CIIS appointed Steven Tierney as the program director of its new groundbreaking graduate program in Community Mental Health. He began the position on January 8. Tierney brings more than 20 years of experience in the field of public and community mental health, specifically in HIV/AIDS prevention. He most recently served as the deputy executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and as cochair of the Mayor’s Task force on Crystal Methamphetamine.

In January Tierney was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to serve on the San Francisco Public Health Commission.

“We are thrilled to have someone of Steven Tierney’s experience and stature in the fields of public and community mental health leading and building CIIS’s innovative new graduate program,” said CIIS President Joseph Subbiondo.

Tierney played a key role in reducing new HIV infections in San Francisco. Specifically, among his innovations, was the creation of Magnet, the center for gay men’s health located in the Castro neighborhood and grassroots community outreach in neighborhoods severely affected by the disease, such as the Tenderloin and Bayview-Hunters Point. He is also credited with the creation of the Mayor’s Task Force on Crystal Methamphetamine, which tackles the interrelated speed and HIV epidemics.

In his role as program director of CIIS’s Community Mental Health program, Tierney will oversee all aspects of the new program, including student recruitment, curriculum development, selecting faculty, and program assessment. He will also be teaching one to two courses per semester.

Tierney has an MA in Counseling and Social Psychology from Wayne State University and an EdD in Education, Leadership and Supervision from Northeastern University. He has also done post-graduate work in Child and Adolescent Psychology.

CIIS will launch the concentration in Community Mental Health through its Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program in fall 2008. The Institute will simultaneously offer a new Certificate in Community Mental Health designed for those with a master’s degree in counseling psychology.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to prepare therapists to work in public settings and to provide new and more effective models of therapy,” said Tierney. “CIIS’s Community Mental Health program is designed to integrate the work experience of students, many of whom will come from community mental health settings, into the design of the curriculum. The process will be academically rigorous, alive, and inclusive.”