Dr. Joe Oravecz, Ph.D.

CEO

Joe Oravecz, Ph.D., Founder of TrueGuide Leadership Collective (www.joeoravecz.com), and current CEO of NAMI Broward County (National Alliance on Mental Illness) brings a rich blend of personal experience and professional expertise in mental health advocacy. His path is deeply personal, rooted in his experience as a single foster-adoptive parent of an older child, now adult who has faced significant mental health challenges. This, along with his own personal mental health journey and over fifteen years dedicated to suicide awareness and prevention, gives Dr. Joe an authentic, lived deep understanding of the complexities and critical needs of mental health care.

In his professional life, Dr. Joe has significantly impacted mental health initiatives within higher education institutions across the country for over 25 years, and serving the last 15 years at various universities at Cabinet level positions: Chief Student Life and Chief Enrollment Officer. These roles, along with serving as a publicly elected Board of Education Trustee of a large school district (Billings, MT), have sharpened his insights into well-being, suicide prevention, and mindfulness aligning perfectly with NAMI's mission. Dr. Joe is eager to leverage his extensive leadership experience to enhance the impact of mental health in private and public corporations, non-profits, educational settings, local, regional, state, and national agencies. His leadership approach is anchored in empathy and fairness, focusing on educating and empowering individuals, influencing community leaders, and fostering collaborative partnerships for stronger mental health advocacy.

Dr. Joe is passionately committed to mental health awareness, suicide prevention, and championing initiatives for fairness, inclusion, and cultural understanding and mutual respect. A mentor and unifier, Dr. Joe strives to enhance and create meaningful collaborations across diverse organizations and communities. The goal is to initiate change that sustains significant forward thinking development, empowering communities and fostering impactful change in mental health advocacy.