Sellers Dorsey announced today that Nancy Smith-Leslie has joined the firm as a Senior Consultant. Ms. Smith-Leslie spent the last four years as the Medicaid Director for the State of New Mexico, during which she designed and implemented value-based purchasing initiatives, launched behavioral health homes, worked closely with the State’s actuary to develop risk-adjusted managed-care rates, oversaw the expansion of home and community-based services, and negotiated the renewal of the State’s 1115 waiver among many other accomplishments. She is the most recent former top state Medicaid official to join Sellers Dorsey, which has counted several such leaders among its ranks in its 19-year history.
“We are extremely excited and fortunate to have Nancy join Sellers Dorsey,” said Martin Sellers, Founder and CEO of Sellers Dorsey. “She brings many years of knowledge and success in creating access to quality, affordable healthcare, and we are now eager to work with her as she collaborates with other team members to help states’ Medicaid programs across the country, as well as providers, payers, and other organizations served by Sellers Dorsey nationwide.”
Prior to her role as Medicaid Director, Ms. Smith-Leslie spent 15 years working in various positions throughout New Mexico’s Medical Assistance Division, overseeing several coverage expansion programs including the State Coverage Insurance program, an early Medicaid adult expansion, and a premium assistance program for pregnant women and children. She is also recognized for her leadership in advancing Hepatitis C treatment in New Mexico—a state with the highest mortality rate from liver disease in the United States–and has bylined work as an author on the subject. Considering her expertise and her experience designing, implementing, and overseeing managed-care program innovations, Sellers Dorsey believes Ms. Smith-Leslie will provide tremendous additional value to new and ongoing client engagements at the firm.
“After years of fulfilling work with New Mexico’s Human Services Department, I am truly honored to continue to advance priorities of Medicaid programs around the country. Covering 1 in 5 Americans, Medicaid has a tremendous opportunity to influence how care is delivered and to transform the healthcare delivery system,” said Ms. Smith-Leslie. “With my new colleagues, I can now assist an entire ecosystem of public and private entities, each of which brings valuable insights to the table in terms of system design.”
Sellers Dorsey believes public entity clients, particularly Medicaid directors, will benefit from Ms. Smith-Leslie’s experience leading a Medicaid agency from the program design stage to successful implementation of key programmatic goals. Her leadership experience adds to the firm’s capability to help clients translate visionary healthcare agendas into realistic action plans.
