Sonja Gaines, MBA 

Sonja Gaines has a distinguished career in leading community mental health and state-funded intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) services in Texas. She previously served as Chief of Mental Health at MHMR of Tarrant County, overseeing outpatient mental health services. In 2014, Sonja was appointed as the first Associate Commissioner for Mental Health Coordination at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), working across 23 state agencies. By 2016, she was promoted to Deputy Executive Commissioner for IDD and Behavioral Health Services, where she was responsible for policy development and service delivery. 

During her tenure at HHSC, Sonja managed a $1.5 billion operation, providing services to more than 300,000 Texans through grants and contracted programs, including outpatient and inpatient substance use services, disaster relief, rural mental health programs, forensic services, and peer support across all 254 counties in Texas. She led the development of the Statewide Behavioral Health Coordinating Council and strategic plans for behavioral health, IDD, and forensic services. Her leadership also expanded mental health crisis services, matching grant programs, and opioid treatment initiatives. Sonja’s vision helped introduce innovative services like Coordinated Specialty Care, Multisystemic Therapy (MST), step-down housing, rural mental health approaches, outpatient competency restoration, Medicaid peer services, the 988 crisis line, and disaster behavioral health responses. 

She is widely recognized at both the state and national levels for her expertise in behavioral health, organizational development, and community collaboration. Sonja also led Texas’s coordinated behavioral health response to major events, including COVID-19, Hurricane Harvey, and the shootings in Uvalde and El Paso. She holds an MBA from Texas Woman’s University and a BA in Psychology from the University of Maryland.