CEO and Yale School of Medicine Alumnus Receives Award

New Haven, Conn.—Cleve Killingsworth, president and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and an advocate of health insurance reform, will receive the John D. Thompson Distinguished Visiting Fellow 2007 award from Yale School of Medicine’s Department of Epidemiology & Public Health on April 26.

Killingsworth, who graduated from Yale School of Medicine’s master in public health program in 1976, “is a nationally recognized leader in health care management as well as a thoughtful advocate for intelligent reform within the health care system. During his 30 years in the health care industry, Killingsworth has earned a reputation as an innovative manager, dynamic teacher, and insightful analyst,” said Elizabeth Bradley, professor of public health and director of the Health Management Program at Yale.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is one of the largest, independent, not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in the country. As CEO, Killingsworth leads the company’s efforts to elevate the quality of services and care delivered to about three million members as he simultaneously works collaboratively with a variety of health care stakeholders to reform and improve the health care delivery system.

Killingsworth has a long and distinguished career in health care management, both in practice and in teaching. He was formerly president and CEO of Health Alliance Plan in Detroit, one of Michigan’s largest managed care companies providing value to its more than 500,000 members. He has also served as the senior vice president of insurance and managed care for Henry Ford Health System and president of Kaiser Permanente’s Central East Division, which included the mid-Atlantic states and Ohio. In each position, Killingsworth developed overarching performance strategies to achieve significant improvements and identified growth opportunities.

Killingsworth has taught at the School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Rochester Medical Center, in health services administration at the Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania, and was a lecturer in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at Yale. In addition to his graduate degree from Yale, he holds a B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The John Devereaux Thompson Academic Development Fund supports the John D. Thompson Distinguished Visiting Fellowship. The goal of the fellowship, which was inaugurated in 2001, is to bring an outstanding health administration practitioner to campus each year.