Annalisa Baker, MPH, LCSW

Associate Principal

Health Management Associates

New York, NY

[javascript protected email address]

(212) 575-5929

LinkedIn Profile

Annalisa Baker is passionate about improving behavioral healthcare—especially for children and youth—and helping systems work better for the people who rely on them. With more than 20 years of experience spanning clinical social work, public sector leadership, business operations, and healthcare consulting, she brings both systems-level strategy and on-the-ground perspective to her work.  

At Health Management Associates (HMA), she partners with state and local agencies, schools, and community-based organizations to strengthen behavioral health services, with a particular focus on youth access, school-based behavioral health, and cross-system collaboration. 

Trained as a clinical social worker, Annalisa understands how policy and operational decisions show up in real people’s lives. She is at her best bringing leaders together to step back from day-to-day pressures, identify barriers, and build practical solutions—whether the goal is expanding access, improving quality, strengthening partnerships, or creating a more sustainable model of care. She leads strategic planning processes and facilitates leadership conversations that help organizations move from competing priorities to shared direction, clear decisions, and actionable next steps. 

Annalisa’s work spans behavioral health, Medicaid, child welfare, education, public health, and human services. She brings experience in program design, project management, finance, policy analysis, implementation support, and technical assistance, helping organizations connect big-picture reform goals with day-to-day operations. She has supported the expansion of school-based behavioral health and school-based health services, helped clients navigate value-based care and quality initiatives, and guided efforts to improve coordination, access, and sustainability across systems. Her approach is collaborative, trauma-informed, equity-centered, and grounded in deep respect for the providers, families, and communities doing this work every day.  

Annalisa’s experience also includes maternal and child health, foster care, care coordination, justice-involved services, and Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic development. Her work has helped secure over $21 million in funding for states and community-based organizations, and she has contributed to state and national conversations on children’s behavioral health through publications, presentations, and facilitation of cross-sector dialogue.  

Prior to joining HMA, Annalisa served as director of administration and operations in the Bureau of Mental Health at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she oversaw a $300 million budget. She also served in the bureau as director of health integration, where she led a $10 million Health Care Efficiency and Affordability Law (HEAL) 17 grant project, which provided funding, support, and quality oversight to mental health providers for implementing electronic health records, achieving meaningful use standards for data collection, and using data to improve the quality of care. She also worked on various initiatives aimed at the integration of behavioral and physical health systems of care. 

Prior to her service with New York City, Annalisa was a clinical supervisor with children and adolescents at Astor Services for Children and Families, where she built a new partnership between Astor’s outpatient clinic and foster care services. 

Annalisa earned her master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and her master’s degree in social work from New York University. She is a licensed clinical social worker.