Lesley A. Slavin, Ph.D.

Chief Psychologist

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division (CAMHD), Hawaii State Department of Health

Lesley A. Slavin, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in working with children and adolescents who have severe emotional disturbances and their families. In August of 2021, Lesley retired from her position as Chief Psychologist for the Hawaii State Child and Adolescent Mental Health Division (CAMHD) after 18 years of service, and she has continued working in this area on a volunteer basis. Lesley earned her BA in Psychology from Tufts University in 1977 and her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Vermont in 1985. She has worked as a faculty member, and she practiced as a clinician and supervisor for eleven years as part of a community mental health team in New Hampshire before moving to Hawai`i. While at CAMHD, Lesley worked to develop policy and promote system improvement, wrote and administered grants, and supervised the division’s clinical psychologists. She provided training and clinical consultation in areas such as trauma informed care, trauma treatment, evidence-based services, and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Lesley provided training regularly to Hawaii Mental Health providers on how to use concepts from Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) to address the needs of youth with severe challenges. DBT is a strongly evidence-based treatment for suicidal and parasuicidal behavior in adults, and there is growing evidence of effectiveness with adolescents. In the past, Lesley facilitated a weekly Adolescent Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) consultation team and provided both individual and group DBT treatment to adolescents in an outpatient setting. Lesley has pursued Continuing Education training on DBT, including attending a week-long intensive workshop on the adolescent DBT model, led by Alec Miller, Ph.D., the person who adapted Linehan’s (1993) DBT approach for use with adolescents. Most recently, she facilitated a monthly consultation/training session for therapists in CAMHD programs on Hawaii Island.