Dr. Ricardo Gillispie, PhD, LCSW, LCSW

Dr. Ricardo Gillispie, PhD, LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with a career spanning more than five decades in behavioral health, program development, and clinical leadership across Mississippi. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from Mississippi Valley State University in 1973, completed one of the earliest Master of Social Work cohorts at the University of Southern Mississippi in 1975, and later graduated from Jackson State University’s inaugural PhD program in Social Work in 2000 with a primary focus on psychotherapeutic social work.

Over the course of his work, Dr. Gillispie has held roles in community mental health, private practice, hospital-based services, and large-scale program consultation. Before retiring from private practice, he served as part owner and CEO of Family Counseling Services, PLLC in Meridian, Mississippi, a group practice that included psychiatrists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, PhD clinical psychologists, Licensed Professional Counselors, and psychiatric nurse practitioners. In clinical work, he focused on marriage and family therapy and cognitive and affective disorders, including concerns such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

After retirement, he accepted an offer to serve as a group therapist for Rush/Ochsner Intensive Outpatient Psychogeriatric Programs across East Mississippi and has also served as a consultant helping develop behavioral health care programming for geriatric patients experiencing mental health, aging, and emotional conditions. His consulting work has included training for interdisciplinary teams and surveying programs according to CMS guidelines.

Dr. Gillispie has also contributed to correctional mental health services, including a consulting role with East Mississippi Correctional Facility where he designed an exclusive mental health program in corrections in the United States, and later served full-time as Deputy Warden of Mental Health Programs while maintaining private practice. Earlier in his career, he served as Assistant Director for Region Ten (Weems) Mental Health Center, where he authored the initial operational grant and additional grants supporting services across a nine-county area in East Central Mississippi.

His professional service includes being named the first Social Worker of the Year by the Mississippi Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers in 1992, serving on the Meridian School Board of Trustees for fifteen years including two terms as President, and representing Region Ten for the National Association of Social Work on the Nomination and Leadership Committee. He was appointed to the first Mississippi Social Workers Licensure Board and served one term as chairman. He has also served as an Auditor of Correctional Facilities for the American Correctional Association and as a psychiatric social worker surveyor consultant for CMS, surveying public and private psychiatric hospitals for Medicare and Medicaid compliance. Dr. Gillispie is an LCSW, a Diplomat in Clinical Social Work, and is certified by the Academy of Certified Social Workers. In 2006, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Meridian Community College, and he has served as a part-time instructor and adjunct faculty in social work education.