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Diane D. Stein is President of CCHR Florida and a nationally recognized mental health rights expert specializing in Baker Act reform, involuntary psychiatric examination, and the rights of children and parents in the mental health system.

Diane D. Stein is President of the Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a nonprofit mental health human rights watchdog. Certified on Florida's Baker Act through the Department of Children and Families, she has spent a decade advocating for reform of the state's involuntary psychiatric examination law — which Baker Acts roughly 37,000 children per year. She has consulted on investigations for the Southern Poverty Law Center, The New York Times, and WFSU Public Media, and is a regular contributor to the Newsweek Expert Forum. She is available for broadcast, print, and podcast interviews on short notice.

Diane D. Stein accepted a leadership role at the Florida chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) in 2015. Nonpolitical and nonreligious, CCHR is an award-winning nonprofit in the area of mental health human rights and government relations whose mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health. Since that time, she has worked to help restore human rights to the field of mental health and especially in the area of short-term emergency commitment. An experienced speaker who received certification on the Baker Act, Florida's mental health law, through the Department of Children and Families, Diane is sought after on topics ranging from involuntary psychiatric examination and mental health rights to the dangerous side effects of psychiatric medication. As a Newsweek Expert, Diane is regularly interviewed by journalists and investigative reporters on emergency psychiatric holds including those involving children and the violation of parental and child rights under these circumstances. She has consulted on landmark investigations including the Southern Poverty Law Center's Costly and Cruel report, which documented the Baker Acting of 37,000 Florida children per year, and The New York Times' investigation into for-profit psychiatric hospital chains. She has appeared on WFSU, WUSF, CBS News 6, NBC 5, ABC 27, FOX 4, and dozens of other broadcast outlets, and has spoken at the Broward County Crime Commission, the Florida PTA Leadership Summit, and the Task Force on Involuntary Examination of Minors. CCHR Florida has received multiple PR News Platinum Awards, Social Impact Awards, and Bulldog PR Awards for its advocacy work. Note on affiliation: CCHR was co-founded by the Church of Scientology and the psychiatrist Thomas Szasz in 1969. CCHR operates independently and its advocacy is nonreligious; Diane's expert commentary is based on her own research, certifications, and decade of direct advocacy work.