Shirley A. Roberts

Shirley’s career spans nearly thirty years in health care.

In a consulting role since 2008, Shirley has supported a community-based initiative to catalyze action around children’s health and wellness.  She has provided project oversight for several projects – including the development of a new business model, a health and wellness program for a rural pre-Medicare population, and the procurement and operationalization of a mobile clinic.

Shirley served as a process improvement consultant in the insurance industry, focused on implementing Six Sigma and other process improvement tools.  Her management experience at the University of Michigan Medical Center (1978-97) included responsibility for multiple clinical and business operations within the hospital and the medical school.  In that period, she oversaw facility improvements, the development of business plans and Certificate of Need applications, and equipment procurement for the new hospital construction project.

Her leadership experience includes clinical department operations of ambulatory clinics, diagnostic and treatment laboratories, professional fee billing and collections, research and faculty affairs.  She served as the first service-line administrator for the Heart Care Program and wrote successful competitive applications for three cardiac carve-outs.  She served as acting Managed Care Contracting officer on behalf of the medical center, initiating relationships with a host of third-party payers, including HMOs, PPOs, TPAs and Taft-Hartley plans.  She worked with faculty to establish tools to analyze costs and quality through its cost accounting and DRG performance analytic tools, representing the medical center in a regional consortium examining quality and practice variation.

Shirley holds a Master of Public Health and a Master of Music, both from the University of Michigan.  Her bachelor’s degree is from Whittier College.