Kelli Stannard

Associate Principal

Health Management Associates

Tallahassee, FL

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Kelli Stannard is a seasoned nurse and proven public health leader with over 15 years of experience working to improve the health outcomes of children and youth with special healthcare needs. She is passionate about seeking ways to achieve health equity, devoted to driving change through quality improvement, and skilled at using design thinking and co-design strategies to develop projects that will have lasting and collective impact.

Before joining HMA, Kelli spent the last three years as a nurse consultant at the Florida Department of Health, leading strategic planning and special projects for Children’s Medical Services, which included the development and implementation of a statewide learning and action network where pediatric specialists came together to work on local and statewide quality improvement projects.

Kelli began her nursing career as a neonatal intensive care nurse. Working in various Level III NICUs across the country, she gained first-hand experience at caring for medically fragile infants, as well as supporting families and caregivers navigating the health system in difficult times. She felt called to public health in order to better serve families through program and policy development.

She transitioned to Florida’s Children’s Medical Services Program at the Department of Health and began working as a nurse coordinator for the Florida Newborn Screening Program where she provided follow up education and assistance to families, hospitals, pediatric specialists, and community providers. Kelli was promoted to direct the Specialty Programs Unit, which had contract and programmatic oversight for a number of contracts with hospitals and academic centers that serve children with special healthcare needs such as asthma, cancer, cleft lip and palate, diabetes, HIV, kidney failure, and sickle cell disease.

After leading the Specialty Programs Unit, Kelli was promoted to Chief of Clinical Operations, a bureau with responsibility over the specialty programs, Florida’s Medical Foster Care Program, and the clinical management for Children’s Medical Services clinic and care coordination services in 20 area offices throughout the state. During her tenure as bureau chief, she led the clinical operations efforts as they transitioned into a managed care specialty plan option for Medicaid and CHIP eligible children and youth with special healthcare needs.

Kelli received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Florida State University.