Annalisa Baker, MPH, LCSW
Associate Principal
Health Management Associates
New York, NY
[javascript protected email address]
(212) 575-5929
Along with a comprehensive understanding of the behavioral healthcare continuum, Annalisa Baker’s experience includes business operations, project management, finance, and direct clinical social work. As an integral part of HMA’s behavioral health team, she offers specialized policy and operational expertise to nonprofit providers, government agencies, and diverse healthcare stakeholders. Annalisa’s responsibilities include navigating the complexities of value-based financing and seamlessly integrating behavioral health quality metrics and best practices into broader healthcare system reform initiatives. Her clinical background enables her to incorporate a culturally sensitive, recovery-oriented, trauma-informed, and equity-informed framework into her work.
Annalisa led strategic planning efforts for a range of state and local county government organizations, including the Delaware Department of Children, Youth and Their Families and smaller nonprofit organizations. Her facilitation framework aims to guide healthcare organizations to identify, define, and prioritize their value in support of quality services to healthcare recipients, collaborative partners, and internal staff. She also works with a range of community-based agencies that are not traditionally part of the healthcare service delivery system but provide the social services that impact health and drive progress toward health equity.
Annalisa has spearheaded diverse behavioral health program design projects, including justice-involved, maternal-child health and foster care, and projects focused on the improvement of care coordination, access to recovery-oriented services, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) certified community behavioral health centers (CCBHC). Her design efforts have achieved more than $18 million in funding for several community-based organizations as well as a range of successfully awarded state Medicaid procurements.
Prior to joining HMA, Annalisa served as the director of administration and operations in the Bureau of Mental Health at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. She oversaw a budget of over $300 million, which included approximately 300 service provider contracts. She managed bureau performance reporting to department leadership on budget, finance, personnel, contracting, and procurement; provided strategic oversight and leadership of the bureau’s agenda around mental health system financing; and was the primary liaison with the New York State Office of Mental Health budget divisions. She also served in the bureau as the director of health integration in the Office of Treatment Services, where she led the $10 million Historic Economic Asset Lifeline (HEAL) 17 Grant Project. This project 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. In this role, she built a new partnership between Astor’s outpatient clinic and foster care services and spent time in the private sector as a business operations consultant.
Annalisa earned a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a master’s degree in social work from New York University.