Executive Director

At its first meeting on July 8, 2022, the Council unanimously selected Mary Shelton as its Executive Director.  Ms. Shelton was previously the Director of Behavioral Health Services at the Division of TennCare where she provided end-to-end oversight of all mental health and substance use disorder Medicaid benefits for 1.4 million TennCare beneficiaries, including annual expense management of $500 million. She directed the design, implementation, and operations of TennCare’s statewide buprenorphine and methadone Medication Assisted Treatment programs which serves 12,000 TennCare beneficiaries annually. Ms. Shelton oversaw behavioral health and primary care integration efforts and the value-based payment programs for multiple provider-level programs. Ms. Shelton has worked for the State of Tennessee for more than 26 years, serving Tennesseans at both the Division of TennCare and the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services.  She has her undergraduate degree from Tennessee Technological University, graduate degree from Trevecca Nazarene University and is currently pursuing a Master of Public Health at East Tennessee State University.