Jodi Ray to Receive Families USA Health Care Consumer Engagement of the Year Award

Washington, D.C. – Families USA announced today that Jodi Ray, director of Florida Covering Kids & Families at the University of South Florida, will be presented with this year’s Consumer Engagement Award in honor of her outstanding outreach and enrollment contributions on behalf of Florida’s health care consumers.

“Jodi Ray has long been recognized for this success in leading in the enrollment efforts in the health insurance marketplace in Florida. In 2017, she served as a model for assisters across the nation in overcoming obstacles and making sure consumers could get the health care coverage they needed,” said Patrick Willard, senior director overseeing the Health Action conference at Families USA. “Her efforts in a difficult political environment, reflect our theme this year to honor those who stay strong for America’s families.”

The award will be presented this Friday, January 26, at an awards luncheon on the second day of Families USA’s 23rd Annual Health Action Conference.

In her current roll, Jodi has received four federal grants from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enroll children into the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and Medicaid and has received five awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide Navigators throughout Florida to assist consumers with the health insurance marketplace enrollment process.
Ms. Ray has nearly 20 years of experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating outreach and enrollment in Florida leading to her broad scope and understanding of community-based collaborative initiatives focused on reducing the number of uninsured Floridians.

Jodi has been a recipient of a national Education in Children’s Health Outreach and Enrollment (ECHOE) honor from HHS; a Healthy Hero Award from the Amerigroup Foundation; and Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Health Care Community Outreach award for helping get children covered.

Ms. Ray is a member of the leadership team creating a professional association for enrollment assistors, the National Association of Health Access Assistors (NAHAA).

She earned a MA in Mass Communication from the University of South Florida and BA from Florida State University in Creative Writing and is currently working on a Doctorate in Public Health Practice. Ms. Ray is the proud mother of two children: Noah and Hannah.

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Families USA, a leading national voice for health care consumers, is dedicated to the achievement of high-quality, affordable health care and improved health for all.