Marissa Eyanson serves as Iowa’s State Director for Behavioral Health and Disability Services linking together Iowa’s State Mental Health Authority (SMHA), Single State Authority (SSA) for Substance Abuse, and the State’s Director for services for individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) within Iowa’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Marissa is a life-long small-town Iowan and graduate of Iowa State University. Her background and experience bring a unique ability to pivot perspectives from provider to payer to regulator. Marissa’s first job was as a direct support professional in an ICF/ID, and she has dedicated her career to work in the behavioral health and disability services field in Iowa.

As Iowa prepared to implement Medicaid managed care, Marissa went on board with one of the managed care organizations to help implement and administer the Iowa plan. In that work, she constructed a transitional care coordination model and built out a team focused on the key intersections between Long Term Services and Supports (LTSS), Behavioral Health, acute care, and provider network capacity building.

Marissa has worked with the Iowa Department of Human Services since 2018. Prior to stepping into her current role, she served as policy director for Iowa Medicaid, where she oversaw subject matter experts responsible for program management and policy development across the full spectrum of Iowa’s Medicaid program including Iowa’s seven 1915(c) home- and community-based services (HCBS) waivers. Throughout her career, Marissa has focused on leveraging systems and teams to achieve high quality outcomes for all Iowans. She has led improvement in organizational structure, program management and policy development. She is committed to building successful teams and to strengthening relationships that will improve systems and services that ensure that all Iowa families have an opportunity to succeed.