Cristen Bates MPH

Cristen Bates is a dedicated public health executive with 20 years of experience serving the community. She currently serves as the Deputy Medicaid Director and Director of the Office of Medicaid & CHP+ Behavioral Health Initiatives & Coverage at the Colorado Dept. of Health Care Policy & Financing. In this role and her previous role as a senior advisor, Cristen focuses her work on improving healthcare delivery and payment model to address the specific needs of individuals who are disproportionately affected by gaps in our healthcare system. State, she also served as the Director of Strategy, Communications, and Policy for the Colorado state Office of Behavioral Health. She led the Office's policy and legislative strategy, federal grants and partnerships, media and communications, community engagement, licensing and compliance over 700 sites, and rule promulgation.

Ms. Bates started her career in community mental health as a crisis case manager prior to joining the Peace Corps where she served in Niger as a community health advocate. After relocating to Washington DC, Ms. Bates wrote and edited for the American Psychological Association, designed evaluations for the DC Department of Health, and doubled the number of screenings for the Hepatitis B Initiatives. She worked for three years for the National Partnership for Women & Families for RWJF's Aligning Forces for Quality initiative, where she trained hundreds of community health workers on patient engagement.

With Booz Allen Hamilton, Ms. Bates designed and implemented national campaigns and communications for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Center for Disease Control, Office of the National Coordinator, and Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services), the Department of Defense, the Department for Veterans Affairs, and the Gates Foundation. At Centura Health in Colorado, Ms. Bates served as Executive Director of 24 free mobile wellness clinics and benefits enrollment services in the Community Health department where she also was responsible for grants acquisitions and strategy across Colorado. Ms. Bates holds a bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Kansas and a Masters in Public Health and a Graduate Certificate in Health Information Technology from George Washington University.