Dana Flannery is a public health policy expert and leader who drives innovation within Arizona’s Medicaid program. She currently serves the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) in two senior-level capacities: senior policy advisor to the director, and the assistant director of the Division of Community Advocacy and Intergovernmental Relations (DCAIR).

As senior policy advisor to the director, Dana serves as a conduit between the agency’s divisions and the executive team, and a source of guidance for the agency’s director, two deputy directors, and chief medical officer. As assistant director of DCAIR, Dana oversees a staff of 40 employees in the AHCCCS Office of Individual and Family Affairs, the Office of Human Rights, the Federal Relations and Communications, and facilitates bi-directional communication with several committees and councils.

During her extensive 18-year career in public health, 11 with the State of Arizona, Dana has led various initiatives to promote policy changes to support positive health outcomes for Arizonans. During the pandemic, Dana led the Medicaid agency’s COVID-19 Strikeforce, overseeing efforts to obtain federal approval of programmatic changes that ensured that members could obtain health care and that providers maintained viability. She’s been instrumental in designing the agency’s plan to use American Rescue Plan Act funding to enhance Home and Community-Based Services for members in the long-term care program. Relying on her expertise from experience as a behavioral health provider, she leads the agency’s Behavioral Health Continuum workgroup and spearheads the state’s crisis response and 988 planning efforts.

Other successful innovations Dana led include the development of the Arizona Peer Advancement Career Academy and several advocacy training courses. She is currently enrolled in the CHCS Medicaid Pathways program and is a graduate of Arizona State University.