Board

Prior to Altarum, Michael was the Senior Vice President of Medicaid and Complex Care and CEO of Social Health Bridge at Centene Corporation – the nation’s largest Medicaid health plan. He had national product responsibility for Centene’s Medicaid and Complex Care product lines – TANF; CHIP; Foster Care; Medicaid Expansion; Aged Blind & Disabled; Managed Long Term Services and Supports; and Medicare-Medicaid Plans (CMS Financial Alignment Demonstration). These products operate across 30 states and collectively comprise more than 12.5 million members and more than $70 billion in revenue.

Michael developed Centene’s strategy to address the social determinants of health and led the Centene Center for Health Transformation, a collaboration with academic researchers that improved quality of care across all of Centene’s members.

Previously, Michael was the Chief Administrative Officer and Vice President of Residential Services at Village Care of New York where he had responsibility for a $60 million P&L as well as multiple corporate functions. Village Care is a New York City based integrated health system with more than $200 million in revenue.

Michael began his career in health care leading strategy and innovation at the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, a safety net organization that was also the nation’s largest home-based health care company. He also spent six years advising nonprofit organizations as a consultant at McKinsey.

He earned a master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

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At LeadingAge, Sloan is responsible for the overall management and leadership of the organization’s activities. Working closely with the Board of Directors, Sloan focuses on the continued development and implementation of LeadingAge’s strategic vision and plan, and the public policies and programs to advance the interests of its members. Sloan works to build an accurate and positive image of the important role LeadingAge members play within our society. She joined LeadingAge in April 2002, after having served in a number of key leadership positions at AARP. As a member of AARP’s senior leadership team, Sloan was responsible for major social marketing initiatives to carry out the association’s strategic priorities in health and wellness, economic security, and consumer protection.

Sloan has a strong commitment to the consumer movement, and serves as secretary-treasurer of the Consumer Federation of America and a member of the Board of the Center for the Study of Services/Consumer Checkbook. She also serves on the Board of Directors of HelpAge USA and ValueFirst, a group purchasing company serving the aging services field. Sloan has a master’s degree from the George Washington University and a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College.

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Nora also chairs the External Advisory Committee of the National Dementia Care Collaborative (NDCC). NDCC coordinates with the developers of six evidence-based comprehensive dementia care programs to rapidly respond to increasing demands for dementia services and a new payment model launched by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.

In addition, Nora is the CEO of NS Ideas, LLC, a boutique consulting firm she leads together with her husband, health economist, Len Nichols. Together, they provide strategic advice to leaders in the health, social services, and aging field. Nora is an expert facilitator of major events and convenings, with proven skill in producing meaningful outcomes and actionable recommendations. She is also a dynamic motivational speaker, with a passion for mental health advocacy and improving the lives of older adults and their families.

Most recently, Nora was the Executive Director of the Milken Institute Center for the Future of Aging, where she provided strategic direction for the three primary focus areas of the Center:  Healthy Longevity, Financial Security, and Improving Dementia Care. While at the Milken Institute, Nora created and launched the Alliance to Improve Dementia Care, which seeks to transform and improve the complex health and long-term care systems that people at risk for and living with dementia must navigate.  In 2014, President Obama appointed her as Executive Director of the White House Conference on Aging, where she received wide recognition for her nationwide efforts to improve the lives of older Americans. She has also held leadership roles at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, AARP, Kaiser Permanente, and USAging.

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She came to AmeriHealth Caritas after serving as Secretary of Aging for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where she served as the State’s chief advocate for the health, economic and social needs of 2.5 million older people and their caregivers. Ms. Alexander holds a Masters of Public Management from The H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, and a Bachelor of Science, Health Planning and Administration, from The Pennsylvania State University. 

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Before joining Abt Associates, Ms. Amero was the Director of Long-Term Services and Supports at the AARP Public Policy Institute. She oversaw AARP’s LTSS-related research and strategic initiatives and collaborated with AARP partners. She led the research, development and production of the LTSS State Scorecard 2023 and coordinated the ongoing work of LTSS Choices, a multi-year, multi-faceted initiative to catalyze the transformation and modernization of the nation’s long-term care system into one that meets the dynamic needs and preferences of consumers and their families.

She earned a master’s in public affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

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Current areas of research include: 1) Impact of person-centered planning on health and community living outcomes; 2) Home and community-based services unmet needs and quality; 3) Impacts of family support policies and practices; and 4) Policy analysis and development to improve long-term services and supports financing, shift from institutional to more cost-effective home and community-based services, and enhance integration and coordination with the broader health care system. Other areas of research and scholarship have included outcomes of self-directed services and supports, supports for aging family caregivers and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the self-advocacy movement.

Previously, Dr. Caldwell was Director of Long-Term Services and Supports at the National Council on Aging, where he led the Disability and Aging Collaborative, a coalition of over 40 national aging disability organizations that work together to advance federal long-term services and support policy.

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Prior to joining ADvancing States, she worked for 10 years at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, focusing on Medicaid policy and operations. Her responsibilities at CMS included negotiating and monitoring section 1115 Medicaid demonstrations; managing a team of analysts who reviewed and recommended approval of managed care waivers and State plan amendments, and most significantly, serving as Senior Policy Advisor for Medicaid managed care. In that role, she served as the agency’s policy expert on Medicaid managed care delivery system issues and directed the agency’s regulatory and technical assistance efforts regarding managed care. She was the lead author of CMS’ 2013 guidance to States laying out key elements for MLTSS programs, which has since been translated into the new Medicaid managed care rule.

Before joining CMS in 2005, she spent twelve years working in Medicaid operations, policy and compliance with two Maryland-based Medicaid MCOs. She received her Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs and Master’s degree in Public Administration, both from George Washington University.

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Before rejoining AARP in 2021, Flinn was the director of Medicaid and home and community-based services (HCBS) policy at LeadingAge, where he handled federal and state policy affecting HCBS and the Medicaid program across all settings. Previously, Flinn had worked on HCBS, Medicaid and family caregiving issues at the AARP Public Policy Institute and the Lewin Group’s Center for Aging and Disability Policy.

He holds a master’s of public health in health policy from the George Washington University. 

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Wendy started her career in public policy as a congressional intern with the US Senate Special Committee on Aging. She holds a master of science in gerontology and a master of public administration from the University of Southern California’s Andrus Gerontology Center. She has a bachelor of science from Northwestern University.

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Killingsworth is also a newly appointed Commissioner to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on a wide array of issues affecting Medicaid and CHIP. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Socio-Political Communication from Missouri State University.

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Previously, Sarita served as the Vice President of Care Coordination for Medicaid and Vulnerable Populations at Kaiser Permanente. Sarita was previously Assistant Professor of Medicine at USC; Chief Medical Officer of COPE Health Solutions, a health care management consulting company; and Senior Medical Director at L.A. Care, the largest U.S. public health plan.

Sarita completed her Internal Medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and research fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She earned her MD from Boston University, MPH from Harvard University, and MBA from UCLA. She completed undergraduate work at UC Berkeley. She currently is an Associate Professor at the Kaiser Permanente Bernard J.Tyson School of Medicine and is a practicing internal medicine physician with KaiserPermanente. Sarita enjoys international travel, tennis, and spending time with her husband and three children.

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He was formerly the Medical Director of Non-Acute Care Services for Partners HealthCare System, an integrated network and Pioneer ACO, where he provides network oversight of efforts to improve transitions of care and the exchange of clinical information at transitions. Through an ONC Challenge Grant, IMPACT (Improving Massachusetts Post Acute Care Transitions), he conducted research to measure the impact of the electronic exchange of essential clinical data at the time of a care transition on the utilization of healthcare services.

He co-chaired the Long Term and Post Acute Care Sub-workgroup within the Standards and Interoperability Framework at the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) and was one of the Leads of the Longitudinal Coordination of Care Workgroup which are creating a standard national data set for transitions of care to be part of Meaningful Use Stage 3 and the framework for the exchange of a longitudinal care plan. He is a member of the NQF Care Coordination Measures Steering Committee.  He is currently the Community Lead on the eLTSS project to develop a shared care plan among community based service provider.  He has published numerous articles on transitions of care and quality measurement, and lectures frequently on these topics at the local, regional, and national levels.

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Mr. Tschida has spent the last 20 years using data and research to drive policy change and service development for individuals for disabilities. Before joining AUCD, he served as director if the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR) at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. NIDILRR is the federal government’s premiere applied research agency impacting individuals with disabilities.

Prior to joining NIDILRR in 2014, he served as director of public policy and innovation at Allina Health in Minnesota, where he developed integrated health delivery systems and financing models for people with disabilities. At the Courage Center, Minnesota’s leading nonprofit provider of rehabilitation services, Mr. Tschida was vice president of public affairs and research. There, he built and directed a policy and research team that focused on defining and achieving better outcomes for complex populations. His team received one of the first Health Care Innovation Awards from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Earlier in his career, Tschida served as a research fellow at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Center for Health and Disability Research, in Washington, D.C. He was also assistant director of the Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Office.

Mr. Tschida has served on a number of public and private boards designing policy or governance solutions to further the independence of people with disabilities and he has written numerous articles on disability and public policy for national and local publications.

Mr. Tschida, who has lived with a spinal cord injury since 1993, has a master’s degree in public policy and a health services research certificate from Georgetown University, and a bachelor of arts from Macalester College.

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