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Rochelle Head-Dunham, MD, DFAPA, FASAM (she/her/hers)

Executive Director and Medical Director Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry LSU
Metropolitan Human Services District
New Orleans, Louisiana

Dr. Rochelle Head-Dunham, an Endowed Professor at LSU School of Medicine, is an addiction psychiatrist with academic appointments as clinical associate professor and 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 for the National Association of Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD), and the single state agency director for the National Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD). 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). Both awards are demonstrative of her career success as a thought leader and strategist for programmatic and provider development, well documented by extensive lectures and trainings, both locally and nationally. Her clinical acumen coupled with her transformative management style has shaped an administrative career that fosters enduring changes for both systems, organizational 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 Orleans and neighboring parishes.

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