Executive Leadership

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 28 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 studied Public Health at East Tennessee State University.

Shawn Smith was appointed as the Deputy Director for the TN Opioid Abatement Council in September 2024.  He has worked for the State of Tennessee for more than 15 years serving at the Division of TennCare, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, and the Department of Human Services. Shawn was previously the Managed Care Oversight Director with the Division of TennCare. In this role, he was responsible for the contract oversight of the TennCare MCOs. Shawn also led TennCare’s administration of school-based services and served as a board member for the National Alliance for Medicaid in Education (NAME). Prior to this role, Shawn held the position of Deputy Director for TennCare’s Behavioral Health Operations. 

Shawn holds both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in social work from Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), where he also teaches social policy as an adjunct professor and serves on the MTSU Social Work Advisory Board.

Shawn is a Milbank Memorial Fund Emerging Leaders Program alumnus and a volunteer with the TN Promise program as a tnAchieves mentor.