Jennifer Velez

Jennifer Velez is the Executive Vice President of Health & Network Solutions at Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ). In that role, she has responsibility for several teams across the enterprise, including provider network management, quality and health equity, behavioral health, population health management, pharmacy, payment integrity, risk adjustment and clinical operations. Prior to joining Horizon BCBSNJ, Ms. Velez served as the Chief Impact Officer of Shatterproof — a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to transforming addiction treatment and reversing stigma. Prior to Shatterproof, she served as an Executive Vice President of RWJBarnabas Health, responsible for Community & Behavioral Health, where she led the health system’s interdisciplinary response to the opioid epidemic. During her tenure, she expanded the peer recovery specialist model and medication-assisted treatment as effective interventions to combat the disease of addiction and introduced the community health worker model as an evidence-based, effective workforce model to address social determinants of health. She had joined (then) Barnabas Health in March 2015, as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Planning, after serving eight years as the Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Human Services under both Governors Chris Christie and Jon Corzine. Ms. Velez is a deeply experienced community health executive whose previous work has focused on improving the societal and economic issues that impact vulnerable communities. Ms. Velez has the distinction of being the state’s longest-serving Human Services Commissioner. She previously served three governors in the Office of the Governor’s Counsel (Christine Todd Whitman, Donald DiFrancesco, and James McGreevey). Ms. Velez received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Drew University and holds a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers School of Law, Newark. She was named one of the Top 25 Innovators in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare and was Number 1 on the NJBIZ Power 50 Healthcare list, where she was listed for six consecutive years. Ms. Velez served on the board of Drew University for 11 years, where she was a member of the Executive Committee and chairperson of the Committee on Trustees. She is also a Visiting Associate of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, has served on the Center for State Health Policy’s External Advisory Committee since 2018, and is the recipient of several special awards.