william t. rossiter award

This year's recipient is

Stephen W. Mayberg, PhD

Recently retired from the position, Dr. Stephen Mayberg served for 18 years as the Director of the California Department of Mental Health.  Amazingly, Steve was appointed to that post by three different Governors from both political parties to oversee and lead California’s statewide public mental health system.  All the more remarkable were the size and scope of the task. The largest mental health system in the United States, Steve led California state and Yolo County mental health programs as well as the huge DMH organization during a time of immense change and growth.  Specifically, he oversaw a $6.4 billion DMH budget, six state hospitals and two psychiatric programs, and more than 12,000 clinical and administrative staff statewide at the same time he shifted community and hospital mental health to local programs. Certainly setting some sort of record both for tenure and accomplishment, Steve Mayberg provided much needed system stability as Director of Mental Health; not to mention the remarkable breadth of his accomplishments as Director. Steve implemented numerous initiatives to improve mental health services and efficiencies for California counties and in state facilities, including innovation in cultural competence, criminal justice, and consumer services.  He implemented numerous contracts with a wide variety of community advocacy organizations to facilitate statewide inclusion of mental health stakeholders and to provide technical and local assistance regarding mental health issues. Steve was key to the design of "realignment" of mental health services to counties in California and he directed realignment implementation during the 1990s. He also oversaw the implementation a second sea-change of California mental health services after the passage the Mental Health Services Act.

During the decade of the 2000s, Steve Mayberg planned and oversaw immense changes and improvements with respect to mentally ill offenders. Driven by state policy makers, the state hospital system was constrained to become, essentially, a forensic hospital system. Steve skillfully oversaw this difficult transition along with the expansion of state hospital services to the CDCR facilities, the building and opening of the new SVP Coalinga State Hospital, plus the expansion of case load for the existing CONREPs and the new SVP CONREPs. Steve served as Vice-Chair of the California Council on Mentally Ill Offenders and is a key contributor as a member the California Chief Justice's Taskforce on Mental Illness and the Criminal Justice System.

Steve Mayberg continues his leadership and expertise in mental health services. He serves as President of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) Research Institute (NRI) and as Co-chair of the Quality & Accountability Council, National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) Research Institute (NRI).