Linda Elam is a health policy and management leader with deep expertise in the financing and delivery of health care to vulnerable populations, and broad experience across academic, philanthropic, federal and state government, and private sectors. Presently, Dr. Elam is a managing director at Manatt Health where she works primarily on issues related to Medicaid, long-term care, and health equity. Previously, she served as CEO and plan president of Amerigroup, District of Columbia, Inc., a managed care organization serving the Medicaid population in Washington, D.C.
Previously, Dr. Elam served as deputy assistant secretary for planning and evaluation directing the office of Disability, Aging and Long-Term Care Policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services where she provided leadership on policies supporting the independence, health and productivity of elderly individuals and people with physical and mental disabilities.
At the state level, Dr. Elam was senior deputy director and State Medicaid Director at the District of Columbia’s Department of Health Care Finance, where she helped develop and implement programmatic changes related to the Affordable Care Act, including Medicaid expansion, and led the initial work to establish the District’s health benefits exchange.
Prior to her government service, Dr. Elam was a principal policy analyst with the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, where she focused on prescription drug policy, Medicaid and access to care, and racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. She is on advisory boards for the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan and ACT.md. She holds memberships in the National Academy of Social Insurance, the American Public Health Association, the public health honor society Delta Omega, and she holds an adjunct faculty position with the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University. Dr. Elam received her B.S. in zoology with honors from Howard University, her M.P.H. in Health Policy and Administration from the University of California at Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in Health Policy and Management from the Johns Hopkins University.