Michelle Baeza, LMSW

Michelle has been working in the field of mental health for 15 years. She received her bachelors

in Sociology from the University of Tennessee in 2008 and took some time off school to gain

some experience in the field. She returned for graduate school at the University of Tennessee

College of Social work in 2012 and graduated in 2015 with her MSSW. While in graduate school,

she was the president of Phi Alpha, the College of Social Work National Honor Society. After

graduating she received her LMSW in August of 2015. For the first 7 years of her career, she

worked in the mental health field. She then transitioned to working with individuals that have

intellectual and developmental disabilities along with a mental health disorder, she has been

working in that specialty for the past 7 years. In this time, she has been working to help with

development and expansion of programs, specifically working with individuals with intellectual

and developmental disabilities, in multiple states. Along with the development, there has been

work to help to educate the community about the gaps in care and awareness of the need for

services. In the past 7 years Michelle has worked alongside the state as well as the Medicaid

providers for ongoing collaboration in the development of the Systems of Support program and

identifying ongoing needs in the communities.