Luanne Southern

Chief Behavioral Health Strategist, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services

Luanne Southern is the Chief Behavioral Health Strategist for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services.  She formerly worked at the University of Texas System Office of Health Affairs as the Executive Director for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium. Luanne has held positions at the national, state, and local levels within the governmental, philanthropic, academic, and non-profit sectors.  She was the Deputy Commissioner for the Texas Department of State Health Services and worked as a Strategic Consultant for Casey Family Programs, a national operating foundation focused on improving outcomes for youth involved with the child welfare system. Luanne provided advocacy on child and family issues for the national office of Mental Health America, and provided national training and technical assistance to state, county and tribal child welfare agency recipients of the federal Administration on Children and Families grant program, Improving Child Welfare Outcomes Through Systems of Care. She has been a leader in the development of innovative services and financing mechanisms to improve access to community-based children’s mental health care at the state and local level. Ms. Southern holds a Master’s degree in social work from the University of Texas at Austin, and a Bachelor’s degree in social work from Goshen College in Indiana.