Marvin (Marv) Southard, MSW, DSW, is the former Director of the largest county-run mental health services organization in the United States, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health (LACDMH), with a budget approaching $3 billion, serving more than a quarter of a million persons annually that supports innovative co-located services within schools, courts, other County departments, and various community organizations.
In this role at LACDMH, Marv assembled a groundbreaking team that accomplished creative and inclusive work with communities, including regional mental health urgent care centers, crisis response teams, children and older adult systems of care, Health Neighborhoods, and partnerships with faith communities to further social justice.
Marv has focused his career on empowering healthy urban and rural communities to strengthen recovery from mental health and substance use challenges. He served for a decade as a leader of community behavioral health services in East Los Angeles. Marv also founded substance abuse treatment centers and served as a clinical director and leader of numerous organizations, as well as acting in another county government leadership role as the Kern County Director of Mental Health.
On leaving government service, Marv continued to serve communities, mental health organizations, and governmental entities as a consultant and Professor of Practice at the University of Southern California (USC), where he developed the Professional DSW degree program, mentoring the next generation of community service leaders. He currently serves on the boards of numerous community organizations, including CIBHS, Proxy Parent Foundation, Mental Health America California, National Network for Social Work Management, The Grand Challenges of Social Work, and others. with former work colleagues and friends, he is a founding principal of Capstone Solutions Consulting Group. He and his wife Carolyn also conduct a weekly Catholic Bible Study at the California Men’s Colony prison.