SAMHSA names director of OBHE

Rachele C. Espiritu Ph.D. has been named as the Director of the Office of Behavioral Health Equity at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Prior to this, she was a founding partner of Change Matrix, where she played a pivotal role in driving and measuring change to promote behavioral health equity and improve the well‐being of individuals and communities. Previously she served as a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at Georgetown University Medical Center and as the Director of Evaluation for the Georgetown University Center for Child and Human Development. In these roles, she supported states and communities in building evaluation capacity for children's services and led internal evaluation initiatives for the Center. Esperitu's expertise spans behavioral health, evaluation, workforce development, leadership, systems change, and policy development. She has led numerous state and national initiatives supported by federal agencies and foundations, including the Pacific Southwest Mental Health Technology Transfer Center, the National Network to Eliminate Disparities in Behavioral Health, the Colorado Equity Compass, and Transforming Academia for Equity. Espiritu earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where she was honored as a Patricia Robert Harris scholar.