Keynote Presenter
King Davis, Ph.D.
King Davis is director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Texas at Austin. He served as the Executive Director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Services, Research, Policy and Education from 2003 to 2009. Since 2000, he has held the Robert Lee Sutherland Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy in the School of Social Work. He was a professor of Public Mental Health Policy and Planning at the Virginia Commonwealth University from 1984-2000. As the Galt Scholar, he held full professorships at each of Virginia’s 3 medical schools from 1985-1988. Professor Davis was awarded the Ph.D. from the Florence G. Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in 1971.
Dr. Davis is a former Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, serving from 1990 to 1994. At the University of Texas, he teaches courses in mental health policy, planning, and theory. He is conducting a study of the policies that led to the development of the Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane, the first mental institution for Africans in the United States.
He is co-author of The Color of Social Policy, published in March, 2004 by CSWE Press. His most recent articles were published in the American Psychologist, Journal of Social Policy, and the International Journal of Social Policy and Oxford University Press.
Day 2 Keynote Presenter
Rachel Guerrero
Rachel Guerrero, LCSW, is a bilingual, bicultural Latina social worker with over thirty years of experience in the mental health field. In 1998, she was appointed chief of the Office of Multicultural Services for the California Department of Mental Health, where she led the state’s efforts to develop culturally and linguistically competent mental health policies, programs and services at both the community mental health level and within the state hospital systems.
Prior to retiring from DMH she help secured support for funding of the CA Reducing Disparities Project. The focus of this $60 million dollar project is to identify Community Defined Evidence models for five racial/ethnic and cultural populations as a way to identify and support treatment approaches that are culturally and linguistically competent and seek solutions for reducing disparities.
In 1999 she received a national leadership award for her pioneer work in cultural competence from Georgetown University and in 2002 she received CA. Statewide Mental Health Cultural Competence Leadership award.
Ms. Guerrero currently manages her own national consulting and training practice, Guerrero Consulting Group, in Sacramento, California.
Day 2 Closing Plenary
Dr. Gloria Morrow
Dr. Gloria Morrow is one of the nation’s leading clinical psychologists, who devoted her early career to teaching students in undergraduate and graduate psychology programs. As an academician, clinician and author, her teaching, counseling and books have helped thousands of people find true inner healing. As a top-rated professional with profound insight in her trade, she has been featured in a host of newspapers, (such as the award-winning Inland Valley News, an African American weekly). Dr. Gloria is a Master Trainer for the CBMCS (California Brief Multicultural Competency Scale) Training Program, and she helped to develop the training curriculum.
California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) Plenary Panel
Primary Authors
Dr. Diane Woods
Reducing Mental Health Disparities in Black Californians Using Community-defined Practices: “We Ain‟t Crazy”, Population Report of the California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP): African American Strategic Planning Workgroup (SPW)
Dr. Rocco Cheng
Asian Pacific Islanders Population Report, California Reducing Disparities Project (CRDP) Asian Pacific Islander Strategic Planning Workgroup (API-SPW)
Poshi Mikalson
First, Do No Harm: Reducing Disparities for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Questioning Populations in California, California LGBTQ Reducing Disparities Project: LGBTQ Strategic Planning Workgroup
Kurt Schweigman
Native Vision: A Focus on Improving Behavioral Health Wellness for California Native Americans, California Reducing Disparities Project Native American Strategic Planning Workgroup Report
Dr. Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola
Community- Defined Solutions for Latino Mental Health Care Disparities, California Reducing Disparities Project Latino Strategic Planning Workgroup Population Report
