Wendy White Tiegreen (she/her), MSW, is the former Director of Medicaid and Health System Innovation for the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities.  She has 35 years of experience working in service delivery and administration in the public behavioral health sector. The majority of her career has been spent as liaison between the state Behavioral Health & Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities authority and state Medicaid authority. In that role, she was the primary negotiator with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the establishment of peer supports as a Medicaid-financed service and was a presenter at several national Medicaid, health, and behavioral health management conferences.

In her various Departmental roles, she led in Georgia’s development of the first 24/7 statewide crisis call center, the 9-8-8 implementation, Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics, whole lifespan Peer Support (including whole health and forensic specialities), High-Fidelity Wraparound, Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health, and System of Care frameworks for the State of Georgia. She is also a contractor—including work with CMS, SAMHSA, HRSA, and NASMHPD providers and more than half of all states related to behavioral health, Medicaid, and workforce, especially advancing the lived experience guild. 

Wendy was a selected academy member of the National Association of State Health Policy and served as the vice-chair of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors’ (NASMHPD) Division of Finance & Policy for more than a decade. She has been recognized by the State of Georgia House of Representatives for her work in the creation of Peer Support as a Medicaid-reimbursed service. She is currently a partner with Lexicon Strategies in Atlanta, Georgia and also serves as an expert consultant to the University of Georgia’s David Ralston Center for Behavioral Health and Intellectual/Development Disabilities on workforce. She holds a Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Georgia and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Wofford College.