Vanessa de la Cruz, MD  is based in New Orleans, LA  where she is the Louisiana State Medical Director for Eleanor Health, a behavioral health organization focused on substance use disorder treatment.  Prior to this her career has been devoted to public healthcare systems as Medical Director for San Mateo County Behavioral Health Services,as Chief of Psychiatry for Santa Cruz County Mental Health & Substance Abuse Services, and as director of Addiction Treatment Services for the Palo Alto VA Health Care System.  She became committed to working with medically underserved populations while working at Zaccheaus Free Clinic (now Bread for the City) in Washington, DC through Americorps.  She further fostered this focus while at Tulane Medical School and during her psychiatry residency at UCSF and Public Psychiatry Fellowship at Columbia University.  She is board certified in Adult Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine.  She is an Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Stanford and a gratis faculty member at  LSU School of Medicine, New Orleans.

She is passionate about W&EA’s mission and is a leader in systems development for both public mental health and substance use disorders models (appropriately referred to as behavioral health) and will come on board as the Senior Behavioral Health Advisor.