Enjoy lunch with Jennifer Velez, SVP and General Counsel, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ.
Mutually agreed upon date and time.
About Jennifer Velez:
Jennifer Velez is the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ). Prior to joining Horizon BCBSNJ, Ms. Velez served as the Chief Impact Officer of Shatterproof - a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to transforming addiction treatment and reversing stigma. Her work focused on transforming the way addiction treatment is accessed and delivered in the United States.
Ms. Velez is a deeply experienced community health executive whose previous work has focused on improving the societal and economic issues that impact vulnerable communities. Prior to Shatterproof, she served as an Executive Vice President of RWJBarnabas Health, where she led the health system's interdisciplinary response to the opioid epidemic. During her tenure, she expanded the peer recovery specialist model and medication-assisted treatment as effective interventions to combat the disease of addiction and introduced the community health worker model as an evidence-based, effective workforce model to address social determinants of health.
Ms. Velez joined RWJBarnabas Health in March 2015, as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Planning, after serving eight years as the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services under both Governors Chris Christie and Jon Corzine.
Ms. Velez has the distinction of being the state's longest-serving Human Services Commissioner, where she managed the largest state agency with budget, personnel and operational responsibility for nearly $11 billion, approximately 16,000 employees, and eight operational divisions, including Medicaid, five developmental centers and four psychiatric hospitals. She previously served three governors in the Office of Governor's Counsel (Christine Whitman, Donald DiFrancesco and James McGreevey).
Ms. Velez received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Drew University and holds a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers School of Law, Newark. She was named one of the Top 25 Innovators in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare in 2019 and was Number 1 on the 2014 NJBIZ Power 50 Healthcare list, where she was listed for six consecutive years.
Ms. Velez serves on the board of Drew University, where she is a member of the Executive Committee and chairs the Committee on Trustees, and is a Visiting Associate of the Eagleton Institute of Politics. She received a number of special awards, including the:
-Distinguished Alumni Award from Rutgers Law School in 2017
-Codey Award from the Carrier Clinic in 2015
-Spirit of the Arc Award from Arc of New Jersey in 2015
-Women's Initiative and Leaders in --Law Award from the Women -Lawyers Association of New Jersey in 2013.
