Melissa Rowan

Melissa Rowan brings a practical, real-world focus to the Meadows Institute’s work in health systems and with service providers. She takes the Institute’s policy and best practice strategies to our partners both at the state level and in communities across Texas to innovate and improve how our state delivers mental health care to adults, transition-age youth, children, and veterans and their families.

Previously, Melissa was a Partner at Wertz & Rowan, a health care policy consulting firm she founded in Austin. She has worked in both Texas and national behavioral health and health systems for 25 years, focusing on broad health care issues, managed care, and behavioral health. As a consultant with the Meadows Institute and while serving as Senior Fellow of Policy Implementation, Melissa worked on a range of projects, with a primary focus on service expansion and quality improvement in real-world settings and financing health care service and systems.

Previously, she served as Healthcare Policy Director for the Texas Council of Community Centers, working closely with the 39 community mental health centers across the state on innovation and design of behavioral health programs for adults and children. She has also been appointed to the boards of the TMF Health Quality Institute and LifeWorks, as well as serving as Vice Chair of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission Behavioral Health Integration Advisory Committee. She earned her MSW from The University of Texas at Austin and an MBA from Concordia University.