Debbi Witham

Principal

Health Management Associates

Washington, DC

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Debbi Witham is a seasoned executive with experience delivering high quality, mission driven healthcare. During her career, she has focused on behavioral health, including mental health and substance use disorders (SUD), integration of primary and behavioral health services, services for people living with HIV/AIDS, and housing and social services.

She joins HMA after serving as managing director of public policy and opioid treatment programs with CARF International where she oversaw federal policy for all accreditation areas, tracked and monitored policy issues that impact service delivery for accredited services and provided education to policymakers on quality issues. In addition, she oversaw development of standards for opioid treatment programs and served as the liaison to the Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT).

Skilled in program design and development, Debbi has worked to create and improve programs aimed at improving access and care in behavioral health and housing systems, including large scale projects aimed at delivery system reform, workforce development and preparing systems for value-based payment.

Debbi is also an experienced compliance, accreditation, and quality improvement expert, leading corporate compliance, and quality improvement programs to build structured strategic plans, implement internal audit procedures, prepare for – and succeed with – accreditations, and develop countermeasures to manage risk exposure, ensure compliance, and improve outcomes. Prior to moving to CARF in a full-time managing director role, Debbi served as a CARF surveyor for the opioid treatment program accreditation area.

She is a licensed social worker with experience delivering services across the lifespan and earned a Juris Doctor from New York Law School. She received her Master of Social Work and a bachelor’s degree, also in social work, from the University of Pittsburgh.