CBHA's 40th Anniversary Celebration
Honoring 40 Behavioral Health Stars Who Lit The Path
Join us in celebrating 40 years of advocacy and partnership at CBHA's 40th Anniversary Event! Experience an unforgettable evening of inspiration and recognition as we honor 40 Behavioral Health Stars who have profoundly impacted our communities.
November 6, 2025 | 5:30 - 9:00pm
Arrival: 5:30 - 6:00
Awards: 6:00 - 7:15
Reception: 7:15 - 9:00
California Museum
1020 O Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Behavioral Health Hall of Fame
Behavioral Health Champion Award
Anthony Portantino
Former Senator
State of California
Anthony Portantino
Anthony Portantino is the proud father of two terrific daughters, Sofia and Isabella. He is an approachable, community focused public official with an impressive record of legislative and budget related accomplishments. He represented California’s great 25th State Senate District for the past eight years and served six years in the State Assembly before that.
Born and raised in New Jersey, Anthony came to California to work in film and TV production. As a Senator, he was a leading advocate for the Entertainment Tax Credit to keep and expand film and TV production in California. He personally negotiated the current five-year extension of the tax credit with the Newsom administration and he created the $150 million incentive to build more studios in California.
During his time in office, public education, mental health, and sensible gun control were his legislative priorities. He worked collaboratively with CBHA to expand mental health education in California and on suicide prevention efforts. Additionally, he championed increased funding for special education and public education overall. He created California’s umbilical cord blood collection program, pushed back school start time for middle and high school students, banned the open carry of handguns on Main Street, raised the purchase age of firearms to 21, and placed the suicide hotline number on student identification cards. In addition, his efforts created a science fellowship in the State Capitol and established a unique partnership between the University of California and Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Foster youth, LGBTQ+ students, dyslexic children and students suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome have benefited from the Senator’s effective leadership. HIV testing became easier and more efficient in California while thousands of deserving college students have had their Cal Grants increased because of the Senator’s public service and commitment to our youth.
Anthony is an avid and daily bike rider. He has championed active transportation and personally negotiated the end of the 710-freeway tunnel expansion paving the way for Pasadena to develop the long-dormant freeway stub.
From monitoring micro plastics in drinking water, establishing the plan to clean up our oceans and helping to retrofit school kitchens with efficient and environmentally friendly dishwashers, Senator Portantino has worked collaboratively with local environmental activists on strong sustainability projects and delivered results.
He proudly represented the Rose Bowl, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Griffith Park Observatory, the LA Zoo, Warner Brothers, Disney, Caltech and the Claremont Colleges. Anthony can often be seen attending live performances in many of the 25th Senate District’s numerous nonprofit theaters. A published poet and author of three novels, he is a staunch supporter of the arts and worked closely with Actor’s Equity and theatre companies to establish a state program to support live performing arts venues.
In the Senate, he Chaired the Senate Appropriations Committee and a Select Committee to foster trade between California, Armenia and Artsakh. A close and trusted friend of the Armenian American community, he has been honored to have visited Armenia numerous times where he established the California trade desk in the capital city of Yerevan. He is the only US Legislator to have taken an emotionally powerful tour of Artsakh post 44-Day War.
Senator Portantino is a product of public education, a proud PTA member, Girl Scout dad and 20-year AYSO soccer referee. He graduated from Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania where he met his wife Ellen on the school’s library steps and the rest, as they say, is history.
Darrell Steinberg
Founder
Steinberg Institute
Darrell Steinberg
Darrell Steinberg is California’s strongest public advocate for better mental health care. He is known within the mental health community as a long-time champion.
Darrell became passionate about mental health during his time on the Sacramento City Council. In 1997, the City of Sacramento engaged in a lawsuit against Loaves and Fishes, a private charity providing food to the homeless. The free lunches began to draw thousands of homeless people who were seen as a nuisance to local businesses near the shelter in North Sacramento. Former Mayor Joe Serna and then Councilmember Steinberg were the only two members to vote against the lawsuit. Upon further investigation into the rapidly increasing homeless population, Steinberg learned that an overwhelming portion of homeless suffered from mental illness and did not have access to proper mental health care. From this point onward, Darrell has worked to bring awareness and solutions for what he calls “the under-attended issue in our time and in our society.”
AB 34 Pilot Projects
During his first year in the State Assembly, Steinberg authored AB 34, which began three pilot projects that provided integrated services to the homeless in Stanislaus, Los Angeles and Sacramento counties. The pilot was so successful in lowering hospitalization, incarceration and homeless episodes the program was expanded to more than 30 counties in late 2000. The success continued for 5,000 people per year.
Mental Health Services Act
In 2004, Steinberg authored Proposition 63, the California Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), approved by California voters on the November 2004 statewide ballot. He worked with advocate, Sherman Russell Selix, Jr. to co-author the proposition. The act imposes a 1% tax for mental health funding on incomes over $1,000,000.
The Mental Health Services Act created a “whatever-it-takes” approach to support and service those with severe mental illness. Services can include providing a safe place to live, a job, help in school, physical health care, clothing, food, or treatment when a mental illness and a substances abuse disorder are combined. The Act also requires that twenty percent of the annual dollars be invested in Prevention and Early Intervention services (PEI). The philosophy of the MHSA is to engage individuals before they develop serious mental illness or serious emotional disturbance and to alleviate the need for additional or extended mental health treatment.
The Mental Health Services Act has proven to be a cost effective way to address mental health care. The Act was the first of its kind in the United States and has directly helped thousands of Californians.
SB 82 – The Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act of 2013
Darrell also authored the Investment in Mental Health Wellness Act of 2013 (SB 82), which allocated $142 million in state General Funds for a grant program to expand the number of community-based mental health crisis services. This bill aims to significantly improve access to mental health crisis services by funding a major statewide expansion of crisis residential and stabilization beds and mobile crisis capacity. It pays particular attention to reducing recidivism by prioritizing mental health help to those in crisis.
The Steinberg Institute - Advancing Mental and Behavioral Health Leadership
In 2014, Darrell established The Steinberg Institute for Advancing Mental Health Policy. The Steinberg Institute will focus on building public leadership for focused improvements in California's systems of mental and behavioral health. There is much work to do and many places to start. Once started with notice and impact, the Institute will expand its mission wherever its work can be most effective.
The Institute’s first goal is to organize a robust 2015 legislative agenda for mental health in California and engage more members, from both parties, to carry the agenda. The Institute will organize the disparate advocates, develop and cull the best legislative ideas, recruit the Legislators as authors, announce the agenda, and develop the strategies to pass and enact as many important bills as possible.
The agenda will be organized around 5 categories; mental health and criminal justice; housing and homelessness; the plight of veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other war related emotional problems; children, specifically the impact of untreated mental illness on behavior and academic performance; and health care itself, specifically the need to invest in timely identification and treatment of mental health conditions. The Institute will seek to address the disparities in access to necessary care that disproportionately impact people from racial and ethnic communities and to make sure that its resources highlight best practices and ensure meaningful comparative outcome reporting.
Health Equity Champion Award
Devika Bhushan, MD
Senior Health Equity Advisor
California Behavioral Health Association
Devika Bhushan, MD
Devika Bhushan, MD, is a pediatrician, public health leader, author, and keynote speaker on a mission to drive health innovation, resilience, and equity. Her expertise spans trauma-informed systems, stress and resilience, mental health, and gender and health equity — with insights featured in The Lancet, Pediatrics, JAMA, NBC, NPR, Slate, and The Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Bhushan serves on Stanford’s adjunct faculty, as Chief Medical Officer at Daybreak Health, which brings personalized mental health support directly to youth and families, and as a senior strategic advisor to entities that aim to advance health, innovation, and equity, ranging from non-profits to a venture capital firm. She serves on the national Board of Directors of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s leading mental health advocacy organization, and the California Partners Project, co-founded by California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom to focus on child well-being and gender equity.
Previously, as California’s Acting Surgeon General (2022) and its inaugural Chief Health Officer (2019-2022), Dr. Bhushan was a key public health spokesperson and advisor to California’s Governor. In these roles, she led policy and practice innovation at a statewide level by co-leading the launch and implementation of the $500 million ACEs Aware initiative, focused on healing from childhood trauma.
Dr. Bhushan is also an award-winning mental health spokesperson, known for publicly sharing her journey with bipolar disorder while serving as California’s Acting Surgeon General to destigmatize mental illness and spread hope. She leads a vibrant newsletter community and YouTube channel/podcast to share evidence-based insights for well-being, and stars in the documentary BrainStorm (2025).
Dr. Bhushan trained at Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins. She is a parent, an immigrant, and a first-generation Indian American.
Stacie Hiramoto, MSW
Director
Racial and Ethnic Mental Health Disparities Coalition
Stacie Hiramoto, MSW
Stacie Hiramoto, MSW, has been a mental health advocate and proud social worker for many years. She is one of the founders and presently Director of the Racial and Ethnic Mental Health Disparities Coalition (REMHDCO), a statewide mental health policy and advocacy organization representing BIPOC communities. REMHDCO has been an integral part of the highly acclaimed California Reducing Disparities Project for over a decade. Stacie served as staff under the former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, as well serving as Director of Legislative Affairs and Government Relations for the California Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. She is also honored to have worked for the late Rusty Selix for over a decade.
Consumer Advocate Award
Gina Warren, PharmD
CEO and Founder
Neighborhood Wellness Foundation
Gina Warren, PharmD
Gina Warren is the Co-founder and CEO of Neighborhood Wellness Foundation (NW), a non-profit organization dedicated to navigating and disrupting intergenerational trauma and poverty in North Sacramento’s Del Paso Heights and nearby communities. Dr. Warren leads an innovative, multigenerational team combining academic, clinical, and business expertise with significant lived experience, including over 125 combined years of incarceration on paid staff. NW focuses on addressing disparities linked to Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), toxic stress, and neighborhood trauma. Under Dr. Warren’s leadership, NW drives a cross-sector, community-led collaborative ecosystem that strategically partners with various agencies to tackle issues at the intersection of intergenerational trauma and poverty. These issues include poor mental and physical health, violence, substance use disorders including fentanyl crisis, illiteracies, homelessness, incarceration, and socioeconomic paralysis. Notable Achievements Under Dr. Warren’s Leadership include: Hosted the first COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Del Paso Heights. School-Based Health Center: NW lead the collaborative effort in opening and coordinating the first school-based health center in Del Paso Heights at Grant Union High School. Reducing recidivism and improving violence mitigation by employing former gang-involved and incarcerated individuals as neighborhood navigators and community health workers. NW Instrumental in reducing Fentanyl-related deaths in Sacramento County by providing Opioid Awareness and Narcan education & distribution to both housed and unhoused individuals, churches, students, faculty and other community-based organizations. Received recognition and a recommendation in California’s Racial Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) final report for NW’s training expertise to California Law Enforcement aligned with RIPA’s goals to reduce racial profiling of black and brown neighbors. Dr. Warren holds a doctorate in Clinical Pharmacy from UCSF and has been a licensed clinical pharmacist for 28 years and is Phase I certified in the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics® with Dr. Bruce Perry. Dr. Warren’s leadership and NW’s holistic approach significantly contribute to the well-being and empowerment of the Del Paso Heights community and surrounding areas. She is determined to continue raising awareness at local, state and national levels about the impact of intergenerational trauma and poverty, promoting strategies to disrupt their transfer of adversity.
Recent Leadership and NW Honors: 2024: NW Consumer Advocate Award (CBHA), Community Impact Award (Alpha Kappa Alpha), All-Star Community Impact Award (Sacramento Kings, SMUD); 2023: NAACP Unsung Hero Award, Social Venture Philanthropy: Kandris Community Leader Award, Citizen of the Year (Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.), 2022:Community Activist Award (California Black Chamber of Commerce), Peacemaker Award (CSU Sacramento), Black History Legacy Award, 2020: Exceptional Woman of Color (EWOC), Community Activist Award
Marilyn Woods
Chief Financial Officer
Neighborhood Wellness Foundation
Marilyn Woods
Marilyn is a Co-Founder and manages the corporate development of Neighborhood Wellness. She serves on the board and assist with executive management and strategic development. She is the retired CEO/CFO of the Institute for Fiduciary Education, a company she worked at, co-owned and managed for 28 years. As an entrepreneur of a multimillion-dollar business she oversaw daily operations, developed strategic opportunities, created program content, directed marketing, initiated program development, and managed fiscal operations. The Institute for Fiduciary Education developed educational seminars for large public and private pension funds, endowments and foundations on investment diversification strategies and portfolio management including real estate, international investing, equity and fixed income investing, derivates, etc.
Anh Thu Bui, MD
Project Director, 988-Crisis Care Continuum
California Health and Human Services Agency
Anh Thu Bui, M.D.
Dr. Bui has worked as a community psychiatrist in California for over twenty years, serving individuals of all ages in several county specialty mental health programs and community health centers. She earned her Medical Degree from the Mayo Clinic School of Medicine in 1995 and holds board certifications in Psychiatry, Community and Public Psychiatry, and Addiction Medicine. She is a proud alumna of the California Health Care Foundation Health Care Leadership Program, administered by Healthforce Center at UCSF.
Much of her work in advocating for individuals with serious mental illness and substance use disorders has been informed by experiencing and witnessing trauma in her family and community as a refugee from Vietnam, and 35 years later, seeing the positive expansion of essential health services via the Affordable Care Act. She worked at the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) for two years as a Medical Consultant in Behavioral Health, including serving as Project Director for the SAMHSA 988 Cooperative Agreement to DHCS to support implementation of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
She is honored to have joined the California Health and Human Services Agency since October 2023 to work on 988 implementation and integration into the crisis care continuum and improve behavioral health services for all Californians.