Hogg Foundation for Mental Health

Hogg Foundation Director to Step Down

September 10, 2007

AUSTIN, Texas – Dr. King Davis, executive director of the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, will end his leadership role at the conclusion of his contract early next year. The University will launch a national search for his replacement this fall."I am very pleased with the progress the Hogg Foundation has made in the past five years," says Davis. "We have built on the legacy of our former directors, staff, and advisors, while introducing new directions, priorities, and strategies in mental health philanthropy."

Davis has led the Foundation during a time of significant change. In 2005, the Foundation began focusing its grantmaking in strategically selected areas in order to maximize its impact in the field. The organization has also begun revamping its public policy and education activities to support its mission to promote improved mental health for all Texans.

"With Dr. Davis' guidance, the Foundation revitalized its mission, vision, goals and practices and has made a significant contribution to Texas as well as the nation," says Dr. Gregory J. Vincent, Vice President of UT-Austin's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, to which the Foundation reports.

Davis will return to his position as a professor in The University of Texas at Austin's School of Social Work. He has held the Robert Lee Sutherland Endowed Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy in the School of Social Work since 2000.

Davis recently was appointed to serve a three-year term on the Center for Mental Health Services National Advisory Council. The council makes recommendations to the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services in the areas of substance abuse and mental health services.

A former Commissioner of the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services from 1990 to 1994, Davis is co-author of The Color of Social Policy, published in March 2004 by CSWE Press. In February 2002, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Council on Social Work Education.

Davis served on the groundbreaking Surgeon General's Workgroup on Mental Health, Culture, Race and Ethnicity and helped write the report on cultural competence for the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which was released in 2003.

Davis was a professor of Public Mental Health Policy and Planning at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond from 1984 to 2000. During that period, he also held full professorships at each of Virginia's medical schools as the Galt Scholar from 1985 to 1988. From 1998 to 1999, he held the William and Camille Cosby Endowed Chair at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Also in 1998, he was appointed to the Libra Endowed Chair in the School of Business and Public Policy at the University of Maine. He taught at Norfolk State University's School of Social Work from 1974 to 1984.

Davis was awarded a doctorate from the Florence G. Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, in 1971. He holds master's and bachelor's degrees in social work from California State University in Fresno.

The Hogg Foundation for Mental Health is an administrative unit of The University of Texas at Austin. For over 65 years, the Foundation has accomplished its mandate through grantmaking to mental health services, research, policy, and public education projects in the state of Texas.