Alicia M. Johnson
Headshot of Alicia Johnson

Alicia M. Johnson, DBA

Managing Principal

Health Management Associates

Atlanta, GA

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An accomplished executive in both the public and private sectors, Dr. Alicia M. Johnson has over 25 years of progressive community development and human services leadership experience. Her expertise spans Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, public policy, Medicaid and managed care, economic inclusion, strategic planning, and program and organizational development.

Before joining Health Management Associates, Alicia was the executive director of Step Up Savannah, leading the nonprofit’s strategic direction, focusing on economic inclusion and financial security in Georgia’s southeastern region. Alicia established the organization’s strategic objectives, core values, and pillars. She led the development, scaling and implementation of six direct service programs, instituted the agency’s and the nonprofit community’s first DEI strategy, and developed the organization’s regional and national footprint to advance outcomes with advocacy partners.

Prior to her work with Step Up, Alicia worked with WellCare of Georgia in advancing roles, including community relations manager and senior manager of outreach. Most recently, she served as WellCare of Georgia’s director of Medicaid marketing and member services, where she developed and oversaw the company’s statewide outreach, advocacy and member services program for over 545,000 Medicaid lives. In this role, Alicia created unique process innovations and program improvements, including retention programming that saved over $1.2 million in two years and a program reach initiative that resulted in an 85 percent improvement over nine months. In her previous roles, she established an outreach model fully integrating community relations and member outreach, managed delivery of statewide educational programming, and contributed to broadened community advocacy efforts through viable collaborative efforts across the enterprise.

A Savannah native, Alicia is dedicated to advancing equity in healthcare and social determinants of health (SDOH). Notably, she chairs the Savannah mayor’s Racial Equity and Leadership Taskforce and is a national Prosperity Now community champion, a member of the Invest Health Community Advisory Panel, and a National League of Cities Southern City leader. Alicia has received recognition as a Bank of America Racial Economic Justice fellow and as a Southern Economic Advancement Policy entrepreneur. She also contributed to the Urban League of Greater Atlanta’s State of Black Georgia Report, and she continues to employ her expertise serving on various national, statewide and local panels.

Alicia earned her Doctor of Business Administration in organizational leadership from Northcentral University. She has a master’s degree in organizational leadership from the University of Phoenix and a bachelor’s degree in communications and English from Armstrong Atlantic State University. She is a certified grant writer and a lifetime facilitator for Bridges Out of Poverty.