Darilynn Cardona-Beiler
Darilynn Cardona-Beiler, MSSA, LCSW, is a behavioral health expert with 30 years of experience leading large-scale system transformation, cross-sector partnerships, and recovery-oriented innovation across county, state, and national systems. Her expertise includes integrated behavioral health, hospital and facility design, trauma-informed systems, crisis response, substance use treatment, complex care, permanent supportive housing, population health, and clinical operations.
As Senior Vice President of Adult Systems of Care at the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, Darilynn leads a statewide and national portfolio focused on hospital and behavioral health facility planning, psychiatric emergency and crisis system redesign, clinical service-line assessment, justice-system diversion, substance use care, housing and health integration, workforce development, veteran services, and community system transformation. She advises governments, hospital districts, health systems, foundations, behavioral health authorities, and community providers on strategy, implementation, financing, policy, and performance improvement.
Darilynn is recognized for translating strategy into sustainable, trauma-informed operating models that improve safety, dignity, patient flow, workforce experience, continuity of care, and coordination across hospitals, outpatient providers, crisis systems, public agencies, and community-based organizations. She brings particular expertise in crisis diversion, clinical triage, care coordination, and alternatives to unnecessary hospitalization and justice-system involvement.
Before joining the Meadows Institute, Darilynn served as Division Director of Behavioral Health Systems, providing executive leadership and oversight for a countywide continuum of behavioral health services at one of Texas’s largest Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics. She is also active in public policy and civic leadership related to behavioral health, homelessness, and housing, including service with the Texas Interagency Council for the Homeless, SAFE Alliance Affordable Housing Corporation, Foundation Communities, the Dallas HOPE Task Force, the Austin Downtown Commission, and the Downtown Austin Community Court Advisory Board.
Darilynn holds a Master of Science in Social Administration from Case Western Reserve University and a bachelor’s degree in social work from the University of Puerto Rico. She is a licensed clinical social worker and lives in Austin, Texas.
