Amanda Tinsley-Mathias, PhD, LMFT, LPC
Assistant Professor of Counseling, Director of Behavioral Health Workforce Initiative (LAR) in College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Office: Harrington Academic Hall 380C
Email: atinsley-mathias@wtamu.edu
Phone: 806-651-2909
Professional Profile
Dr. Amanda Tinsley-Mathias joined the Department of Education, Graduate Counseling Program at West Texas A&M University in the Fall of 2026. She received a Bachelor of Science in Family Studies with a minor in Alcohol and Addiction Studies from Texas Tech University (2001). She earned her Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy (2005) and Doctor of Philosophy in Marriage and Family with a concentration in Neurofeedback (2008) at St. Mary's University. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor. Additionally, Dr. Tinsley-Mathias serves as a Director of the Behavioral Health Workforce Initiative for the Legislative Appropriations Request. In this role she sets the initiative’s strategic direction, builds regional partnerships, and coordinates the work with legislators, funders, and community leaders. She carries the strategic recommendations from the regional workforce landscape analysis through to implementation and sets the evidence standard for workforce decisions in our region.
Teaching and Related Service
Dr. Tinsley-Mathias teaches graduate courses in the Department of Education Counseling program. Her clinical work centered on the indigent, homeless, and underserved populations focusing on individuals living with serious mental illness, co-occurring substance use disorders, and complex medical conditions through evidence-based and innovative care. Through that work, she created supervision models for high-acuity programing to prevent burnout in clinicians, resulting in zero employee turnover in her final program leadership. She looks forward to translating this field experience in clinical design, training of clinicians, and program implementation into her teaching.
Research and Creative Activity
Behavioral health executive, clinical strategist, and researcher with over 25 years of leadership across community mental health, clinical system design, and health policy. A licensed marriage and family therapist and licensed professional counselor who has translated frontline clinical expertise into statewide and national systems change — repeatedly building new programs, teams, and regional strategies from the ground up.
Dr. Tinsley-Mathias has provided clinical strategy consultation and advising for more than 10,000 behavioral health and correctional beds. Examples of this work include design of co-located detention and treatment campus with acute and sub-acute psychiatric housing, medical detox housing, and clinical service space, assessing detention and civil mental health bed need and the appropriateness of the physical environments in which care was being delivered. Since 2017 she has served as clinical lead for Texas state psychiatric hospital design and redesign. Throughout her career, Dr. Mathias has directed a portfolio of community assessments, research, and facility-design engagements spanning every major region of Texas and select national initiatives. Her work pairs rigorous, data-driven community research with hands-on implementation, and is distinguished by an ability to mobilize funders, legislators, civic leaders, and clinical partners around a shared vision. A sought-after public voice on mental health, she has served as an invited speaker and advisor, and state legislative stakeholder processes leaders, and is a published author of white papers and community evaluations that shape best practice across Texas.