HJBR Sep/Oct 2020

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  SEP / OCT 2020 11 One on One COURTNEY N. PHILLIPS, PhD Secretary, Louisiana Department of Health Dr. Courtney N. Phillips is secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health, the state’s largest agency, with a budget of $14 billion. Her oversight responsibilities include public health and other direct service programs for citizens in need, such as behavioral health, developmental disabilities, aging and adult services, emergency preparedness, and the Medicaid program. Dr. Phillips served as executive commissioner of Texas Health and Human Services (HHS), where she was committed to improving the health, safety, and well- being for millions of Texans. Under her leadership, Texas HHS developed its inaugural business plan, Blueprint for a Healthy Texas, which served as the agency’s guide to transform into amore efficient, effective, and responsive system. In addition, the agency continued to transform inpatient psychiatric care through the construction and renovation of state hospitals across Texas, expanded its newborn screenings, eliminated the waitlist for outpatient mental health treatment through local mental health authorities, and improved access to women’s health and family planning services in Texas, including a 30 percent increase in the number of women served in the Healthy TexasWomen program. Before joining Texas HHS, Dr. Phillips served for three years as the chief executive officer of the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, and spent 12 years with the Louisiana Department of Health in a variety of roles, giving her keen insight into all health and human services operations. Dr. Phillips earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, and aMaster of PublicAdministration fromLouisiana State University, and a PhD in public policy from Southern University in Baton Rouge. She continued honing her process-improvement skills by earning an Executive Green Belt in Lean Six Sigma.