Equitable Vaccine Distribution with Blue Shield and the State of California

March 1st marked the beginning of California’s transition to a Third Party Administrator (TPA), Blue Shield of California, to manage vaccine administration statewide. As this transition occurs, public-private partnerships will become more crucial than ever. Join us to hear from Blue Shield directly about their work, and to hear from state leaders on how they plan to coordinate with the TPA and continue to center equity in this next phase of vaccine distribution. Speakers will highlight key opportunities for philanthropy, and investments that are needed now to shore up our communities in ways that will engender long-term sustainability well beyond the current crisis.

Speakers

Aliza Arjoyan
Senior Vice President of Provider Partnership and Network Management, Blue Shield of California

Aliza Arjoyan is Senior Vice President of Provider Partnership and Network Management at Blue Shield of California, a tax-paying nonprofit health plan with over $20B in annual revenue serving more than 4M members in the state’s commercial, individual and government markets. Arjoyan leads provider engagement strategies and oversees provider partnerships and relations along with network contracting, compliance and analytics. She is also responsible for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO), Medicare and Medi-Cal network expansion.

As an accomplished executive within these disciplines, much of her success can be attributed to a passion for team development, strategic planning, and optimization of managed care operations. Arjoyan’s exceptional leadership acumen results in high-performance teams which embrace a posture of listening, learning and nurturing ability influence across organizational levels. These skills extend to provider relationships that promote integration, effective population health management and shared rewards for quality care and affordability.

Arjoyan joined Blue Shield in 2017 expanding her impressive career with over 25 years of California-based healthcare management experience. She led Humana’s network team for the California and Hawaii markets helping expand the organization’s footprint from five to 21 counties through strategic provider partnerships and innovative value-based structures. Prior to that, she focused on Medicare and Medi-Cal network strategy and provider engagement at SCAN Health Plan, preceded by Director of Network Management for ValueOptions where she pioneered behavioral health managed care for the state of California.

Arjoyan earned her Master of Health Care Administration from the University of Phoenix and holds a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration from California State University at Northridge.

Debbie Chang, MPH
President & CEO, Blue Shield of California Foundation

Debbie Chang is president & chief executive officer at Blue Shield of California Foundation. In this role, Ms. Chang leads the Foundation’s work to make California the healthiest state and end domestic violence as well as oversees more than $30 million in annual grantmaking. Throughout her career she has championed equity and inclusion in health and health care, drawing on a deep personal commitment to building a more just and equitable world.

Ms. Chang is a nationally recognized public health, health care financing, and policy expert. For over 30 years she has demonstrated a proven track record of establishing innovative programs and national and regional partnerships — including spearheading a national partnership with Michelle Obama's Let's Move initiative to combat childhood obesity in child care centers. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2020, she served as senior vice president and chief policy and prevention officer for Nemours Children’s Health System where she led transformative efforts to focus on value-based care and health outcomes, working with communities to address the social determinants of health. Ms. Chang also leveraged Nemours’ expertise and experience to spread and scale what works through national policy and practice changes to improve the health of children nationwide.

She has held key positions in government, including Deputy Secretary of Health Care Financing at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, with oversight for Maryland’s Medicaid program, and was the first federal director of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Ms. Chang is actively engaged in professional appointments with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on population health improvement and obesity solutions and is chair of their Early Care and Education Innovation Collaborative. Her numerous honors, awards, speeches, and publications - especially in the areas of social determinants of health, systems transformation, Medicaid, CHIP, and prevention — are a testament to her vast achievements and career-long commitment to support the wellbeing of all people.

Ms. Chang holds a Master of Public Health in policy and administration from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Kathleen Kelly Janus
Senior Advisor, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom

Kathleen Kelly Janus is the Senior Advisor on Social Innovation to Governor Gavin Newsom. As a social entrepreneur, author and lecturer at Stanford University’s Program on Social Entrepreneurship, she is an expert on philanthropy, millennial engagement and scaling early stage organizations. Her work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Quartz, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Tech Crunch and the San Francisco Chronicle. Her book – Social Startup Success: How the Best Nonprofits Launch, Scale Up and Make a Difference – is a playbook for nonprofit organizations based on a five-year research project interviewing hundreds of top-performing social innovators.

An attorney, Kathleen has spearheaded numerous social justice initiatives. Kathleen is a co-founder of Spark – a network of over 10,000 millennial donors – which seeks to advance gender equality by engaging the next generation in accessible forms of philanthropy. As a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School, Kathleen helped launch and direct Stanford Law School’s international human rights clinics in Namibia and South Africa. She has also served as pro bono counsel at Covington and Burling and a litigation associate at Thelen Reid & Priest.

A graduate of Berkeley Law School, Kathleen also graduated with the highest honors from U.C. Berkeley. She lives in San Francisco with her husband Ted. Kathleen is a certified yoga instructor, which comes in handy when juggling their three young children.

Marcela Ruiz
Director, Office of Equity, California Department of Social Services

Prior to joining CDSS, Marcela Ruiz served as Deputy Director for California Rural Legal Assistance, Inc. Ms. Ruiz was previously a CRLA Regional Director, overseeing the Modesto and Stockton offices. She joined CRLA in 2006 as a Berkeley Law Foundation Fellow and launched the Low-Wage Workers’ Project in CRLA’s Stockton office. Through this project, Ms. Ruiz established wage and hour clinics for low-wage workers in San Joaquin County and expanded basic services and representation of non-agricultural workers. The Stockton, California native received her law degree from Berkeley Law School and her undergraduate degree from Columbia University.

Prior to attending law school, Ms. Ruiz was a union organizer with HERE, Local 6 in New York where she organized hundreds of hotel workers. Ms. Ruiz also co-founded Casa México in New York, a non-profit community center that provides services and leads advocacy efforts for undocumented Mexican workers.

Maricela Rodriguez
Director of Civic Engagement and Strategic Partnerships, Office of Governor Gavin Newsom

Profile and bio coming soon.