Chelsea Laliberte Barnes is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 16 years of experience as a nonprofit leader, tenacious advocate for mental health, relationally focused clinician, and marketing and communications strategist. She uses her voice and experience to promote compassion, justice, and resources to patients and families impacted by mental health, substance use, and overdose. She has led community coalitions, helped write and pass more than 25 state and federal laws, and developed programming addressing intersecting issues such as poverty, housing, equality, care access, and criminal justice reform.

Chelsea’s passion ignited when she lost her younger brother to an accidental drug overdose in 2008. She co-founded Live4Lali with her parents in 2009 to reduce stigma, prevent substance use disorders among individuals, families, and communities, and minimize the overall health, legal, and social harms of substance use. In 2012, Chelsea and Lake County leaders co-developed the Lake County Opioid Initiative to address solutions to the opioid crisis, recognized as an effective model for change by the Obama White House. Chelsea has advised organizations and government entities regarding comprehensive community strategies to reduce stigma and overdose deaths, end the drug war and punishment-based approaches, enhance support and recovery opportunities, and decrease barriers to evidence-based, culturally competent care.

Before devoting her life to this social justice, Chelsea was a digital marketing and advertising professional. She received her BA in Integrated Marketing Communications from Roosevelt University, where in 2012, she was a Fellow with the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy. She received her Master of Science in Social Administration (MSSA) degree specializing in Child & Family Mental Health from Case Western Reserve University. She became an Overdose Education & Naloxone distribution (OEND) trainer in 2013 and received her SMART Recovery Facilitator certification in 2016. Chelsea is the Chief Operating Officer at Wolf Pack, a behavioral healthcare company based in Illinois. Chelsea, her husband, Matt, their five-year-old son, Luke, and their dog, Sammy, live in the suburbs of Chicago.