Keynote Speaker: Marylou Sudders, Massachusetts Secretary of Health & Human Services

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Marylou Sudders leads the largest executive agency in state government, overseeing a $22 billion state budget, twelve agencies and 22,000 public servants. EOHHS services directly touch the lives of slightly more than 1 in 4 residents of the Commonwealth. Sudders’ responsibilities include the state’s MassHealth (Medicaid) program that provides health coverage to 1.9 million low income or disabled residents, chairing the board of the state’s health care marketplace (The Connector), the Autism Commission and, the Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) Oversight Council; and, co-chairs the Governor’s Interagency Council on Homelessness and the state’s first Governor’s Council to Address Aging in Massachusetts. Sudders is leading the Commonwealth’s efforts to address the opioid epidemic and efforts to reform and strengthen the Department of Children and Families. Professionally trained as a social worker, Sudders has been a public official, private non-profit executive, advocate and college professor. She served as the Massachusetts Commissioner of Mental Health from 1996 to 2003. Prior to her appointment as Secretary, Sudders was an associate professor and chaired the health/mental health program at Boston College’s Graduate School of Social Work. She also served as an expert with the Department of Justice as a behavioral health expert.