Rochelle Head-Dunham, MD, DFAPA, FASAM, an Endowed Professor at LSU School of Medicine, is a double board-certified Addiction Psychiatrist with academic appointments as Clinical Associate Professor and Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at LSU and Tulane University Schools of Medicine, respectively. Her past immediate appointments were Assistant Secretary and Medical Director for the Office of Behavioral Health (OBH) within the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH). In that capacity, she represented the state of Louisiana nationally as the Mental Health and Addictive Disorders Authority serving as both the Commissioner of Mental Health and the State Substance Use Director. Her impact to systems change was evident in her leadership during the state’s conversion to statewide Medicaid managed behavioral healthcare. She was also an early adopter of collaborative integrative care models, for coordination of primary and behavioral comprehensive healthcare in the field of behavioral health.
Dr. Head-Dunham’s academic and administrative leadership has fostered noteworthy advances in the fields of addiction and mental health. She has served as a subject matter expert on various national and state platforms informing best practices for the field of behavioral health. Her clinical accolades include Clinical Faculty of the Year for the 2021 academic year at LSU School of Medicine. In 2019 she was the recipient of the Nyswander/Dole Award from the American Association for the Treatment of Opioid Dependence, INC. (AATOD). Her clinical acumen coupled with her transformative leadership style has shaped an administrative career that fosters enduring changes for systems, organizations and individual levels of performance. Dr. Rochelle Head-Dunham is a New Orleans native who currently serves as the Executive Director and Medical Director for Metropolitan Human Services District (MHSD), a state local governing entity tasked with service delivery for indigent and Medicaid ensured persons living with mental illness, substance use disorders and intellectual/developmental disabilities, residing in New Orleans and neighboring parishes.
Rochelle is speaking during Making Tough Decisions: When & How To Close Or Change Services.