On the first Tuesday of each month, from 4:00–6:00 p.m. Arizona time (except on holiday weekends), ACMI hosts a featured guest for a timely conversation on behavioral health. Following the presentation, attendees will discuss current issues in the behavioral health system. We are pleased to have Dr. Stefan Nawabe discuss Court-Ordered Evaluations (COE) in Northern Arizona.
Our speaker, Stefan Nawab, M.D., A.B.P.N., is a board-certified psychiatrist and physician executive serving as Medical Director at Polara Health in Northern Arizona. He provides leadership across crisis stabilization, subacute inpatient, and outpatient psychiatric services, with direct oversight of Court-Ordered Evaluation (COE) and Court-Ordered Treatment (COT) programs.
Dr. Nawab previously served as Service Chief of Psychiatry at the Phoenix VA Healthcare System, where he directed one of the largest mental health services in the country, overseeing more than 50 psychiatrists and multidisciplinary teams across inpatient, outpatient, addiction, and community-based programs. During his tenure, he led system stabilization efforts, recruited and rebuilt physician staffing, and improved access to care and operational performance during a period of national scrutiny.
At Polara Health, Dr. Nawab has led major clinical and operational improvements, including reducing denial rates from more than 20% to less than 5%, implementing system-wide documentation standards, and expanding Title 36 services. He opened and operationalized services at the Connections Center in Prescott, Arizona, in January 2025 to support crisis stabilization and court-ordered evaluations and developed a coverage model to stabilize provider staffing during high-volume periods. He has personally completed over 300 court-ordered psychiatric evaluations and has achieved court success rates exceeding 95%, working closely with legal systems, law enforcement, and community stakeholders.
Dr. Nawab also served as Director of Psychiatric Education at the Phoenix VA Healthcare System and as Director of Medical Education and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) School of Medicine, where he led residency curriculum reform and academic program development. He was a voting member of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the Phoenix VA, overseeing psychiatric, neurological, and behavioral research to ensure ethical standards and protection of human subjects.
He has a background in research at the National Institutes of Health and Yale University, where he served as an investigator on multiple studies at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). He has published in peer-reviewed journals and contributed to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5). He has been routinely recognized on regional “Top Doctors” lists and has served as a media contributor, including appearances on National Public Radio (NPR) and KCUR 89.3 in Kansas City, Missouri.
His work focuses on the practical application of psychiatric care within complex systems, particularly at the intersection of medicine, law, and community-based treatment for individuals with serious mental illness.
Topic: ACMI Stakeholders’ Meeting
April 7, 2026: COE evaluations in Northern Arizona by Dr. Nawab
May 5th, 2026: A psychiatrist’s journey by Dr. Judith Engelman
June 2nd, 2026: Innovative Solutions: Managing SMI/behavioral health in rural Yavapai County by Sheriff David Rhodes
Every month on the First Tuesday until December 25th, 2027
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