Shelp heads new Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities

Dr. Frank Shelp

Frank E. Shelp, MD, MPH, has been named Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) by Georgia’s Gov. Sonny Perdue.

Shelp is a 2006 alumnus of the UNC Department of Health Policy and Administration, now the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The new DBHDD began operations on July 1, 2009, and is part of a larger reorganization initiated by Perdue. DBHDD assumes most of the responsibilities of the former Department of Human Resources Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Addictive Diseases.

“Thanks to the leadership of Governor Perdue and the General Assembly, people in Georgia who have behavioral health issues, developmental disabilities and addictive diseases now have an agency that’s solely focused on supporting their wellbeing and independence,” Shelp said in a DBHDD news release.

In addition to the Master of Public Health degree from UNC’s school of public health, Shelp earned a Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of Virginia, in Richmond. His post-graduate training included a residency in psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center.

Shelp was part of the earliest initiative between John Umstead Hospital in Butner, N.C., operated by the N.C. Division of Mental Health, and the Duke University Medical Center Department of Psychiatry. The initiative eventually established the state psychiatric hospital as a partner with the university in research, residency training and clinical care.

Before going to Georgia, Shelp was vice president of medical affairs for First Health Services Corporation of Glen Allen, Va., and served as corporate medical director for behavioral health at United HealthCare of Minnesota.