John Morris retired in January of 2019 as the founding Executive Director of the Annapolis Coalition on the Behavioral Health Workforce. John retired in 2007 as Professor of Clinical Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of Health Policy Studies at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. Prior to joining the University, he spent more than 25 years in the public behavioral health field as a clinician, administrator, and educator.  

He started his career in public mental health as a ward attendant at the South Carolina state hospital, and prior to his move to the University in 1997, he served a two-year interim appointment as South Carolina State Commissioner of Mental Health. A graduate of Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, he later returned annually as Visiting Professor of Mental Health Policy between 1991-2004 and was named a Distinguished Alumnus of the school in 1996. Other awards include the Howery Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association for Rural Mental Health, the Feldman Award from the College for Behavioral Health Leadership, and the Ittleson Award for leadership in children’s mental health from the American Orthopsychiatric Association.