Behavioral Health Services
2025 Judge Stephen S. Goss Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
Dr.
Debra Pinals is widely
recognized
for
her
leadership
in
substance
use
law
and
policy,
civil
commitment,
law
enforcement
mental
health
response,
crisis
systems,
competency
restoration, and architectural
design
of
forensic
facilities
and
correctional
mental
health
services. As
Michigan’s
medical
director
of
Behavioral
Health
and
Forensic
...
Programs
for
the
Department
of
Health
and
Human
Services
and
director
of
the
Program
in
Psychiatry,
Law,
&
Ethics
at
the
University
of
Michigan
Medical
School, she leads
statewide
efforts
to
strengthen
diversion,
reentry,
and
treatment
partnerships.
She also co-developed
MISSION-Criminal
Justice,
a
wraparound
model
supporting
people
in
the
justice
system
with
co-occurring
disorders. Dr. Pinals has
served
as
chair
of
NASMHPD’s
Forensic
Division
and
currently
serves
as
senior
medical
and
forensic
advisor
and
editor-in-chief. She
has
also
served
as chair
of
the
Council
on
Psychiatry
and
the
Law
for
the American Psychiatric Association.
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2025 Judge Stephen S. Goss Lifetime Achievement Award recipient
Chief
Justice
Debra
Hembree
Lambert
has
been
a
driving
force
for
improving
court
responses
to
people
with
behavioral
health
needs
for
many
years.
Through
her
vision
and
compassion,
she
has
positioned
Kentucky
as
a
national
leader
in
judicially-driven
behavioral
health
...
reform.
An
early
champion
of
Kentucky’s
Drug
Court
program,
Chief
Justice
Lambert
has
long
promoted
treatment-focused
alternatives
to
incarceration
or
foster
care.
In
2022,
she
established
the
Kentucky
Judicial
Commission
on
Mental
Health
(KJCMH),
a
first-of-its-kind
initiative
helping
to
expand
responses
to
mental
health
needs
and
improve
competency
processes.
Under
her
guidance,
KJCMH
has
aligned
its
work
with
resolutions
passed
by
The
Conference
of
Chief
Justices
and
the
Conference
of
State
Court
Administrators
to
improve
the
justice
system's
response
to
people
with
serious
mental
illness.
She
also
helped
expand
court-based
behavioral
health
liaison
positions
and
mental
health
courts
and
secure
legislation
such
as
Seth’s
Law,
which
addressed
competency
evaluation
backlogs.
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2025 Judge Stephen S. Goss Award recipient
Dr.
Katherine
Warburton
is
the
medical
director
for
the
California
Department
of
State
Hospitals,
overseeing
the
nation’s
largest
forensic
inpatient
system.
Board
certified
in
adult
and
forensic
psychiatry,
she
has
dedicated
her
career
to
transforming
systems
of
care
for
people
...
with
serious
mental
illness.
Dr.
Warburton
has
led
statewide
reforms
to
address
California’s
Incompetent
to
Stand
Trial
(IST)
crisis,
including
designing
and
implementing
the
IST
Mental
Health
Diversion
Program,
which
has
redirected
thousands
from
jails
to
community-based
treatment.
She
also
guided
the
development
of
enhanced
treatment
programs
and
the
pioneering
California
Violence
Assessment
and
Treatment
guidelines.
Nationally
recognized
for
her
leadership
and
scholarship,
she
has
advanced
trauma-informed,
evidence-based
approaches
that
reduce
disparities
and
improve
public
systems’
responses
to
mental
illness.
Dr.
Warburton
has
served
on
SAMHSA’s
Interdepartmental
Serious
Mental
Illness
Coordinating
Committee
and
sits
on
the
board
for
the
National
Association
of
State
Mental
Health
Program
Directors’
(NASMHPD)
Research
Institute.
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