned her Bachelor’s degree at the University of California and her Master’s degree from the University of Minnesota, before joining the California State Department of Mental Health’s Systems of Care Division in 1988. She managed the State’s effort to shift Medicaid mental health services to a managed care system in the 1990’s, […]
Russell “Rusty” Selix, J.D., was one of the most important advocates for increased funding and innovation in the California mental health system in recent years. He attended Northwestern University and earned his law degree at the University of California at Davis, before becoming a policy advocate. After working as the deputy city attorney for the […]
Lisa Wong originally planned to become a physician but became fascinated by psychology in medical school and instead chose a career in social work. During twenty-three years at Downtown Mental Health Center, she saw many change in the Skid Row area. At the time of the interview, she was Clinical Program Head for the Wellness, […]
Stacy Williams is a nurse with a Master’s in Health Administration. She finished her graduate degree just as the DMH clinics were beginning to transform under MHSA, which she saw as an exciting opportunity. After serving as head of Crisis Resolution at Downtown Mental Health Center, and later of the Wellness and CalWORKS programs there, […]
Suzane Wilbur received her master’s degree in nursing in 1983 and led mental health crisis units at Metropolitan State Hospital, at the Skid Row Mental Health Center (now Downtown Mental Health Center), and at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. In 1991, she worked with Dr. J.R. Elpers and the South Bay Chapter of NAMI to set up […]