National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD)

It was established as an independent organization in 2011. Before its founding, state Medicaid directors were represented as part of a larger umbrella group of agencies under the American Public Human Services Association. ¹

The NAMD has called the left-of-center concept of equity its “foundational principle” of Medicaid reform and has reportedly pushed race-based service priorities. ²

Background

The National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) says it supports Medicaid leaders, promotes health access, and provides resources for effective program administration and sustainability across states. ³

State Medicaid directors were previously represented as part of a larger umbrella group of agencies under the American Public Human Services Association. ¹ In August 2010, the executive committee of the NAMD voted to break away from the American Public Human Services Association and start its own organization. This ended its 31-year affiliation with the Association. In November 2010, the National Governors Association (NGA) announced that the NAMD would become an independent affiliate of the NGA. ⁴

The NAMD hosts its annual membership conference in the summer with more than 200 attendees from 56 states and territories. ³ Its fall conference has drawn about 1,400 members of state Medicaid management. Both conferences feature meetings that include board discussions focused on organizational strategy and planning. ³

The organization also represents administrators of CHIP (the state Children’s Health Insurance Program) to connect eligible people with coverage. ⁵

Funding

The Commonwealth Fund contributed $207,806 to the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) in June 2024. ³ The Fund contributed a further $50,084 to a separate NAMD project that month. ³

CareSource donated $62,500 to the NAMD in December 2023. ³

Advocacy

The National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) has called equity its “foundational principle” of Medicaid reform. It has reportedly pushed race-based service priorities. ²

Thomas Murray of the State Leadership Initiative wrote in an article for the Claremont Institute publication The American Mind: “Medicaid directors take their orders from NAMD rather than the governor.” ²

In a November 2022 letter to the U.S. House and Senate party leaders, the NAMD asked Congress for more certainty in post-COVID-19 policies. Specifically, the organization asked Congress for at least 120 days’ notice of the start of the Medicaid redetermination period; to provide certainty that existing federal guidance on the redetermination period will not change; and to provide certainty that underlying Medicaid eligibility rules will not change during the redetermination period. ⁶

In 2025, the NAMD joined with the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials to launch the National Committee for Sustainable Medicaid and Public Health Partnerships. The committee is made up of state Medicaid directors and state public health officials. The goals of the committee are to help all 56 states and territories “embed and routinize” Medicaid and public health partnerships into agency operations. It’s also to present opportunities for the federal government to facilitate Medicaid and public health partnership. ⁷

According to a December 2025 report from the State Leadership Initiative (SLI) as well as a March 2025 report from the Washington Free Beacon, “senior staffers at Georgia’s Department of Community Health (DCH) “hijacked” the state’s Medicaid bidding process for insurance providers to “insert a question related to transgender children” and that ““Insurers whose answers reflected left-wing policy priorities,” the outlet noted, “secured a piece of the multibillion-dollar contract … which is set to go into effect in mid-2026.” ⁸ The report continues by alleging that Lynette Rhodes, the former NAMD president-elect in 2023, was one of the DCH staff, working as the Chief Health Policy Officer, to influence adding the question on trans-related question into the state’s “Medicaid bidding process.” ⁸ The SLI report also alleges that in 2023, Rhodes and other DCH staff ““attended multiple NAMD events,” with the DCH shelling out “over $135,139 on employees for conference activity for these events.”” ⁸

Leadership

Kate McEvoy is the executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD). She has more than three decades’ experience working with people on Medicaid and is an elder law attorney. She is the former director of health services for Connecticut’s Department of Social Services. She was previously the president and vice president of the NAMD board of directors. ⁹

Melisa Byrd is the president of the board of directors of the NAMD. Byrd is the senior deputy director/Medicaid director for Washington, D.C.’s Department of Health Care Finance. She previously worked for the National Governors Association and as a policy advisor for the Louisiana Department of Health. ¹⁰

Cheryl Roberts is the president-elect of the NAMD. Roberts is the director of the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS), which serves 2.1 million of Virginia’s citizens with a $20 billion annual budget. Previously, she was the deputy for programs and operations at DMAS.  ¹⁰

Lisa Lee is the immediate past president of the NAMD. Lee has more than 20 years of experience with Medicaid, mostly with the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, where she had several roles, including director of provider services. Lee was the program director for the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program. ¹⁰

Lee Grossman is the chair of the board of the NAMD. Grossman is the Medicaid Director for the Iowa Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, he was the Wyoming Medicaid director for two and a half years. ¹⁰

Jack Rollins is the director of federal policy for the NAMD. He started at the organization in 2014.  ⁹

Anthony Tellish became the director of operations in February 2024. He previously worked for the National Public Education Support Fund. Prior to that, he was a middle school social studies teacher in Maryland. ⁹

Hannah Maniates is the director of Medicaid programming for the NAMD. Previously, she worked in substance use and mental health policy jobs at the City of Boston’s Office of Recovery Services, the National Center for PTSD at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Bloomberg American Health Initiative’s addiction and overdose team. ⁹

Lindsey Browning is the deputy executive director of programs for the NAMD. Previously, she worked in research for the Children’s Hospital Association. ⁹