Chief Medical Officer
Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
Curley L. Bonds, M.D., oversees all clinical practices for the Los Angeles Country Department of Mental Health (LACDMH) as well as the full range of programs that function to engage and stabilize clients by bringing them into the Department’s community-based system of care.
Dr. Bonds is a psychiatrist with extensive experience in a variety of clinical, academic and research settings. Most recently, he was the Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Charles R. Drew University School of Medicine in Los Angeles and the Medical Director for Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services. His areas of expertise include healthcare disparities, cross cultural psychiatry, psychosomatic medicine, and collaborative healthcare.
Dr. Bonds has won numerous teaching and advocacy awards including Chief Resident of the Year in 1996 and The Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness in 2009. He is active with several professional organizations including the American Association of Community Psychiatrists, the Association of LGBTQ Psychiatrists, the Black Psychiatrists of America and the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Bonds is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a Fellow of the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He is a past president of the Southern California Psychiatric Society and the recipient of their 2018 Distinguished Service Award.
He completed his B.A. in sociology at Emory University and earned his M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine.