Navy Captain (ret.) Ken Richter is the outgoing director of mental health policy and oversight for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, overseeing mental health for the Department of Defense’s 9.6 million beneficiaries across the global healthcare system. Dr. Richter is a Board-Certified Psychiatrist, Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, Certified Physician Executive, Purple Heart recipient, and decorated three-time combat veteran with extensive professional expertise managing complex and politically risk-studded portfolios. His career has also included rich experience with global health policy and decades of highly refined leadership experience, having run programs and initiatives of paramount importance to the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Department of the Navy. He is an adept crisis and science communicator and an unrivaled subject matter expert, enabling him to speak to audiences from San Francisco to Beirut to Tashkent and across Africa. He wields a tested track record for delivering quantifiable results in diverse professional undertakings within the Department of Defense, across the Interagency, and in the private sector. His principal current professional endeavors include membership on several boards ranging from the mental health space to biotech, independent healthcare consulting, and patient care.
