Sandra Wilkniss

Sandra Wilkniss, PhD, serves as NASHP’s senior director of behavioral, population and public health, where she directs programs focused on the behavioral health continuum for adults, whole person care (including social drivers of health) and state-community partnerships. Prior to joining NASHP, she served as director of complex care policy and senior fellow at Families USA and spent six years as a program director at the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, advising governors and their senior staff on a variety of issues including: COVID-19 response, behavioral health, social determinants of health, addressing complex care populations in health delivery and payment reform, health as housing and cross-sector strategies in meeting the needs of children, youth and families. She also spent three years in the United States Senate as senior legislative assistant in health care to Senators Bingaman and Heinrich, beginning as an American Academy for the Advancement of Science/American Psychological Association fellow in Senator Bingaman’s office. Sandra is a clinical psychologist by training, held faculty appointments at Dartmouth Medical College, University of Illinois at Chicago, and Weil Cornell Medical Center, and was the director of Thresholds Institute, the research and training arm of Thresholds, Chicago’s largest psychosocial rehabilitation organization.