Tenly Pau Biggs, MSW, LMSW, is the Deputy Director at the Office of Behavioral Health Equity (OBHE) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). She is coordinating SAMHSA’s efforts to reduce disparities in mental and substance use disorders across racial, ethnic, LGBTQ+ and other underserved populations.

She is a member of a workgroup dedicated to implementing the HHS response to the Memorandum on Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) in the United States.

Prior to joining OBHE, she was the Grants Coordinator for the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) and the lead for the disparity impact statement and strategy (DIS) work pertaining to the access, service use, and behavioral health outcomes of discretionary grants at SAMHSA.

Tenly was the former primary and behavioral health care integration lead for CMHS grant programs. Previously at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Minority Health, Tenly was the mental health lead and provided technical assistance on achieving health equity to health plans, health systems and networks, hospitals, and primary care providers. She also updated CMS’ Disparity Impact Statement for health plans and providers review their disparities data and create an action and implementation plan to close the identified gaps.

Tenly is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who served in Niger (West Africa). She continues to build upon her areas of interest in leadership, management, and training opportunities within the AAPI communities. She is a licensed social worker in Maryland and received her Master of Social Work degree at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California.