October 23, 2026

Crossville, TN

This powerful half-day summit will bring together leaders from across Tennessee’s treatment and recovery community to discuss how stronger partnerships, long-term recovery management, and an integrated continuum of care can improve outcomes for individuals and families.

Building Stronger Pathways to Recovery

Addiction is a chronic disease that requires coordinated care, sustained engagement, and meaningful support well beyond a single episode of treatment.

Together, we will connect policy with local implementation, identify gaps in the recovery continuum, and establish concrete next steps for strengthening recovery throughout the Upper Cumberland.

Join the people shaping what comes next for our region—and beyond.

Friday, October 23, 2026 | 8:30am - 12:30pm | Free to Attend - Registration Required

The Way, 53 Woodmere Mall, Crossville, TN 38555

JOIN US IN CROSSVILLE!

Webster Bailey, LADAC II, NCAC II, CPRS, RC

Executive Director, Metro Drug Coalition Knoxville

Shane Farris

Senior Vice President, Volunteer Behavioral Health

Katrina “Trina” Frierson

Founding CEO/President, Mending Hearts, Inc.

Dr. Kristie Isaacson

Executive Director, Recovering Crossville

Stephen Loyd, MD

Senior Advisor, Great American Recovery Initiative; and Medical Director, Cedar Recovery

Sam MacMaster, PhD

Program Moderator

Founding Advisor for Research & Policy, Reach Impact Institute; Co-Founder and Chair, Advisory Board, National Institute for Behavioral Health

George Massengill, BSSW, LADAC

President, Reach Impact Institute; President, RCN Treatment Centers

Mikel Miller

Economic Development Planner, Upper Cumberland Development District / Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency

Troy Sandifer

Founder and COO, HUSTLE Recovery

Steve Stone

Recovery Advocate; Member, Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council

Will Taylor, CPRS, LADAC I, NCPRSS

Co-founder/Executive Director, Recovery Is The New High

Logan Terry

Co-Founder, National Institute for Behavioral Health; Executive Director, Hope in the Hills, Inc.

Marie Williams, LCSW

Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

Steve Stone

Recovery Advocate; Member, Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council

Profile

Steve Stone graduated from Tennessee Technological University in 1977 with a degree
in Business Management. He spent 42 years with Tap Publishing Company, where he
served in various leadership roles before retiring as Chief Operating Officer in 2019.

Throughout his career and retirement, Steve has remained deeply committed to the
well-being of his community. He is actively involved in numerous organizations
throughout Cumberland County and the Upper Cumberland region. His service includes
membership and volunteer work with Cumberland Fellowship Church, as well as board
service with the Cumberland County Foster Care Board, Cumberland Good Samaritans,
Cumberland Prevention Coalition, and the Trauma-Informed Community Alliance.

Steve has also been appointed to the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation, The
Tennessee Opioid Abatement Council, serves as Chairman of Fourth Dimension Inc.,
and is a commissioner for Middle Tennessee Gas. Through these various leadership
and volunteer roles, he advocates for vulnerable populations, supports trauma-informed
initiatives, contributes to effective utility oversight, and promotes spiritual, civic, and
community engagement.

Steve's commitment to the recovery community is one of the most significant aspects of
his service. Since March 1985, he has remained actively involved in supporting
individuals and families affected by addiction. For more than four decades, he has
chaired recovery meetings, sponsored individuals in recovery, helped people access
rehabilitation services, and built relationships with organizations and individuals who
can provide assistance to those struggling with addiction and to their families.

His more than 40 years of personal experience working alongside individuals in
recovery, combined with his extensive knowledge of community resources, have given
Steve a unique understanding of the challenges faced by people seeking help. This
experience has strengthened his compassion, expanded his network of resources, and
shaped a lifelong passion for helping others find hope, recovery, and a path toward a
healthier life.

Steve's decades of professional leadership, community involvement, and service to the
recovery community reflect a deep commitment to helping others and strengthening the
communities he serves.

Marie Williams, LCSW

Commissioner, Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services

Profile

Marie Williams, LCSW, gratefully serves as Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS). She was reappointed to her position by Governor Bill Lee on January 19, 2019 and was initially appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam, effective October 22, 2016. She is the longest-serving Commissioner in the department’s 70+ year history.

As Commissioner, Ms. Williams oversees and leads the department in its role as the state’s public mental health and substance abuse authority. Under her leadership and with support from two different governors and the Tennessee General Assembly, the TDMHSAS annual budget has grown from $337 million to about $680 million. In all, the department serves approximately 750,000 Tennesseans annually who are struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues. Ms. Williams provides leadership and oversight to more than 1,871 full-time employees who assist individuals in securing prevention, treatment, and recovery services for serious mental illness, serious emotional disturbances, and substance abuse disorders. Her duties as commissioner also include system planning; monitoring, licensing, evaluating, and setting policy and quality standards; collaborating with other state and community agencies; and working to educate the community about mental health and substance abuse services. Ms. Williams’s oversight responsibilities include about 1,100 contracts with community mental health and substance abuse providers, the operation of four regional mental health institutes with about 5,400 annual admissions, and contracts with three additional private psychiatric hospitals which serve about 2,200 people annually.

In her time as Commissioner, Ms. Williams has served as a leader in addressing several essential issues facing Tennessee including behavioral health workforce challenges, mental health struggles of youth and young adults, the opioid crisis, criminal justice reform, leveraging the abilities and resources of the faith-based community, and expanding peer-led services, but her career in behavioral health services has been marked by a special passion for housing.

Commissioner Williams began her career in Memphis, Tennessee supporting people experiencing homelessness and mental illness. Her success there led to employment with TDMHSAS starting in 2000 as the Director of Housing Planning and Development. Her signature achievement, the Creating Homes Initiative (CHI), has leveraged more than $1.4 billion and developed more than 37,000 supportive housing options for people diagnosed with mental illness and co-occurring disorders. Based on the success of the original CHI program, Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly expanded it twice to create housing for people recovering from substance use disorder (CHI 2.0) and re-entering communities from incarceration (CHI 3.0).

As the pandemic realities of workforce disruption, burnout, and uncertainty facing all sectors of the economy became clear, Commissioner Williams convened and led a workgroup to study the issue, gather data, and establish solutions. The workgroup included representatives from treatment provider agencies, consumer and family advocacy groups, as well as universities and colleges that train the professionals working in the field. She also leveraged relationships at the state’s Medicaid agency to ensure that the entire sphere of public behavioral health was represented. Under Ms. Williams’s leadership, this diverse group of stakeholders developed a roadmap for Tennessee’s elected decisionmakers to consideration that eventually led to more than $40 million recurring investment of state dollars for TDMHSAS contracted providers and an additional $62 million in one-time funding for bonuses and mental health services.

Another reality of the pandemic that Commissioner Williams realized early on was the outsized impact on the mental health of Tennessee’s youth and young adults. With support from Governor Bill Lee and the Tennessee General Assembly and in partnership with the department’s contracted community mental health providers, Ms. Williams created the Children’s Behavioral Health Safety Net. In the model of the existing Behavioral Health Safety Net for adults, the Children’s BHSN ensured that any Tennessee child who was uninsured or underinsured would have access to essential outpatient mental health services. Commissioner Williams also led the expansion of the department’s services for children and youth taking the School-Based Behavioral Health Liaison program from a few dozen counties to statewide and initiating the Tennessee Resiliency Project which allowed grant applicants unprecedented latitude in designing services to meet the need in their areas. Her leadership and decision making are essential as the department works to operationalize Governor Bill Lee’s $250 million K-12 Mental Health Trust Fund.

Under the direction of Gov. Bill Haslam, Ms. Williams co-chaired a workgroup of commissioners, state and local lawmakers, and law enforcement officers to develop a comprehensive plan to address opioid addiction and reduce overdose deaths in Tennessee. This plan became known as TN Together and was the signature policy initiative of Gov. Haslam’s final year in office. The $30 million plan addressed the crisis by making significant investments in substance abuse treatment, addiction prevention, and law enforcement. Since then, Ms. Williams has continued to advocate for expanded funding for prevention, treatment, and recovery services with more than $30 million in state funding added under the administration of Governor Bill Lee and more than $150 million in awarded federal grants since March 2020. As lawsuit settlements stemming from the opioid crisis send hundreds of millions of dollars to Tennessee, Ms. Williams’s leadership remains key as she serves as a non-voting member of the state’s Opioid Abatement Council.

Ms. Williams’s efforts in criminal justice reform include advocating, increasing funding, and expanding the network of recovery courts to encompass 92 recovery courts in Tennessee following the recent addition of several new mental health courts. Additionally, Ms. Williams is responsible for leadership and oversight of the department’s juvenile justice program which created alternatives to out-of-home placements in areas of the state where options are limited. In 2019, Governor Bill Lee called on Commissioner Williams’s leadership to chair the Behavioral Health Subcommittee of his Criminal Justice Investment Task Force. Additionally, Ms. Williams has provided criminal justice leadership at the national level serving with the Council of State Governments Justice Center Advisory Board since 2018 and serving as the group’s Chair starting in 2022.

Faith in God has always been a strong motivator for Ms. Williams as she moved through her personal and professional life, and that influence showed her the value of direct outreach to communities of all faiths across Tennessee. During her time as Deputy Commissioner, Ms. Williams helped create the Department’s Faith-Based Initiative, and under her leadership as Commissioner, the initiative grew to encompass two department employees and seven regional Faith-Based Community Coordinators. The program’s signature achievement is Certified Faith-Based Recovery Partner program which has certified more than 1,100 houses of faith to create and share recovery resources and support Tennesseans in their journey of wellness.

Increasing the role of peer-led services has been a significant theme of Ms. Williams’s time as Commissioner. Under her leadership, programs in the department have been started and/or greatly expanded that have placed Certified Peer Recovery Specialists in places where they can refer people to treatment, work with communities of faith, work inside of emergency departments, train people on reversing overdose, and more. Commissioner Williams responded to the demand for certified peers both from within the department’s programs and from community providers and other settings by greatly increasing capacity in the department’s CPRS trainings. As a result, Tennessee reached a milestone with more than 1,300 active CPRS during her tenure as Commissioner.

In her previous position as Deputy Commissioner, Ms. Williams served as top advisor to the Commissioner and managed the departmental budget of more than $337 million. Ms. Williams successfully assisted in the department’s transformation initiative which closed a 150-bed long-term care facility. Through strong partnership and collaboration with community providers, all patients were transitioned into community-based care, and the facility’s previous operating budget of $20.5 million was reinvested into community-based services. Ms. Williams’s leadership secured the support of three East Tennessee private psychiatric in-patient hospital partners to provide services to those patients previously served by Lakeshore Mental Health Institute.

Commissioner Williams is a proud graduate of the University of Tennessee Knoxville (Master of Social Work), Austin Peay State University (Bachelor of Science in Psychology, and Dyersburg State Community College. She is the recipient of numerous professional and community awards from national and state groups including the Excellence in Advocacy Individual Achievement Award from the National Council for Behavioral Health, the George Goodman and Ruth P. Brudney National Social Work Award from Mental Health America, the Alumni Professional Achievement Award from the University of Tennessee Knoxville, and the Senator Douglas Henry Award for Service to Children and Families at Risk from the University of Tennessee College of Social Work. Ms. Williams lives in Nashville, and she is the mother of Nikki Williams.