Alabama’s Mental Health Commissioner to Speak at UA Social Work Colloquium

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The University of Alabama School of Social Work will open its 2011-12 Colloquium Series Monday, Sept. 19, with guest lecturers Zelia Baugh, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Mental Heath, and Dr. Tammy Peacock, associate commissioner for the mental illness and substance abuse division.

They will discuss “New Directions at the Alabama Department of Mental Health.”

Their talk will be held from noon-1 p.m. in 223 Little Hall on the UA campus. The lectures are free and open to the University community and the general public.

Baugh has more than 18 years experience in health care. She has served on the ADMH Advisory Board of Trustees since 2008. Additionally, she worked on the department’s Systems Reconfiguration Task Force, which, to a large extent, mapped out the future needs of the state’s mental health system for the next decade.

Before becoming commissioner, she served as administrator of psychiatry at the University of Alabama in Birmingham Center for Psychiatric Medicine. Prior to that, she was the administrative director of psychiatry at Brookwood Medical Center in Birmingham — the largest private sector psychiatric program in the state.

Peacock has been involved with services for individuals with substance use disorders for more than 20 years. Most recently, she was the Juvenile and Family Drug Court Coordinator with the Alabama Administrative Office of the Courts. Before that she served as the counselor/acting clinical director of the U.S. Army Substance Abuse Program at Fort Rucker.

For more information, contact the UA School of Social Work at 205/348-3924.