Glenace Edwall

Director of Children’s Mental Health Division MN Dept of Human Services

Glenace Edwall has been Director of the Children’s Mental Health Division at the Minnesota Department of Human Services since May, 2000.  In this capacity, she is responsible for oversight of the state’s county-administered children’s mental health service system, for technical assistance and support to the state’s 95 children’s mental health and family service collaboratives, and for the policy component of the state’s children’s mental health benefits provided through Medicaid. 

Dr. Edwall has earned doctorates from the University of Minnesota (Ph.D., educational psychology) and from the University of Denver (Psy.D., clinical psychology).  She began her career as a teacher and researcher, receiving tenure at Baylor University in Waco, TX, where she also directed the graduate training program in clinical psychology.  In 1991, she returned to her home state of Minnesota to serve on the faculty of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota, where she also directed the Health Psychology Clinic, and later the Hospital Psychology program.

Dr Edwall’s previous professional experiences also include supervising the pediatric psychology program at Children’s Hospital and Clinic and directing the mental health services of Fraser Community Services both in Minneapolis, MN.  While serving in these administrative positions, Dr. Edwall maintained an active clinical practice and supervised psychology and other mental health trainees at every level from practicum students through post-doctoral fellows. 

Her interest in public policy in relationship to children’s mental health led her to pursue a master’s degree in public policy from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota, which she completed in 2001.  Her clinical and scholarly interests have focused on trajectories in socioemotional development and their implications for children’s mental health status and service needs.  In her current role, she has been particularly concerned with meeting the mental health and chemical health needs of adolescents and with increasing the identification and service capacity of the state to meet the mental health needs of young children and their families.  Dr. Edwall is also the current chair of Minnesota Child Psychologists.

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