Linda Elam is a health policy and management leader with deep expertise in the financing and delivery of health care to vulnerable populations grounded in public health principles, and with broad experience across academic, philanthropic, federal and state government, and private sectors. She is the founder and president of Elam Strategies Group, a health advisory firm. Previously, Dr. Elam was a managing director at Manatt Health, where she focused on issues relating to health equity, state health policy, and health strategy. Prior to joining Manatt, Dr. Elam was CEO and plan president of Amerigroup, District of Columbia, Inc., a managed care organization serving the Medicaid population in Washington, D.C.
During the Obama administration, Dr. Elam was a presidential appointee and served as the 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. Dr. Elam 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 (DHCF). As Medicaid director, she oversaw the offices responsible for program operations, policy and research, health care delivery management, health reform and innovation, long term care, and the Office of the Medical Director.
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 health care. She has authored and contributed to briefs, journal articles and book chapters, primarily on prescription drug policy for low-income Americans. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance, and was inducted as an alumni member of Delta Omega, the public health honor society. She has served as a professorial lecturer at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, and she serves on several boards and commissions, including as vice chair of the board of trustees of Altarum; as an independent member of the Board of Directors of Babyscripts; the National Advisory Board of the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan; and as vice chair of the District of Columbia Commission on Health Equity. 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 School of Public Health.