Mary Wise, MA, MFA, BSN, is the Chief of Maternal Health Services for Delaware Health and Social Services’ (DHSS) Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH). In this role, she develops, leads, and supports initiatives designed to meet the mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment needs of birthing people in the state of Delaware. She also provides subject-matter expertise to inform policy and standards and to support the Division’s grant-funded projects. In addition to this role, Mary serves as the Delaware Women’s Services Coordinator and Region 3 Representative for the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors’ (NASADAD) Women’s Service Network (WSN) and as a Commissioner for Delaware’s Maternal and Child Death Review Commission (MCDRC). Mary is an active member of the Commission’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRc), the Delaware Perinatal Quality Collaborative (DPQC), and multiple workgroups that stem from these collaborative bodies as well as the Delaware Healthy Mother and Infant Consortium (DHMIC).  Mary Wise is also a Maternal Mental Health Policy Fellow and is a participating member of the core faculty for the Nation’s first ever Peer Recovery Specialist ECHO series, created in partnership between the Weitzman Institute, DSAMH, Help is Here Delaware, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In earlier years, Mary volunteered as a creative writing teacher at the Westchester Women’s Correctional Facility in Valhalla, New York and as a nurse with the American Red Cross and Medical Reserve Corp in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mary is a writer, a registered nurse, and a former college professor. Adding to her professional background, Mary is a single mother of 2 teens, part of the LGBTQI+ community, and is a person with lived experience in recovery. This background informs her work and fuels her passion for this field.