About Us
About Alliance Healthcare Services
Our CEO, Laurie Powell
Promoting Wellness In Our Community
Getting help should not depend on your insurance card, your address, or your ability to pay. For more than 50 years, Alliance has made sure it doesn't.
We are the largest not-for-profit behavioral health provider in Shelby County, serving more than 14,000 people each year across 18 locations in Memphis and the surrounding area. Our mission has not changed since we started: promoting wellness in our community. One person, one family at a time.
More than 50 years in Memphis
Alliance began in 1973 as the Southeast Memphis Mental Health Center — a single community clinic. In 2013, a merger brought two long-standing Memphis providers together to form Alliance Healthcare Services.
Today we are a comprehensive behavioral health system offering outpatient, intensive outpatient, home-based, and community-based care, plus a full continuum of crisis services that runs 24 hours a day.
We have grown a great deal. What has not changed is who we serve: anyone in this community who needs help, regardless of their ability to pay.
Our Team
Laurie Powell
Chief Executive Officer
Marilyn R. Burress
Senior Vice President of Organizational Development
Samantha Hammonds
Senior Vice President of Compliance & Special Programs
Beverly A. Vann
Vice President Housing and Peer Services
Shelby Thomas
Chief Financial Officer
Eric Winger
Senior Vice President of Information Technology, Systems, and Revenue Operations
Robyn Butterfield
Vice President of Outpatient Services
Dr. Emmanuel Nwokeji
Medical Director
What We Do
Our care is organized around four areas. Most people we serve touch more than one.
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Mental Health Care — Outpatient therapy, psychiatric care and medication management, children and family services, and OnTrack TN, our early psychosis program for young adults.
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Addiction Recovery — Treatment for substance use disorder, including medication-assisted treatment and our Community Addictions Center.
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Crisis Services — 24/7 crisis care at the Crisis Wellness Center for adults and the Children & Youth Crisis Wellness Center for ages 4–17, plus mobile crisis response and our partnership with local law enforcement.
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Community Programs — Housing and re-entry support, community-based case management, and employment support for people rebuilding after crisis or incarceration.
What That Looks Like in a Year
In fiscal year 2025, Alliance delivered:
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More than 130,000 outpatient services
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Over 10,000 crisis assessments
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More than 3,600 jail diversions - people law enforcement brought to a clinician instead of to jail
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More than 2,400 emergency room diversions - people our crisis clinicians met at the hospital, in the emergency department itself
Those last two are the ones we work hardest at. When a behavioral health clinician meets someone in crisis, they deliver care tailored to what is actually happening to the individual, and the whole community bears a lower cost for it.
If you would like to see more of this work happen in the community of Memphis, please consider a donation to The Alliance Foundation.
Care You Can Actually Get To
Cost and coverage are the two biggest reasons people put off getting help.
Here is where Alliance stands:
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We accept TennCare, Medicare, and most major commercial insurance — including BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Cigna, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and Wellpoint.
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Sliding-scale fees are available based on income and household size.
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The Tennessee Mental Health Safety Net Program covers eligible adults who are uninsured.
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Interpretation services are available 24/7 through our language line, at no cost to you.
No one is turned away from crisis care because of an inability to pay.
Accredited and Accountable
Alliance is a Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC).
That is a federal designation that requires us to serve everyone who comes to us, regardless of insurance status or where they live, and to meet standards for how quickly we respond.
We have also been accredited by CARF (the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities) since 2016. CARF accreditation means an independent body reviews our programs, our outcomes, and how we treat the people in our care.
We are a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization governed by a volunteer board of directors drawn from this community.
How to Get Started
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Call Us
To begin care or ask a question, call (901) 369-1410. If you or someone you love is in crisis right now, call our 24-hour crisis line at (901) 577-9400.
Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.