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Wendy White Tiegreen

Wendy White Tiegreen

Areas of Expertise:

  • Behavioral Health Policy and Finance

  • Medicaid Funding Mechanisms

  • Mental Health and Substance Use Recovery and Treatment Services Design

  • Peer and Recovery Supports Models for whole life span, integrated health, and forensics

  • Behavioral Health Workforce, specifically Certified Peer Specialists

  • Infant and Maternal Mental Health Policy and Finance

  • Behavioral Health Crisis Services Models, Design, and Financing (including 9-8-8 crisis supports)

Major Projects, Stewardship & Publications:

  • Leadership team for the State of Georgia’s 988 implementation of the crisis services continuum (2020-24) and the initial principal contract manager for the launch of the Georgia Crisis and Access Line (2006)

  • Expert workgroup contributor and presenter on the publication of the National Academy for State Health Policy’s National Care Coordination Standards for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs (2020).

  • Featured in the 2024 documentary, "From Stigma to Strength: Georgia is the Birthplace of the Certified Peer Specialist Movement" highlighting the transformative journeys of certified peer specialists in Georgia, showcasing their resilience and the vital role they play in behavioral health recovery and support and underscoring Georgia's leadership in pioneering the certified peer specialist movement.

  • Expert Reviewer of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s publication on Expanding Behavioral Health Care Workforce Participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace Plans (2024)

  • Principle architect and author of multiple toolkit products for the Georgia Medicaid Authority for Infant and Early Childhood Behavioral Health

Wendy White Tiegreen is a partner with Lexicon Strategies where she specializes in behavioral health policy and finance solutions.  She has dedicated her career to mental health and substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery, having been recognized as a state and national expert in the areas of Medicaid financing, workforce development, policy, and the peer recovery movement.

Wendy is formerly with the State of Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (retired) where she served in many roles, most notably as the Deputy Chief of Staff and as the Director of the Office of Medicaid Coordination & Health System Innovation where she oversaw the policy and finance for the state’s behavioral health and intellectual/developmental disabilities programs, including waiver services, behavioral health rehabilitation services, and youth psychiatric residential treatment programs representing half a billion dollars in service delivery.  She retired from state government with 30 years of distinguished service.

 While her career highlights are countless, she is most sought after for work in the Peer Recovery movement, having been on the original team that created and developed the first Peer Support services in the country to be recognized federally by the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA).  To support that launch she further supported the development of the first Certified Peer Specialist curriculum, creating the workforce which has now been recognized by all federal healthcare agencies and by several international countries.  Wendy has curated and written multiple publications on the development, advancement, and financing of peer recovery supports and has presented nationally at over 100 conferences and webinars.  There are now approximately 65,000 certified peer specialists around the country thanks to her work with almost all states and territories on the development of peer support.  Wendy was honored to be acknowledged with her lived-expertise partners by the Georgia House of Representatives in 2024 for the 25th anniversary of the launch of Peer Support as a now broadly recognized evidence-based practice and innovation.

 Wendy began her career as a volunteer and then employee in community mental health centers and so brings with her the spirit of that on-the-ground practicality of how policy lands in the space in which it must thrive.  In Georgia, she served as the principal writer and editor-in-chief of the State’s Community Behavioral Health Provider Manual which served as the guide for how public mental health and addiction treatment services are delivered, reimbursed, and accountable to individuals and payers with a person-centered, recovery-oriented lens.

 This drive to help individuals live meaningful lives of recovery and wellness, be productive, and be great partners, parents, and friends has compelled her to be at the forefront of innovation, not only in peer support, but also in parity policy, children’s collaborative systems of care, high-fidelity wrap-around for children, school-based mental health, and infant and early childhood mental health, where she was recognized with the state’s Champion Award recipient by the Center for Leadership in Disability at Georgia State University.  Wendy continues to lead in the behavioral health workforce development area contributing to the development of the Ralston Center for Behavioral Health & Developmental Disabilities at the University of Georgia and serving as a Reviewer of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine’s publication on Expanding Behavioral Health Care Workforce Participation in Medicare, Medicaid, and Marketplace Plans.

 Wendy has been recognized for her leadership skills throughout the country, serving on the executive leadership of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Finance and Policy Division for more than 10 years where she represented all the state and territory finance and policy directors for state mental health agencies.  She was also selected as an invitation-only Academy member of the National Association of State Health Policy which provides nonpartisan support for the development of policies that promote and sustain healthy people and communities, advance high-quality and affordable health care, and address health equity.  In that role, she provided leadership to the Child and Family Health Steering Committee, specifically serving as an expert workgroup contributor and presenter on the publication of the National Care Coordination Standards for Children and Youth with Special Health Care Needs. She has also served as a contractor and subject-matter expert to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Health Resources and Services Administration on behavioral health policy, financing, and workforce development.

Wendy has won numerous awards for her leadership and service, prime among them in her heart are those from peer/family-run organizations, where the work meets the person.  She resides with her husband Carl and their family dog in a historic home in the Atlanta area and they are blessed to have their two adult daughters in the Atlanta metropolitan area.