Mike has been a leading advocate and policy expert for people with mental illness for more than three decades. He worked directly with children and adults with mental illnesses at the beginning of his career in the Chicago area, moved to Dallas in 1979. He was the first vocational coordinator for Dallas County MHMR in the late seventies after having worked six years vocational rehabilitation programs for people with mental illness and multiple disabilities.
Faenza became the executive and clinical director of Letot Center in the early eighties, serving over 1800 youth and families in emergency shelter, outpatient family counseling, emergency foster care and family crisis counseling at the point of juvenile department intake for status offenders. He served as President and CEO of the National Mental Health Association in Washington DC for 14 years after leading the Mental Health Association of Greater Dallas until 1993.
Faenza debated the NFIB senior government affairs officer on Lehrer News Hour, and appeared in "point-counter point" style spots or interviewed extensively on CNN, Fox News, Good Morning America, and NBC World News Tonight. Faenza was interviewed and quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Time Magazine for more than a decade. The day after the first parity law passed both houses of congress in 1996 Faenza had the "quote of the day" in the New York Times.
Faenza led NMHA to develop core competencies in Medicaid managed care and consumer protections in privatized public mental health system managed care and implemented over 100 coalition trainings in 40 states during his tenure at the Association. He supervised a team of 8 state health reform specialists and a 5 member policy team with offices near Capitol Hill. In Washington Faenza received the annual National Executive Leadership Award from the National Assembly of Voluntary Health and Human Services Organizations, the President's Award from the American Psychiatric Association and the first Senator Paul and Sheila Wellstone Advocacy Award following the death of the Senator, Mrs. Wellstone and their daughter in a plane crash because of his partnership with Wellstone on insurance reform and medical neglect of youth with mental illness in state juvenile justice facilities. In 2002 and 2003 he was appointed to lead US mental health delegations to meet with mental health organizations and advocates in major cities in South Africa and China.
Michael became CEO of MDHA in 2007 after serving as a consultant to the Mayor's Task Force on Homelessness for several months. Faenza led the implementation planning and opened the Bridge in 2008. His expertise is in mental health and substance abuse policy and systems development, mental health/social services and housing planning, data analysis, coalition building and civil rights issues pertaining to people with disabilities.
Working with MDHA Faenza has led efforts to provide housing with supports for homeless people disabled by mental illness and addictions and planned, opened and oversaw the operation of the Bridge until the organization made the Bridge an independent organization in October of 2011. Through the MDHA Continuum of Care and the DHA-MDHA PSH Project the organization has been at the center of creating more than 1,200 units of supportive housing since 2008. In collaboration with representatives from the Dallas City Council and Dallas County Commissioners and other MDHA Policy Alliance Members Faenza announced plans to promote an additional 1,800 PSH units by 2015 at a City Hall Press Briefing introduced by Mayor Rawlings in November of this year.
Michael is a distinguished alumnus of the University of Texas in Arlington Graduate School of Social Work. He started his graduate education at the Jane Addams School at the University of Illinois Circle Campus in Chicago. Faenza earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Indiana University and did extensive course work in Religious Studies.