Ms. Elizabeth Romero is a public health professional with more than 20 years of experience in building and leading systems change initiatives to improve health across the lifespan where children and adults live, work, pray, and play. She has a specific passion for addressing health equity, social determinants, and health outcomes for those at most risk. She is the Senior Behavioral Health Advisor for the Delaware Department of Correction. During her time at the DOC, she has helped lead the vaccination and population health efforts for incarcerated people as well as the licensing of the agency as a substance use treatment program. She has served as director of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health for the state of Delaware, where she oversaw and managed Delaware's state hospital and behavioral health agency. Ms. Romero implemented a statewide health informatics strategy for behavioral health to address value-based care, connectivity and collaboration, referral management, and analytics. She also led the creation of a multi-agency youth in transition initiative for high-risk youth, improved behavioral health services for those leaving prisons to rejoin their communities, and led the development of pre-arrest diversion with law enforcement. She also served as the senior director for health improvement with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. Ms. Romero's duties and accomplishments there included oversight of behavioral health, injury, and substance abuse and chronic disease health teams with a focus on building systems of care to improve population and community health outcomes. She also provided capacity-building assistance to more than 49 state and territorial health departments and national partners to support policies and evidence-based practices for substance abuse prevention. Ms. Romero  previously worked for Nemours Health and Prevention Services in Newark, DE, the National Association for State Boards of Education, AED/FHI 360, and the Harvard Prevention Research Center at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is currently completing an MBA at the University of Delaware, focusing on health care administration; she holds a BS from Boston University and a Master's degree from the University of Oregon.