Audrey Richardson-Salinas
Audrey Richardson-Salinas
Deputy Director
Audrey Richardson-Salinas, MPP, MPH serves as Deputy Director for Behavioral Health Policy on the Integrated Care team at Aurrera Health Group. Audrey supports clients across the country through strategic planning, policy development and analysis, program evaluation, stakeholder engagement, and project management. In her role, she works closely with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) on a variety of behavioral health initiatives related to mental health and substance use disorder supports, including the State’s opioid response.
Audrey’s expertise is grounded in refining our health and social systems to create livable, sustainable, and equitable communities. Prior to joining Aurrera Health Group, Audrey worked at Families USA where she partnered with state and federal officials to improve health outcomes in communities of color and develop policies to address long-standing, structural inequities. She also served as the organization’s expert on COVID-19; co-leading the Building a New Normal through Vaccine Equity Initiative, a strategic effort to promote community-driven policy change during the pandemic.
Before entering the world of health policy, Audrey served as a researcher evaluating social service programs as well as investigating racial and ethnic discrimination in the U.S. health care system. She has worked with a myriad of organizations, including the Urban Institute, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission, to identify and implement needed changes in state environments to best support historically marginalized populations.
Audrey holds a master’s degree in public policy with a concentration in policy analysis and a master’s degree in public health with a concentration in health behavior from the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor. In her spare time, Audrey enjoys watching movies, camping, and traveling to new places.
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MPP, University of Michigan
MPH, University of Michigan
