Dr. Onate completed his undergraduate and medical degree at the University of Arizona. He completed his Internship at the University of California San Francisco, completed his residency in psychiatry at the University of Arizona in 1993. He was awarded the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Charter Fellowship in 1991. Dr. Onate’s work experience includes serving as medical director at the following agencies: Cottonwood de Tucson, 2010-2017; Southern Arizona Mental Health Corporation Crisis Center, 2000-2010; La Frontera, Inc., 1996-2000; and Desert Hills Center for Family and Youth-Adolescent Inpatient Unit, 1993-1996. Dr. Onate has served as Medical Director of CODAC MAT 24/7 since 2017. He currently is the Best Practices and Innovations Consultant at CODAC,
He consulted for the Arizona Department of Health on safety in the Adolescent Inpatient Unit. He consulted with South Tucson Police Department on the use of Tasers with Adolescents, served as the University of Arizona College of Medicine House Staff Counselor, served as Chairman UMC Physician's Wellness Committee from June 1996 through June 2007. He co-authored “Sequential Catecholamine and Serotonin Depletion in Mirtazapine-Treated Depressed Patients”, The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. (2002) 5:63-66. Pedro L. Delgado, Francisco A. Moreno, Larry Onate and Alan J. Gelenberg. He presented an abstract on Personal Models of Illness in Depression. 153rd Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Chicago, Illinois, May 17, 2000.