Oregon's Governor Tina Kotek has now announced that Juliana Wallace will join her administration as Behavioral Health Initiative Director in the Oregon Governor’s Office. Kotek's office says that Wallace will start in the Governor’s Office on September 5th, 2023

It is well known that Oregon is currently suffering from perhaps the worst behavioral mental health challenges in the country. These problems often are deeply intertwined with dismal education results of recent years and the crime and public drug use problems of late, which frustrates many Oregonians.

Kotek says that the new Behavioral Health Initiative Director Wallace brings a combined two decades of experience as a clinical social worker, operational leader, and educator to the role.

She states that for the first 10 years of her career in Portland, Wallace worked with homeless youth at Outside In, developing and managing the StreetRISE Project, a federally-funded program providing housing and behavioral healthcare to homeless youth as they transition into adulthood. She later worked in leadership at Oregon Health & Science University before serving as the Director of Services at Unity Center for Behavioral Health.

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Wallace was most recently the Senior Director of Mental Health and Culturally Specific Services at Central City Concern.

Additionally, she worked as an adjunct professor at the Portland State University School of Social Work for the last five years. Wallace is also on two local nonprofit boards.

"Oregonians deserve a coordinated, accessible behavioral health system that meets them where they are and matches them with the appropriate level of care that they need,” Governor Kotek said. “We have a ways to go to achieve this vision, and I am grateful that Juliana is bringing her years of experience and expertise to help us move this critical work forward."


--Ben Fisher

Post Date: 2023-08-03 12:29:31

Last Update: 2023-08-04 14:30:10