Western Interstate Commission For Higher Education

Western Interstate Commission For Higher Education, doing business as Wiche, is a non-profit organization based in Boulder, Colorado, that delivers healthcare workforce development, behavioral health technical assistance, and mental health training services to federal agencies as a prime contractor on 65% of recent awards and as a subcontractor on the remainder. Wiche competes full-and-open, without set-aside designations, across a portfolio spanning federal contracts and grants.

Wiche's capability portfolio centers on three service lines: psychology and psychiatry internship coordination and oversight at Indian Health Service facilities; suicide prevention and mental health program support delivered to the Department of Veterans Affairs; and opioid and stimulant misuse prevention, treatment, and recovery training and technical assistance provided under SAMHSA grants. Representative prime work includes a $9.9 million definitive contract with VA's Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 for suicide prevention services (awarded September 2022, ultimate completion March 2027), a $1.5 million single-award indefinite-delivery contract with Indian Health Service for psychology doctoral internship placements through the New Mexico Psychology Internship Consortium (awarded July 2025, completion July 2030), and a $157 thousand purchase order with IHS for psychiatry internship program services at the National Naval Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico (awarded August 2023). On the grant side, Wiche holds a prime grant from SAMHSA's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment for the Region 8 Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Center of Excellence, partnering with Utah State University to deliver free training and technical assistance on opioid and stimulant misuse to rural and tribal communities across the behavioral health continuum of care (awarded September 2022, completion September 2026).

Customer concentration reflects Wiche's specialization in healthcare and behavioral health programs. The top five customer agencies account for 51% of recent awards by count; the VA Veterans Integrated Service Network 19 dominates by potential value at $19.5 million across four awards, followed by GSA's Federal Acquisition Service ($2.5 million, one award) and IHS ($2.5 million across eight awards). SAMHSA and IHS together account for 17 of the 55 total awards in the portfolio. The top NAICS categories are Educational Support Services (9 awards) and All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (7 awards), with behavioral and mental health the leading PSC classification.

SCI-reportable federal services invoicing totaled $4.5 million across FY2024 and FY2025 (FY2024: $2.7 million across 9.7 FTEs; FY2025: $1.8 million across 7.2 FTEs), reflecting a year-over-year decline in staffing and billing volume on the suicide prevention contract. On this single large SCI-reportable prime contract, government-paid rates derived from invoiced labor ran at a uniform $132.81 per hour, with zero subcontractor hours reported. Across the prime contract footprint, Wiche self-performs work without named subcontractors in its SCI-reportable records.

In its subcontractor role, Wiche provides technical assistance and mental health training to the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors Inc. on mental health coalition and transformation transfer initiatives (sub awards dated September 2023 and February 2024), and delivers doctoral psychology internship training and faculty support under prime grants from the Hawaii Department of Health, the University of Wisconsin System, and the State of Montana Department of Health and Human Services. Two awards face ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, carrying combined potential value of $10.2 million and therefore exposing Wiche to recompete activity in that window. Activity has contracted year over year (eight awards in 2022 to three in 2026), suggesting portfolio consolidation or completion of grant cycles.