Marcia Fowler to lead Department of Mental Health

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

Lawyer and behavioral health specialist Marcia Fowler will lead the state Department of Mental Health starting next week. Fowler has worked for the department for 16 years, most recently as deputy to Commissioner Barbara Leadholm .

The administration announced in December that Leadholm, who has led the department since 2007, would step down on Feb. 5 to join the Boston office of research and consulting firm Health Management Associates.

Fowler, who will assume the post on Feb. 6, has extensive experience in behavioral health care, Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. JudyAnn Bigby said in a press release.

“Her expertise was vital to implementing the Community First initiative as part of [the department’s] continuum of quality services for people with serious mental illness,” Bigby said. “I look forward to working with her in supporting all consumers in their realization of achieving successful recoveries in the community.”

As deputy commissioner, Fowler oversees operations of all mental health inpatient and community-based programs run by the state or through state contracts. Prior to that, she was a regional coordinator and director of investigations. Fowler has also worked for the Department of Mental Retardation, the Fernald State School, where she worked with adults who had developmental disabilities and mental illness, and various nonprofit and for-profit health care providers in the Boston area, including The Home for Little Wanderers and Polaris Healthcare Services.

She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Saint Francis Xavier University, and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from what is now Lesley University. She studied law at Suffolk University Law School.