Nicole Truhe is the Senior Director of Policy, Medicaid at UnitedHealthcare Community & State. UnitedHealthcare Community & State proudly serves over 6.45 million Medicaid members in 30 states, plus Washington, DC. UnitedHealthcare’s mission is to help people live healthier lives and to help make the health system work for everyone.
As the Senior Director of Medicaid Policy, Nicole leads the development of policy positioning and associated advocacy and thought leadership strategies related to both traditional and complex Medicaid covered populations. Populations she focuses on include TANF and CHIP (with focus on maternal and infant health and child and adolescent health), Medicaid Expansion, Child Welfare, and Justice-Involved. Nicole also leads Community & State’s regional policy team that is focused on supporting Community & State’s Medicaid markets’ policy advocacy needs to influence state Medicaid program design.
Prior to her current role, Nicole was the Director of Thought Leadership for UnitedHealthcare Community & State where she led the development and management of thought leadership strategies for the organization, specifically focusing on emerging health and human services policy and practice trends and business growth opportunities. During her time in that role, led the development of the annual Emerging Trends Report, supported leaders’ participation in dozens of national and regional conferences, helped launch Community & State’s Perspectives Blog, supported the creation of content from the Community & National Advisory and FQHC Advisory Boards, and authored various blogs, briefs, and white papers on trends relevant to the Medicaid system.
Prior to joining UnitedHealthcare, Nicole served as the Government Affairs Director for America Forward where she led policy strategy and advocacy efforts related to Pay for Success/evidence-based policy, workforce development, career and technical education, higher education, and social innovation. Nicole also worked for over a decade at a national child welfare and children’s mental health non-profit where she advocated for policy and funding changes in the child welfare, juvenile justice, Medicaid/children’s mental health, and innovative financing policy areas.
Nicole has a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN and a Master’s in Public Administration/Public Policy from the University of Memphis.