UC San Francisco Health Sciences Associate Clinical Professor Carrie Cunningham, MD, MPH, has been selected as the new director for the Division of Citywide Case Management Programs in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. The division, founded in 1981 and operated in conjunction with the Department of Psychiatry at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG), supports the recovery of San Francisco’s highest risk mentally ill adults and the reduction of their use of institutional and acute care services while helping to maximize their ability to maintain stable, productive, fulfilling lives in the community.
With more than seven years of experience as Citywide’s medical director, Cunningham has played a central role in developing integrated service models, expanding access to comprehensive care, and promoting health equity for individuals with serious mental illness. Her leadership has also been instrumental in initiatives such as the Enhanced Care Management program, substance use treatment innovations, and interdisciplinary training programs. She has served as the division's interim director since June 2024.
Cunningham has "[provided] visionary and compassionate leadership through period of strategic growth and transformation," said Mark Leary, MD, the deputy chief of psychiatry at ZSFG and a professor in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. "Her deep commitment to fostering health, hope, and belonging has strengthened our community and advanced our mission."
As a double-boarded psychiatrist and family medicine physician, Cunningham brings a unique blend of clinical excellence, academic leadership, and community engagement to her new role. She received her undergraduate degree from Yale University, a masters in public health from UC Berkeley, and undertook her medical training at UCSF. Cunningham completed a residency in psychiatry at Cambridge Health Alliance, as well as a residency in family and community medicine and a fellowship in public psychiatry at UCSF and ZSFG.
Cunningham's appointment to the position on a permanent basis is effective immediately.
About UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
The UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute are among the nation's foremost resources in the fields of child, adolescent, adult, and geriatric mental health. Together they constitute one of the largest departments in the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, with a focus on providing unparalleled patient care, conducting impactful research, training the next generation of behavioral health leaders, and advancing diversity, health equity, and community across the field.
UCSF Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences conducts its clinical, educational, and research efforts at a variety of locations in Northern California, including the UCSF Nancy Friend Pritzker Psychiatry Building; UCSF Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital; UCSF Health medical centers and community hospitals across San Francisco; UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals in San Francisco and Oakland; Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; the San Francisco VA Health Care System; UCSF Fresno; and numerous community-based sites around the San Francisco Bay Area.
About the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
The UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences, established by the extraordinary generosity of Joan and Sanford I. "Sandy" Weill, brings together world-class researchers with top-ranked physicians to solve some of the most complex challenges in the human brain.
The UCSF Weill Institute leverages UCSF’s unrivaled bench-to-bedside excellence in the neurosciences. It unites three UCSF departments—Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Neurology, and Neurological Surgery—that are highly esteemed for both patient care and research, as well as the Neuroscience Graduate Program, a cross-disciplinary alliance of nearly 100 UCSF faculty members from 15 basic-science departments, as well as the UCSF Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases, a multidisciplinary research center focused on finding effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and other neurodegenerative disorders.
About UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF’s primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area.
