Colorado Behavioral Health Administration Commissioner

Love Colorado? There is no better way to define your future and build your career than to work for the State of Colorado.

When you work for the State of Colorado, you're working to improve your community, impact the lives of those around you, and ensure that our shared natural resources will be available for generations to come.

Each position makes a difference by helping people, enhancing our livelihood and making Colorado a better place to live. Learn more about the mission of each of our Departments and Institutions and the unique roles they serve!

The State of Colorado strives to create a Colorado for All by building and maintaining workplaces that value and respect all Coloradans through a commitment to equal opportunity and hiring based on merit and fitness. The State is resolute in non‑discriminatory practices in everything we do, including hiring, employment, and advancement opportunities.

Colorado For All - Colorado Employee Reflections

The Behavioral Health Administration (BHA) is the state administration responsible for ensuring all people in Colorado have access to quality mental health and substance use disorder services, regardless of where they live, or ability to pay. BHA will help bring together community groups and governmental agencies to design a behavioral health system for all people in Colorado that is easy to access, and offers high‑quality care that considers the whole person and their needs.

Information about the BHA’s history and plan can be found at: (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).-taskforce

/

The Commissioner will lead collaborative engagement with sister agency executive directors and their staffs, community organizations, and advocates to refine and implement our statewide strategy to transform behavioral health access and quality to improve outcomes, reduce disparities, and respond to the voices of Coloradans in need of these vital services. This work may include connecting and developing programs and systems vital to the work of the BHA, modernizing policies and rules, ensuring strong accountability and outcome measures, advancing provider payment policies, and more.

Major cabinet agencies, including those responsible for behavioral health, including Health Care Policy and Financing (responsible for Medicaid, among other programs), Human Services, Public Health, and the Division of Insurance, have co‑created and are helping operationalize this strategy. Under the oversight of the Governor and the leadership of the BHA Commissioner, they will shape a unified system consistently accountable for results and responsive to all who enter it—as the most direct and timely means of solving this crisis of care.

While the BHA Commissioner is a Cabinet‑level role, the BHA sits within the Department of Human Services (CDHS), which provides back office and administrative support for the BHA and the other CDHS divisions. This role is a senior executive service (SES) position.

Department: Colorado Behavioral Health Administration

FLSA Classification: Exempt

Expected Annual Travel: Some travel may be required, but this position is not one of the departments that travels constantly.

The new BHA Commissioner will be responsible for overseeing the operations, programs, and functions of the BHA.

Priorities for the next BHA Commissioner will include:

• Continue to work with HCPF and CDHS to operationalize the children’s behavioral health system
• Refine the care coordination system that is intended to ensure there is no wrong door for consumers accessing care
• Strengthen the safety net for Coloradans so that nobody falls through the cracks
• Oversee the BHA Administrative Services Organizations to provide for reimbursement of care coordination, safety net, mental health, and substance abuse disorder services across a network of providers
• Support the organizational development of the BHA to continue leading the state’s vision and strategy for behavioral health
• Integrating behavioral and physical health care
• Developing and expanding the behavioral health…