Editor’s Note: This article initially appeared in the March 2023 issue of the Danya Dialogue Newsletter (published March 14, 2023).
In 1987, Congress declared March as National Women's History Month in perpetuity. During this month, we honor the extraordinary achievements of American women.
HHS Region 3 MHTTC proudly salutes Annelle Primm, MD., MPH, a community psychiatrist, based in Baltimore, with a background in public health. She is the Senior Medical Director of the Steve Fund, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to advance the psychological and emotional health of students of color. She also serves on the Council of Elders for the Black Psychiatrists of America, Inc. (BPA).
The Central East ATTC and the Central East MHTTC collaborated with the BPA in 2020 to develop a Health Equity Webinar Series, an ongoing collection of presentations by BPA members (February 2021 through the present) that examines mental health and substance use disorders in the Black community. Dr. Primm is the moderator for each session in the series. Health equity is the number one need identified by the behavioral health workforce in HHS Region 3. Each webinar highlights research and clinical practices that service providers can employ to eliminate racial, ethnic, and gender bias, and discriminatory practices.
Dr. Primm is renowned worldwide as a champion of equity in the mental health field. She is a published author and serves as an adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, New York University, and Howard University Schools of Medicine. She is also the Convener of the All Healers Mental Health Alliance and mobilizes organizational collaboration to provide healing services for disaster-affected marginalized communities.
Dr. Primm is a former Deputy Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (2004-2015). She received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, her medical degree from Howard University, and she completed her public health and psychiatric training at Johns Hopkins University.
