Mental Health Programs

About CMHS

Marie Danforth, M.S.W.
Branch Chief
State Planning and Systems Development Branch

Since September 2001, Marie Danforth has served as the Chief of the State Planning and Systems Development Branch within the Division of State and Community Systems Development of the Center for Mental Health Services. As Branch Chief, Ms. Danforth provides national leadership in the development of public systems of care for adults with serious mental illnesses and children with serious emotional disturbances and in the implementation of legal advocacy efforts to protect the rights of these populations. Ms. Danforth oversees the administration of the Community Mental Health Services Block grant program, the largest CMHS grant program, that provides funds to all 50 States, the District of Columbia and eight U.S. Territories. She also oversees the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Program that funds 57 Protection and Advocacy Systems throughout the country to protect the civil rights of persons with serious mental illnesses and serious emotional disturbances.

During her tenure as Branch Chief, Ms. Danforth has guided the development and implementation of the Uniform Data Reporting System and the National Outcome Measures—efforts to collect uniform data from the States that can be used to obtain national statistics on the State’s public mental health system and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Community Mental Health Services Block grant program. In addition, Ms. Danforth is currently collaborating with the Office of Management and Budget and other Federal agencies with Protection and Advocacy programs to develop a standardized Protection and Advocacy data collection tool for use by all Federal agencies.

Ms. Danforth came to CMHS in 1992 and served as a Public Health Analyst for the Community Mental Health Center Construction grant program until she joined the State Planning and Systems Development Branch in 1995. She has a long history of government service in social and health policy areas, as a social worker with the New Jersey Team Policing Project in Newark; a social policy analyst at the District of Columbia Central Budget Office; and a VISTA Volunteer in community organization for the Salisbury-Rowan Community Service Council in Salisbury, North Carolina.

Ms. Danforth has a bachelor’s degree in sociology from American International College, Springfield, Massachusetts; a master of social work degree with a concentration in macro-systems from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; and a post master’s certificate in health care administration from George Washington University, Washington, DC.

7/2005