Rodolfo "Rudy" Arredondo, Ed.D.

Biography

Dr. Rudy Arredondo has been on the faculty of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center since 1972. He is a tenured professor with a primary academic appointment to Texas Tech University Health Science Center's Department of Neuropsychiatry and a secondary appointment to the Department of Health Organization Management. Dr. Arredondo is the founder and Executive Director of the Southwest Institute for Addictive Diseases established in 1985. Its mission is to teach medical students and residents, provide treatment services, and to conduct research. In 2000 he became the co-director of the Center of Tobacco Prevention and Control. Both the Institute and the Center are integral training, treatment and research components of the Department of Neuropsychiatry. Dr. Arredondo is the principle investigator of a research grant to adapt the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guidelines on Nicotine Dependence to treat Hispanic and African American smokers.

Dr. Arredondo has devoted his career to teaching, training, treatment, and research in substance abuse and mental health. He has significant experience in planning and managing programs addressing co-occurring disorders. Appointed by then-Governor George W. Bush, he has served on the Board of Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation (TDMHMR) since 1995. He is currently serving a second six-year term as an appointee of Governor Rick Perry. He was elected to serve as Vice Chairman of the TDMHMR Board both terms. He chairs the Program and Policy Committee and serves as a member of the Finance Committee. Other committee assignments include serving as a member of the Steering Committee of the Texas Medication Algorithm Project, a project that has gained national recognition in the development of evidence-based pharmacological treatment guidelines for Schizophrenia, Major Depression, and Bipolar Disorders. He is currently participating in a project to develop medication algorithms for co-occuring disorders. He also served as the Chairman of the Mental Health Services System Task Force, a twenty-member task force appointed by the chairman of Board of TDMHMR, with a charge to design the structure of the future mental health service system in the state, with a final report due June 2002.

Dr. Arredondo served in the U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division as a medic in Vietnam. The GI Bill of Rights gave him the opportunity to enter college in 1967 and earn a B.S. degree in 1971 from West Texas A&M University. He completed his Masters degree in 1972 and his Doctorate in 1976 with a major in Educational Psychology at Texas Tech University. In 1977 he completed training in substance abuse through the Career Teacher Training Program funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. He was honored by the TTU College of Education as a 2002 Distinguished Alumnus. He is native of Sanderson, Texas.