Sushma Taylor, Ph.D.
2005
Social Change
Sushma Deva Taylor, Ph.D., a native of India, has been Executive Director of Center Point, Inc. a private substance-abuse facility in Marin, since 1981. Center Point provides long-term adult residential and outpatient services, adolescent services, in-custody drug treatment service, case management services for parolees and a wide range of other services. The organization has grown under Dr. Taylor’s stewardship and today serves more than 6,500 clients annually in Sacramento, Contra Costa, San Diego and Marin counties, treatment to 2,400 inmates daily in seven California prisons, and parolee management in eighteen California counties.
Dr. Taylor co-directed the Marin County Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime Project (TASC) for five years and was Director of the Sonoma County TASC for two years. The mentally ill diversion program she developed at Sonoma TASC became a national model. She directed the Phoenix Project at San Quentin, served on the Marin County Adult Criminal Justice Commission, and chaired the Commission for four years. Dr. Taylor has also served as a special consultant to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. The Residential Women and Children’s Program she developed at Center Point in 1990 is one of the best in the country.
Dr. Taylor has a Master’s in Public Administration, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, a MFCC, and she is a Certified Practitioner of Psychodrama and Group Sociometry. She holds office in the Therapeutic Communities of America (TCA) and chaired the California Therapeutic Communities Association (CTC.) She serves on several statewide advisory boards and commissions, chairs the California Perinatal Treatment Network, serves on the Proposition 36 Statewide Advisory Group, co-chairs the Department of Alcohol and Drug Program’s Access to Recovery Project, and serves on Department of Corrections Office of Substance Abuse Program’s Policy Advisory Committee.
As a consultant for the State Department, Dr. Taylor toured India, Burma and South East Asia as an expert in narcotics treatment. Her team was sent to train psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and counselors in the latest techniques. She has lived in the West Indies, Sweden, England, Laos and Bangkok, and speaks several languages. Married to another clinical psychologist, Dr. Taylor has one son, Thaine, who recently completed a four-year enlistment with the U.S. Marine Corps. He was deployed to Afghanistan immediately following September 11, 2001.
