Kita S. Curry, Ph.D.

Dr. Kita Curry, President/CEO of Didi Hirsch Community Mental Health Center, joined the agency in 1994.  A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Dr. Curry was a professional poet before embarking upon her career as a psychologist.  She earned her doctorate in psychology at UCLA sponsored by a National Institute of Mental Health Training Grant.  While at UCLA, she also received a Regents’ Research Grant and a Shepherd Ivory Franz Teaching Award.

Dr. Curry is especially proud to be the leader of an agency that helps the economically disadvantaged because when she was young and uninsured, she received treatment for depression at a community mental health center.  Personal experience also motivates her efforts to erase the stigma associated with mental illness and help families navigate the mental health system: suicide claimed the lives of an uncle and a cousin, and one of her siblings has received services from the County’s mental health system.

In addition to her leadership at Didi Hirsch, Dr. Curry volunteers with a number of advocacy groups.  She currently serves as President of the Board of the California Council of Community Mental Health Agencies (CCCMHA), and she is a member of the State Department of Mental Health’s Suicide Prevention Plan Advisory Committee and the Iris Alliance Fund’s Leadership Council.  She previously served on the Prevention and Early Intervention advisory committee of California’s Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission and was President of the Board of the Association of Community Human Service Agencies (ACHSA).  In recognition of her advocacy, the Urban Los Angeles chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness honored her with a “Heroes in the Fight” award in 2005.

Dr. Curry’s service to the community also has included volunteering as a certified Red Cross mental health disaster counselor.  After the 1994 Northridge earthquake, she was one of the first therapists on the scene in Santa Monica.

BACK TO LEADERSHIP