Dr. Lisa Kearney PhD, ABPP

Now the Founder & CEO of Kearney Consulting and Coaching, LLC.

As part of her work at Kearney Consulting and Coaching, LLC, Dr. Kearney partners with mission‑driven executives and organizations to advance health, well‑being, and organizational performance through evidence‑informed consulting, coaching, and strategic policy insight. Previously she served as the Chief Consultant for the Deputy Under Secretary for Health and the VA Secretary's Senior Advisor for Health, ensuring implementation of the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) top priorities in healthcare through coordination with executive leadership across the enterprise and facilitated daily coordination with other federal agencies and the White House in healthcare policy development and execution. Dr. Kearney formerly held the role of Deputy Director of VA Suicide Prevention and Executive Director of the Veterans Crisis Line (VCL), where she codesigned and implemented Suicide Prevention 2.0 (SP 2.0), a public health national effort, combining community-based and evidence-based clinical interventions and oversaw the largest national crisis line in the United States, leading the successful national launch of 988 (press 1 for VCL) while exceeding all performance metrics for faster and higher quality service for Veterans. Dr. Kearney previously served as the Associate Director of Education at the VA Center for Integrated Healthcare where she developed and implemented a nationwide competency-based training program for Primary Care Mental Health Integration (PCMHI), resulting in training 2,500 providers across 140 sites with significant improvement in same day access to mental health and fidelity to best practices. She also served on the executive team in the VA Office of Mental Health Operations (OMHO) as the Senior Consultant for Technical Assistance, overseeing mental health policy execution through quality improvement site visits with improved VA policy implementation across the nation moving from 68.6% to 91.4%. At the local level, Dr. Kearney served as the Chief of Psychology, Assistant Chief, Director of Training, and Director of Primary Care Mental Health Integration at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System. Dr. Kearney is also an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Health San Antonio and Editor-in-Chief for Psychological Services. She is a national expert in the areas of implementation science and change management, executive coaching and leadership development, integrated primary care, suicide prevention, and clinical business operations, with 50 publications in these areas. Dr. Kearney is a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin with a PhD in Counseling Psychology and is board certified in Clinical Health Psychology.