Cheryl Powell

Cheryl Powell is passionate about innovation in Medicare and Medicaid to improve access, population health, value, person-centered care, and outcomes. She brings over two decades of experience in public health care programs to her role as principal researcher at Mathematica, where she provides advisory services to state Medicaid programs. Powell’s expertise includes Medicaid financing, value-based care, population health, and alignment of innovative information technology (IT) solutions and payment methodologies to support the missions of public health care programs.

Before joining Mathematica, Powell held a variety of leadership roles in the health care industry. As the vice president for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) business unit at Ad Hoc, she led digital services, data analytics, and technical innovation for programs including Healthcare.gov, Medicaid Data Connect, and quality payment programs, as well as Application Programming Interface (API) data sharing. At MITRE’s Health Federally Funded Research and Development Center, she led strategic engagement and delivery for CMS’s Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, Office of Minority Health, and Center for Medicare, including the agency’s initiatives on Medicaid IT, rural health, and hospital price transparency. As associate partner at Truven Health Analytics/IBM Watson Health, she led Medicaid and Medicare value-based care, financing, program integrity, and technical assistance programs.

Powell’s career includes a 16-year tenure as a national leader in Medicaid and Medicare at CMS. She oversaw CMS’s IT budget and investment portfolio, ensuring that IT solutions aligned with and enhanced CMS’s mission and priorities. She served as the first deputy director of the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office, where she not only led national person-centered care and integration of services through policy and program alignment but also set up the office, which continues to be a cornerstone of all alignment activities. In addition, Powell’s roles as technical director for Medicaid financing; director of Medicaid benefits, eligibility, and managed care; and deputy director of Medicaid state demonstrations and waivers further established her as a national Medicaid leader.

Powell holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School. She graduated as an Echols Scholar from the University of Virginia, summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, with a B.A. in psychology.