Overview
The Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCMHCC) was created by the 86th Texas Legislature to leverage the expertise and capacity of the health-related institutions of higher education to address urgent mental health challenges and improve the mental health care system in this state in relation to children and adolescents.
Staff & Leadership
The Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCMHCC) is staffed by The University of Texas System, through a contract with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

David Lakey, MD, University of Texas System
Presiding Officer
David Lakey is Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs and Chief Medical Officer for The University of Texas System. He is also Senior Adviser to the President at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. Dr. Lakey served as Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services from January 2007 to February 2015.
Currently he serves on the March of Dimes Board of Trustees and the Trust for America’s Health Board of Directors. He earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry, graduating with high honors from Rose‐Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute, Indiana, and received his medical degree with honors from Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Lakey was a resident in internal medicine and pediatric medicine and completed a fellowship in adult and pediatric infectious disease at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Luanne Southern, MSW, University of Texas System
Executive Director
Luanne Southern currently works at the University of Texas System as the Executive Director for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium, which was created by the 86th Texas legislature in Senate Bill 11 to address gaps in mental health care for children and adolescents in Texas. Luanne most recently provided strategic consulting services to the Texas child welfare system as a Senior Director for Casey Family Programs, a national operating foundation focused on improving – and ultimately preventing the need for – foster care. She previously served as Deputy Commissioner for the Texas Department of State Health Services. Luanne has many years of national, state and local experience in health and human services, with an emphasis on policies and practices that address the behavioral health needs of children, youth and families. Ms. Southern has an MSW from the University of Texas, and BSW from Goshen College in Indiana.

Lashelle Inman, MBA, University of Texas System
Senior Program Manager
Lashelle Inman, MBA, is Senior Program Manager for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium. Prior to coming to UT System in 2016, she was an Information Technology Program Manager at Caesars Entertainment Corporation in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she was responsible for overseeing the implementation of a multi-million-dollar portfolio of projects that supported 13 functional areas within the company. She received her MBA from Schiller International University and her BA in Political Science from Texas A&M University. From 2004-2011 she worked in England as a Business Analyst and Program Manager, working with departments within two local government Councils to shift services online as a part of a national e-Government initiative. She has experience in leveraging technology to better integrate and improve service lines, developing strategic plans, business process mapping and managing complex programs of work across distributed teams.

Nagla Elerian, MS, University of Texas System
Director of Population Health Strategic Initiatives
Nagla Elerian is the Director of Population Health Strategic Initiatives at the Office of Health Affairs at UT System. Prior to joining the UT System, Nagla was the Director of the Center for Health Statistics at the Department of State Health Services. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology and a Master of Science in Health Statistics with a minor in Geography. In 1995, Nagla established the first electronic Birth Defects registry in Texas. In 1998, she established an evaluation program for Medicaid managed care where she initiated many improvements to the Medicaid managed care data and reporting. In 2000, she joined the NorthSTAR program where she initiated many reporting mechanisms to allow the use and sharing of data for program improvements. In 2007, Nagla joined the Decision Support unit at the Mental Health and Substance Abuse, where she developed through a multi-stakeholder collaboration the risk assessment tools to allow the state to evaluate and manage mental health centers and substance abuse providers using financial, access, quality and outcome indicators.

Jonathan Lewis, MPA, University of Texas System
Financial and Contract Manager
Jonathan Lewis is the Financial and Contract Manager for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium. Prior to coming to the UT System, he was a Senior Policy Analyst at Every Texan where he worked on policies to improve economic opportunity in Texas. Jonathan’s previous work also includes budgeting and policy analysis for both the Texas Legislative Budget Board and the New York City Office of Management and Budget. He received his Master’s in Public Administration from New York University and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Baylor University.

Sarah McLaughlin, LCSW, University of Texas System
Project Manager
Sarah McLaughlin, LCSW, is the Project Manager for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium. Prior to her work at the UT System, she developed and facilitated trauma-focused wellness programming for Google Trust & Safety teams. She received her BSW and MSSW from the University of Texas at Austin and has dedicated her last 10 years working as a manager, therapist and social worker serving mental health needs in the Travis County area, primarily with youth and families. Sarah finds passion in her work to improve health outcomes through research, planning, and measurable action with a focus on trauma, development, and systems.

Monae Thomas, University of Texas System
Project Support Specialist
Monae Thomas is the Project Support Specialist for the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium. Prior to joining the UT System, Monae was the Development Coordinator for a local school district’s education foundation that provides support to 45 campuses by enhancing the educational experience. She has 6 years of experience providing Applied Behavior Analysis therapy to children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other developmental disabilities in schools, centers, and homes across Texas, Georgia, and Alabama. Monae has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Alabama in Huntsville and an Associate in Science with honors from Southern Union State Community College.

Anissa Adams, University of Texas System
Communications & Graphic Design Intern
Anissa Adams is a Texas State University student in the Digital Media Innovation department.

Reeya Patel, University of Texas System
Project Coordinator Intern
Reeya Patel is a 2nd year Master of Public Health student at UTHealth School of Public Health studying Epidemiology. She recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Public Health. Reeya has interests in public health research, epidemiology, child & adolescent mental health, and global health.
Vision
All Texas children and adolescents will have the best mental health outcomes possible.
Mission
Advance mental health care quality and access for all Texas children and adolescents through inter-institutional collaboration, leveraging the expertise of the state’s health-related institutions of higher education, local and state government agencies, and local and state mental health organizations.
Initiatives:
- The Child Psychiatry Access Network (CPAN) provides telehealth-based consultation and training to primary care providers.
- The Texas Child Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) program provides in-school behavioral telehealth care to at-risk children and adolescents.
- The research initiative has created two state-wide networks to study and improve the delivery of child and adolescent mental health services in Texas.
- The Community Psychiatry Workforce Expansion (CPWE) funds full-time academic psychiatrists as academic medical directors and new psychiatric resident rotation positions at facilities operated by community mental health providers.
- The Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) Fellowships program expands both the number of child and adolescent psychiatry fellowship positions in Texas and the number of these training programs at Texas HRIs.
Structure
The TCMHCC is composed of the following entities:
- The 13 state-funded health related institutions of higher education in Texas
- The Health and Human Services Commission
- The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), which will receive the funding from the state and send it to the Consortium members.
- Three nonprofit organizations that focus on mental health care: Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, and the Texas Council of Community Health Centers
- A Hospital System representative
- The University of Texas System, which is the administrative support entity
- Any other entity that the executive committee considers necessary

Contact
For more information on the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium (TCMHCC), contact Luanne Southern at lsouthern@utsystem.edu.
For media inquiries, contact the Texas Child Mental Health Care Consortium at tcmhcc@utsystem.edu.