Dr. Gerard Clancy to Join Mayor’s Office of Health and Well-being

Dr. Gerard Clancy to Join Mayor's Office of Health and Well-being

9/24/2026

Mayor Monroe Nichols announced today that Dr. Gerard Clancy will join the Mayor's Office of Health and Well-being as a Special Advisor, bringing decades of experience in mental health, health systems, community health and higher education to the City of Tulsa.

Clancy will serve as a consultant under a one-year contract and will work closely with Chief Health Officer Dr. Jabraan Pasha, the City's Office of Health and Well-being and community partners to help develop Tulsa's first citywide mental health strategic plan.

"Dr. Clancy has spent his career bringing people and systems together to solve some of the toughest challenges in health and well-being, and he has a deep history of doing that work right here in Tulsa," Mayor Nichols said. "We are building a city where mental health is treated as a community priority, not something we address only when someone reaches a crisis - and Dr. Clancy's experience will help us bring together the expertise and resources already working across Tulsa and identify where we can do more."

The strategic planning process will build on the City's existing work and partnerships while identifying opportunities to strengthen coordination, improve access to care and address mental health across the lifespan. The City will work with healthcare providers, behavioral health organizations, nonprofits, public agencies and other community partners as the plan takes shape.

The work will also build on the City's broader approach to mental health and well-being, which recognizes that behavioral health is connected to public health, housing, homelessness, education, economic opportunity and public safety. Tapping into the leadership and experience of community partners like GRAND, Counseling and Recovery Services, CREOKS, and Family and Children's Services, who serve Tulsa as certified behavior health clinics, will be crucial to this work.

"Over the past several years, Tulsa has built some innovative programs to respond to people experiencing mental health and behavioral health challenges," Dr. Pasha said. "The opportunity now is to look across those programs and the broader community health system and ask how we can work together even more effectively. Dr. Clancy brings tremendous experience in building partnerships, developing health systems and creating programs that meet people where they are."

Over the past decade, Tulsa has developed a growing network of alternative and collaborative responses to mental health needs. These include 24/7 mental health clinicians embedded in the City's 911 Center through a partnership with Family & Children's Services' COPES program, Tulsa Fire Department's Alternative Response Teams, and the Tulsa Police Department's Community Response Team and Mental Health Unit.

As background, Mayor Nichols launched the Office of Health and Well-being in 2025 to improve health outcomes across Tulsa by aligning resources, sharing data and fostering collaboration among healthcare providers, public health agencies and community organizations. The Office's initial priorities include convening a Mayor's Health Coalition (already underway), using data to better understand and address health disparities, and advancing citywide mental health initiatives.

Clancy brings extensive experience in each of those areas.

He currently serves as Senior Associate Dean for External Affairs and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Emergency Medicine at the University of Iowa's Carver College of Medicine. He continues to provide psychiatric services in the emergency department and intensive care units at University of Iowa Health Care and advises the health system on workforce recruitment, retention and well-being.

Clancy previously served as president of both the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa and was a founding dean of the University of Oklahoma School of Community Medicine and the University of Tulsa's Oxley College of Health Sciences.

During his career in Tulsa, Clancy helped establish and expand programs including school-based clinics, mental health services for people experiencing homelessness, Assertive Community Treatment teams, Tulsa's Bedlam Evening Clinics for uninsured patients, Patient-Centered Medical Homes and the Wayman Tisdale Specialty Clinic in North Tulsa.

He also led the Lewin Study that identified a 14-year life expectancy gap between North and South Tulsa and later led research identifying a 27-year life expectancy gap for people living with chronic mental illness in the Tulsa region.

"I have spent much of my career working on the intersection of medicine, mental health, education and community health, and I am excited to bring that experience back to Tulsa," Clancy said. "Tulsa has many people and organizations doing important work. My role will be to help bring those perspectives together, identify opportunities and support the development of a strategic approach that can make a meaningful difference for Tulsans."

Clancy has published and presented internationally on molecular biology, addiction, chronic mental illness and health systems transformation. He has received numerous teaching and service awards, including the Iowa Medical Society's inaugural President's Award in 2026 and the 2025 Iowa Medical Society Service Citation Award.

He also previously served as chairman of the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the Tulsa Area United Way, where the annual campaign raised a then-record $26.6 million during his tenure.

The mental health strategic planning process will begin with engagement among City departments and community partners. Specific recommendations and priorities will be developed through that process.

For more information about the Mayor's Office of Health and Well-being, visit https://www.cityoftulsa.org/mayor/office-of-health-and-well-being/