Thava Mahadevan, MS, LCAS

Advisor

Advisory Board: Thava Mahadevan

Thava Mahadevan, MS, LCAS, is a member of the clinical faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), and serves as the Director of Operations for the UNC Center for Excellence in Community Mental Health. The Center, based in the UNC-CH School of Medicine, provides community-based services to approximately 2,000 individuals in the Triangle area living with serious mental illness .

Mahadevan is also the Founding Executive Director of XDS, Inc., a North Carolina nonprofit organization based in Chatham County that assists individuals with multiple disabilities.

With more than 25 years of public mental health experience working with individuals with multiple disabilities, he has extensive expertise in designing and implementing innovative community-based treatment programs. He received a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling and psychology from UNC-CH and is a Licensed Clinical Addiction Specialist.

Mahadevan is the founder of the Farm at Penny Lane, a health-wellness-recovery initiative for people with serious mental illness, which not only focuses on promoting and maximizing individuals’ social, cognitive, physical, and psychological functioning but also facilitates entrepreneurship.

Mahadevan is also the founder of the UNC PAWS program, a peer-assisted wellness service that trains rescue dogs as support dogs for people with disabilities. Currently, he is spearheading a Tiny Homes initiative in Chatham County as a demonstration project to provide sustainable permanent and affordable supportive housing for people affected by serious mental illness. Mahadevan is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical scholar and recipient of the 2021 NC NAMI’s Steve Jordan award for innovation and advocacy for the development of services and supports for people living with mental illness and their families.