Growing up in a multigenerational household in suburban Philadelphia, Ellen Duffield ’07 MBA Bus saw firsthand how difficult it was for her grandfather—a dual amputee diabetic—to get the coordinated care he needed from Medicare. “I knew we had to do a better job, and that’s what led me into a career in managed care,” Duffield says. “We owe this to our family and our community.” 

Duffield, who’s worked in health care since graduating from college, has been at the helm of Highmark Wholecare, a managed health care organization for Medicare and Medicaid populations, since 2021. She focuses on implementing programs that take a holistic approach to health care for vulnerable populations. This means not only helping patients access the medical services they need, but also helping them address critical social determinants that impact health, such as housing, food, transportation, and employment. 

“In the Medicaid space, for example, we focus on making sure our moms get timely prenatal and postpartum care,” says Duffield, “by providing meals and transportation to moms so they can focus on their baby. I was fortunate to have tremendous prenatal and postpartum care for my sons, but from my perspective all moms and babies should have the right care available to them at the right time.” 

Meeting the health care needs of underserved moms and children is an issue that is particularly important to Duffield, a mother of three who personally experienced premature birth due to a complicated pregnancy. After years of being active with the initiative, in 2024 she chaired Western and Central Pennsylvania’s March for Babies, the largest fundraising effort of the infant and maternal health nonprofit March of Dimes. Her efforts helped the chapter raise close to $950,000. —Cristina Rouvalis