Kathy Sanders to serve as Deputy Commissioner, Department of Mental Health, Massachusetts
Posted: October 15th, 2012
After 12 years of service as Program Director, Kathy Sanders announced this month that she is stepping up as Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Mental Health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
The Department of Mental Health for Massachusetts oversees mental health care and policy for the entire Commonwealth. In her new role, Kathy will work closely with state Commissioner Marcia Fowler, who stepped up as head of the Department of Mental Health in February. As Deputy Commissioner, Kathy will be responsible for the standards and regulation of all state and contracted mental health inpatient and community-based programs, as well as training and research grants, which serve over 21,000 citizens suffering from severe and chronic mental illness.
The announcement comes as a great honor to the MGH/McLean Psychiatry community. “We are very proud of Kathy’s achievement,” says Justin Baker, Associate Director of the Research Concentration Program. “It is an expression both of her talents as a clinician, educator, and communicator. We are thrilled about this opportunity to extend our potential impact, and are pleased that Kathy will be able to put her expertise to use ensuring the quality of mental health care in Massachusetts.” Kathy Sanders has been a vital presence in the MGH Department of Psychiatry since she arrived in 1988 for a psychosomatic fellowship. While distinguishing herself as an attending physician in the inpatient psychiatry unit and as Director of the Acute Psychiatry Service, Kathy also served as Associate Residency Training Director for 9 years. In 2001, she took on the role of Director of the MGH McLean Residency Training, overseeing the early years of the combined residency program. Throughout her distinguished career, she has served as a primary mentor to scores of psychiatry trainees, and has launched the careers of psychiatrists who are now spread across the country and the globe.
As Kathy prepares to begin her new role on November 1, we thank her for her years of dedicated leadership and wish her well in her new position!