Founding Director

Margie is a dynamic, values-based executive leader with over 30 years’ experience and a proven track record of creating operational excellence at the highest levels in both healthcare administration and in the insurance industry. Most recently, Margie served as the Health Systems Director at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) where she oversaw Medicaid and Behavioral Health along with operations support functions for both divisions. Under her leadership, both divisions and all support functions were re-structured to create increased organizational efficiencies and accountability. She led a significant staffing expansion for both divisions and implemented innovative hiring practices that attracted extraordinarily talented and diverse staff during a state-wide workforce shortage. Throughout her tenure, Margie ensured agency staff prioritized the people the agency serves and recognized and worked to eliminate historic health inequities, especially for communities of color.  She successfully navigated Medicaid and behavioral health programs through major transformational changes during the global pandemic, while rebuilding public trust. 

Margie’s leadership provided oversight and direction related to a series of Medicaid administrative challenges, including high-profile overpayments, which had placed OHA under intense public scrutiny. Margie brought her acumen and experience working in commercial health plans to strengthen OHA’s administrative processes and systems. Due to her leadership and the hard work of her teams, these operational issues significantly declined. 

In addition, Margie oversaw the operational implementation of the second five-year contracts for Oregon’s Medicaid program, which included shifting Coordinated Care Organizations boundaries and new assignments for tens of thousands of members, all without a hitch. She also oversaw the implementation of Healthier Oregon, which brought health coverage for thousands of people who were previously not eligible for Medicaid coverage due to their immigration status, and the extension of Oregon Health Plan benefits to people in the Marshallese and Micronesian communities through the Compact of Free Association (COFA). 

Under Margie, OHA managed the distribution of $1.35 billion in historic legislative investments in behavioral health, unprecedented provider rate increases and desperately needed infusions of workforce investments that kept many programs intact during the most uncertain days of the pandemic, when people in Oregon needed behavioral health treatment most.  

Previously, Margie had a variety of executive leadership positions across multiple states including the Vice President of Operations for Healthcare Management Administrators and Regional Vice President for both Liberty Mutual and Travelers Insurance. She received her BA from Texas Southern University and her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2004. She spends her spare time volunteering for organizations who prioritize supporting communities overrepresented in our social services networks.