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Mr. Ballard has been with Arkansas Medicaid for the past 11 years. He is the business operations manager for the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Medical Services (DMS). His primary focus has been on PCMH and primary care case management. Mr. Ballard is now working with several other programs, including TEFRA, ARHOME, and Life360 Homes.

Mr. Brickey assumed the role of provider enrollment manager with Gainwell Technologies in August 2019. He joined Arkansas Title XIX in October 2015 as an enrollment analyst and business analyst working with Patient-Centered Medical Homes. Mr. Brickey is driven to ensure Arkansas Medicaid providers receive the best service.

Ms. Hedrick is an outreach specialist in outreach quality programs for AFMC. Her efforts focus on assisting health care providers in implementing statewide Medicaid Quality Improvement projects and initiatives that include educating Medicaid beneficiaries on diabetes self-management, bringing awareness to teen unplanned pregnancy, long-acting reversible contraception (LARC), maternal mortality, post-delivery warning signs, improving breastfeeding rates, opioid prescribing, and developmental screening. She has over 35 years of nursing experience working in quality, labor and delivery, maternal child health, pediatrics, childbirth education, and hospital education. Ms. Hedrick is certified in the Diabetes Empowerment Education Program (DEEP™) as a DEEP™ Peer Educator and Deep™ Lead Trainer. She is certified through HIMSS Certified Professional Healthcare Information Management Systems and holds an NCQA PCMH Content Expert certification. Ms. Hedrick serves on the Arkansas Breastfeeding Coalition, the Arkansas Breastfeeding Taskforce, and the Arkansas Maternal Mortality Review Committee (AMMRC).

Mr. Hill serves as the director of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services (DAABHS), overseeing programs that promote the health, safety, and independence of older Arkansans and adults with disabilities. His division also supports and funds maternal health and substance abuse treatment across the state. Mr. Hill began working at DHS at the Arkansas Health Center in 2006, becoming its director in 2011. In 2017, he accepted his current position. Prior to joining DHS, he worked in management for several large private corporations and served as a special agent in the United States Secret Service. He is a 1994 graduate of the University of Central Arkansas with degrees in history and political science. Mr. Hill and his wife Mandy have four children.

Ms. Inman received her Bachelor of Arts from Texas Wesleyan University. She received her Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas Little Rock, William H. Bowen School of Law in 2005. Ms. Inman began her legal career at the Pulaski County prosecutor's office, serving as a deputy prosecutor for almost 8 years. After that, her career with the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) began in the Office of Chief Council, assigned to welfare cases. She represented the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for several years until 2018 when she was asked to take on the role of forensic administrator. From 2018 to 2024, Ms. Inman oversaw the DHS forensics program.

Ms. Kinggard joined AFMC in 2005 and currently serves as the manager for provider relations, DPSQA provider relations, and ConnectCare escalated Outreach Services teams. Ms. Kinggard and her team educate Arkansas Medicaid providers on policies, procedures, and various initiatives and complete primary care assessments for Arkansas Medicaid beneficiaries. Ms. Kinggard is a registered nurse with more than 25 years of experience in health care, including home health, labor and delivery, and pediatric settings.

Ms. Mann serves as the deputy secretary of programs and state Medicaid director for the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS). The program includes Medicaid, Aging, Substance Abuse & Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Provider Services & Quality Assurance, Eligibility, Child Welfare, and Youth Services.

Prior to this role, Ms. Mann has over 20 years of experience in health care and health care finance in state government and the corporate sector. This includes several roles at Arkansas DHS as chief financial officer and division director of medical services as well as the deputy administrator for Mississippi Medicaid. In addition, she has worked in the private sector, consulting with multiple state Medicaid agencies on finance, reporting, managed care, program integrity, organizational assessments, and eligibility. Ms. Mann holds a Bachelor of Science in accounting from the University of Alabama and is a certified public accountant.

Ms. McFadden serves as manager of practice transformation at AFMC, where she supports efforts of a remote team to provide transformation support and technical assistance to Arkansas practices participating in multiple state payer incentive programs along with state and national value-based programs. She has extensive experience providing direct assistance to physicians across Arkansas through a hands-on approach to implementing multiple value-based incentive programs, PCMH models, electronic health record maximization, workflow optimization, and incorporating evidence-based clinical quality measures across numerous federal and state initiatives. Ms. McFadden is a registered nurse with more than 25 years of experience in health care, nursing, and health care consulting. Her clinical experience, coupled with years of implementing and supporting practice transformation, has provided firsthand knowledge of the effectiveness of differing models of care, the strengths of nursing's holistic approach, and the challenges and benefits of designing, developing, and implementing models of care that address the changing needs of patients, communities, and providers.

Ms. Pitman has a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas Little Rock, William H. Bown School of Law, and a Master of Public Health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Bozeman College of Public Health. She has worked in and around health law and policy since graduating in 2009. Her experience includes serving as the deputy general counsel for the Arkansas Department of Health (ADH), as assistant director for the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS), and as the deputy director for the Division of Medical Services (DMS) before taking over as director in 2021.

Ms. Putnam became the secretary of the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) in January 2023. She has more than 20 years of policy and hands-on experience in human services, early childhood services, education, workforce development, and health policy, including implementation of Kentucky’s Medicaid transformation and several other innovative statewide policy and process initiatives.

Ms. Putnam has provided policy and strategy guidance to several legislative leaders, including House leadership in the Kentucky House of Representatives, federal agencies, such as The Administration for Children & Families’ Office of Family Assistance, and many state health & human services agencies.

Ms. Putnam served in the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS), beginning in March 2016, in the child welfare and family assistance office. After serving with CHFS for two years and leading Medicaid Section 1115 waiver innovation efforts, she was appointed in May 2018 to serve as deputy secretary of CHFS, where she served until December 2019. In this role, she helped lead impactful and collaborative cross-cabinet reforms in health policy, public benefits delivery, human-centered design and workforce strategies, operational technology improvements, child welfare, and education supports. She assisted in leading daily operations for CHFS, a cabinet with more than 8,000 employees and an operating budget of over $14 billion.

After her time at CHFS, Ms. Putnam co-founded Connecting the Dots Policy Solutions, a policy consulting group focused on driving government innovations in the intersection of health, human services, education, workforce development, and economic growth.

Ms. Putnam also served as the child welfare services manager, chief of community-based care, and statewide foster care licensing specialist in Florida’s privatized community-based system of foster care and adoption. Her prior experience in Florida included policy and legislative development and implementation in the Department of Education, the Department for Children and Families, the Florida Partnership for School Readiness, and the Executive Office of the Governor. Most recently, she served as the chief people officer for AppHarvest, a publicly traded ag-tech startup in Kentucky.

Ms. Putnam was born and raised in the small town of DeLand, Florida, graduated from DeLand High School, and earned her bachelor’s degree in English and social work from Florida State University. She also earned a master’s degree in psychology in industrial & organizational change from Southern New Hampshire University.

Ms. Putnam and her husband, Claude, have three adult daughters and two grandchildren.

Mr. Roberts brings 17 years of experience as a head football coach, with 11 of those years spent at the Division 1 level. His head coaching tenures at Arkansas State University, Northwestern State University, and Southern Arkansas University have been marked by remarkable success, including being named Coach of the Year in all three conferences and earning a spot as a finalist for the prestigious Eddie Robinson National Coach of the Year award. Under his leadership, his teams achieved conference championships, participated in national playoffs and bowl games, and he has coached multiple NFL players. Mr. Roberts boasts victories against four coaches who have secured National Championships and Super Bowls while also guiding several former staff members to become head coaches at the collegiate level, including three currently in Division 1. His tenure is highlighted by historic wins at each school and victories over notable programs such as Texas A&M, TCU, SMU, Army, and Memphis. With a focus on revitalizing struggling programs, Mr. Roberts has consistently elevated their performance. An honor graduate of Joe T. Robinson High School, he earned a Cum Laude degree from Ouachita Baptist University with dual majors in Mathematics and Physical Education, followed by a Master of Education from Southern Arkansas University.

Ms. Santifer is the director of the Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT). She has nearly 13 years of experience in the operations, development, and policy-supporting Medicaid quality improvement programs. Ms. Santifer is experienced in program management, value-based programs and data and information technologies supporting health care and social service programs.

Ms. Starling is a senior vice president for AFMC with over 40 years of experience in all phases of physician/clinic practice management and health care policy. Her background comprises all executive managerial functions and responsibilities. She also maintains an extensive and current knowledge of state and federal regulations relating to hospitals, physicians, and rural health. She holds a degree in health service management and is a Fellow in the American College of Medical Practice Executives (FACMPE). Ms. Starling is also a graduate of the University of Arkansas leadership program LeadAR, a member of class 10.

Ms. Stone is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 25 years of experience in behavioral health. She worked as a mental health therapist and directed community-based programs in Arkansas before leaving the state to work in Florida, California, and New Jersey. Her experience in several areas of the country gave her an opportunity to experience varied systems and methods for providing successful services. Ms. Stone has been with the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) in various roles with the Division of Aging, Adult, and Behavioral Health Services (DAABHS) and moved recently to serve as deputy director of the Division of Medical Services (DMS) over Innovation and Delivery System Reform.

Mr. Tarpley is the deputy director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS) and has served in various DDS executive staff roles over the last 8 years. Prior to arriving at DDS he worked as a transactional tax attorney in private practice for 11 years. Mr. Tarpley received accounting and finance degrees from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, a Master of Business Administration in Finance from the University of Missouri, a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and a Master of Laws in Taxation from Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas.

Ms. Weatherton received a Bachelor of Arts and Science in English from the University of Arkansas in 2001 and her Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas Little Rock William H. Bowen School of Law in 2005. In October of that year, she began work at the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) as assistant deputy counsel handling child welfare and adult abuse and neglect cases. She has also served as deputy counsel, managing attorney, and assistant director of the Division of Developmental Disabilities Services (DDS). Since 2015, Ms. Weatherton has served as director of DDS and is responsible for oversight of Arkansas’s five Human Development Centers and community-based services to 70,000 clients annually. In addition, she oversees division-wide compliance, policy, and procedures and represents DDS as legislative liaison. Ms. Weatherton is dedicated to serving Arkansas families who have a loved one with a developmental or intellectual disability or delay and recognizes the importance of providing them with an array of service options.

Ms. Young has been with AFMC since August 1, 2017. Through her 35 years of experience with Arkansas health care contracts, she has developed extensive knowledge of Medicaid claims processing, common billing issues, and provider training needs. Ms. Young has led efforts to implement virtual training and the health care portal for providers and works consistently to improve services and support to Medicaid providers.