How Wide-Ranging Experiences Strengthen Medicaid Leadership

The path to Medicaid leadership isn’t always a straight one. In fact, it is the breadth of experience and expertise — spanning sectors both inside and outside of state government — that is essential to building teams with the skills and agility to manage multi-billion-dollar programs. This episode of the Medicaid Leadership Exchange podcast features three Medicaid leaders whose unique backgrounds — in nursing, technology, and politics — have helped shape their roles as trusted advisors to Medicaid Directors.

The episode features perspectives from Medicaid leaders in New Mexico, Alabama, and Wisconsin:

• Alanna Dancis, DNP, MSN, chief medical officer, Medical Assistance Division, New Mexico Health Care Authority
• Mason Tanaka, deputy commissioner and chief information officer, Alabama Medicaid Agency
• Krista Willing, MPA, assistant administrator, Systems, Fiscal, and Operations, Division of Medicaid Services, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

The episode is hosted by Mark Larson, former Vermont Medicaid director and senior vice president, Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), and Jami Snyder, former Arizona and Texas Medicaid director and president and CEO, JSN Strategies. The Medicaid Leadership Exchange podcast explores priority topics for Medicaid leaders. It is developed in partnership by NAMD and CHCS through support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.