Denise Hunt
RN, MFT, Behavioral Health Director
Behavioral Health and Recovery Services

Denise Hunt, RN, MFT, Behavioral Health Director, moved to the Central Valley from the Bay Area in 1973. Her first human services job was working as a house manager for a halfway house/group home for young men on parole from the Youth Authority. She began working for Stanislaus County in 1975 as a mental health worker in the locked psychiatric hospital in Turlock. As she pursued her education in nursing and counseling, attending school while working, she gained experience as a mental health emergency services counselor, a nurse in the psychiatric hospital, and an outpatient group and individual therapist.  She is licensed as a Registered Nurse and as a Marriage and Family Therapist.   Ms. Hunt assumed management responsibility, first as an outpatient counseling center coordinator and then as the coordinator of the Older Adult Services Team, which provided mental health and Public Guardian services to individuals age 60 and older. She was appointed Older Adult Services Chief and Public Guardian in 1997, BHRS Assistant Director in 2002, and Behavioral Health Director in 2005.  Ms. Hunt is a member of the Stanislaus County Children and Families Commission, and the California State University, Stanislaus Health and Human Services Advisory Committee. She is Co-Chair of the Older Adult Committee of the California Mental Health Directors Association and serves on the Governing Board of the Association.  She is a member of the Board of Directors of the California Institute of Mental Health.

Ms. Hunt lives in Turlock. Her pets include a Labrador Retriever and a Siamese cat. Her favorite color is green, her favorite singer is Anita Baker, and if she were a tree she’d be a Redwood. She loves the ocean and hopes to live nearer to it one day.