Biography: Tricia Schletke, MPH, BSN

 
Tricia Schlechte currently serves as a Policy and Intervention Analyst in the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.  Throughout her career in public health, Ms. Schlechte has promoted a systems approach to prevention and collaboration with partners to achieve public health goals.  

Ms. Schlechte has held a variety of positions in Missouri’s state health agency.  As the Deputy Director of Health and Public Health she provided oversight for local public health agencies, environmental, communicable disease, nutrition, maternal child, and chronic disease programs.  She also served as the Interim Director and Deputy Director for the Division of Maternal, Child and Family Health.  Nursing and health educator program experience included perinatal substance abuse, community health, worksite wellness, community based health promotion, and smoking cessation in pregnancy.

When managed care was implemented in the Medicaid program in Missouri, Ms. Schlechte was appointed as the Department’s Managed Care Coordinator.  In this position, she provided the interface between the state Medicaid agency and the state health agency to assure integration of public health services in the contracts with the health plans.

Ms. Schlechte has represented public health and the state health agency on a number of state committees, including the Medicaid Quality Assurance and Improvement Committee, Missouri Re-Entry Project which transitions released offenders into the community, Children’s Services Commission, and the Missouri Juvenile Information Governance Commission.  She currently serves as the chair of the state Advisory Council for Pain and Symptom Management. 

Ms. Schlechte has also held staff and supervisory nursing positions at the University of Missouri Medical Center and Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in Seattle. 

Ms. Schlechte received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Coe College and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Oklahoma.