Blue Shield of California Foundation Taps Melissa Rodgers to Lead Health Care and Coverage Program
San Francisco, March 28, 2012 — Blue Shield of California Foundation has hired Melissa Rodgers to direct the Foundation’s Heath Care and Coverage program. Rodgers, a public-interest attorney with extensive experience on healthcare policy, will be replacing Brenda Solórzano, who will continue to serve as the chief program director.
“Melissa is a wonderful addition to a team that is focused on helping California realize the full potential of health reform,” said Peter V. Long, Ph.D., president and CEO of BSCF. “She brings a sophisticated understanding of healthcare policy as well as a keen understanding of what needs to happen at the community level to improve the quality and access to care.”
In her role at the Foundation, Rodgers will develop grantmaking strategy for the Health Care and Coverage program, lead the process for reviewing proposals, and maintain relationships with grantees and other stakeholders. She will also help the Foundation play a leading role in supporting policies to deliver health care to California’s uninsured.
Prior to joining Blue Shield of California Foundation, Rodgers served as the directing attorney of the Child Care Law Center. Before that, Rodgers was the associate director of the Berkeley Center on Health, Economic & Family Security at the UC Berkeley School of Law where she developed a research-based policy agenda for healthcare reform. She has co-authored papers on healthcare reform and filed a U.S. Supreme Court amicus brief in a case involving a challenge to the San Francisco Health Care Security Ordinance.
Previously, Rodgers directed the Health Consumer Center at the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, where she advocated on the individual and policy level to preserve and create access to health care and co-founded the Legal Aid Society’s medical-legal partnership with Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. She has designed and taught medical-legal partnership courses to law and medical students together, both at Stanford and at UC Berkeley.
Rodgers is a graduate of the OneJustice Executive Fellowship program. She received her bachelor of arts from Harvard College, her master’s degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and her law degree from Harvard Law School.
Additional Staffing Changes
As the Foundation’s chief program director, Solórzano leads the overall strategy, design, and management of all the Foundation's programmatic and grantmaking activities. In addition, she also leads the Foundation’s work related to strategic planning, organizational learning and evaluation.
The Foundation also announced that Christine Maulhardt has been promoted to Communications Manager. In that role, she will be managing communications and public policy for the Foundation.
About Blue Shield of California Foundation
Blue Shield of California Foundation is one of the state’s largest healthcare grantmaking organizations. Visit: www.blueshieldcafoundation.org.
The Foundation was formed by Blue Shield of California, a not-for-profit corporation with more than 3.4 million members, 4,800 employees, and 20 offices throughout California. Visit: www.blueshieldca.com.
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