Lisa Ragan is the Director of Consumer Affairs and Peer Recovery Services for Tennessee’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. She joined the Department in 2005 and was promoted to Director in 2008. Lisa oversees the state contracts for Tennessee’s 45 Peer Support Centers and several other peer programs, oversees the state certification program for Peer Recovery Specialists, and supervises a staff of advocates who operate the Department’s Helpline. In addition, she oversees the state contracts with NAMI Tennessee and the Tennessee Mental Health Consumers’ Association to provide training and support services Lisa was selected as subject matter expert in Certified Peer Recovery Specialist programs by the Center for Social Innovation in 2017. In 2016, she received the Bob Long Leadership Award from the Tennessee Mental Health Consumers’ Association. In addition, Ms. Ragan participated in the 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014 Pillars of Peer Support Services conferences at the Carter Center in Atlanta.
As a person with lived experience of mental illness, Lisa says that she did not know life without depression and anxiety until she began her own recovery in her late twenties. A volunteer experience on a suicide hotline inspired her to abandon a career in publishing to pursue a master's degree in social work. Upon graduation from the University of Tennessee's College of Social Work, she received the Chancellor’s Award for Professional Promise. As a clinical therapist she found a niche in state government that allowed her to serve Tennesseans statewide. Her passion and vision for the future of Peer Recovery Specialists in Tennessee fuels her work every day.