Executive Management Team

Dr. Rochelle Head-Dunham

MHSD Executive & Medical Director

Dr. Rochelle Head-Dunham is a New Orleans native and currently serves as the Executive and Medical Director for Metropolitan Human Services District (MHSD), the Local Governance Entity tasked with service delivery for persons suffering from Mental Illness, Addictive Disorders and Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities for Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes. Dr. Dunham’s academic appointments include Clinical Assistant Professorships at both Tulane and LSU Schools Medicine. Her past immediate appointments were Assistant Secretary and Medical Director for the Office of Behavioral Health within the Louisiana Department of Health.

Dr. Head-Dunham’s academic and clinical leadership has fostered statewide advances in the field of behavioral health, where she has lectured, trained and taught, both locally and nationally. Her pioneering efforts have advanced knowledge, skills and application of the standard of care for co-occurring mental and addictive disorders.

She is also a trailblazer in her own right. A few of her accomplishments include:

• FIRST psychiatrist to finish an Addictions Fellowship at Tulane Medical Center.
• FIRST black to serve in a dual role as Assistant Secretary and Medical Director for the State of Office of Behavioral Health in Louisiana.
• FIRST physician representative for the National Association of Substance Abuse and Drug Addiction Directors, receiving the Service Award in 2015 for outstanding service & commitment to the field of substance abuse treatment.

Dr. Dunham’s mission and vision is to develop MHSD as the “Center of Excellence” for all behavioral, addiction and intellectual/developmental disability needs, through expanding partnerships and service expansion, thereby becoming the known “go to” agency, “Where we change lives!”