Stephen Brown

Stephen is a licensed clinical social worker, researcher, a clinical director for team-based programs that coordinate the care of healthcare super-utilizers, and a behavioral health and social determinants policy expert. He has a split appointment between the Department of Emergency Medicine, the Office of the Vice Chancellor of Health Affairs, and the Institute of Government & Public Affairs.

His role as a Senior Director addresses systemic social justice, working upstream with other public sectors such as criminal justice, law enforcement, and human services for better alignment and coordination of care for patients who have severe mental illness, substance abuse, or experience homelessness.

He has led the Better Health Through Housing program, UI Health’s housing program for the chronically homeless. It is the longest running healthcare-to-housing program and has housed more homeless persons than any other hospital in the country.

Stephen is the clinical lead for ComPaCT – the Complex Patient Care Team, a partnership between Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Psychiatry and Mental Health Courts. ComPaCT brings together a large multidisciplinary team to manage patients with serious mental illness, substance use disorders, and complex medical needs.

Prior to transitioning into healthcare in 2005 as an Emergency Room Social Worker at the University of Chicago, Stephen worked for 13 years at Motorola, Inc. and held a variety of positions such as a Systems Engineer, Senior Account Executive, District Sales Director, and Director of Unix Systems Division Product Development. His previous tech experience enables him to work with healthcare and government Information Technology (IT) organizations to drive healthcare and social service interoperability, empowering better clinical care, data-driven public policy, and outcomes-based research.

He is the co-author of a 2016 Health Affairs article entitled “Mr. G and the Revolving Door: Breaking the Readmission Cycle at a Safety Net Hospital.”

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs, UI Health

Senior Director of Social and Behavioral Health Policy, 2001 to Present

Preventive Emergency Medicine, UI Health

Director,  2009 – 2011

Urban Health Initiative, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Manager of Technology Projects, 2008 – 2009

University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL

Director of Preventative Emergency Medicine, 2005 – 2008

University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL

Social Worker, Emergency Medicine, 2003 – 2009

1st Presbyterian Church, Evanston, IL

Psychotherapist, The Counseling Center, 2003 – 2009

Loyola University, Chicago, IL., M.S.W., 2004.

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL., B.G.S. in Psychology, 1998.

Northern Illinois University, Dekalb, IL., B.S. in Business Marketing, 1981.