At Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, we strive to promote equity in everything we do, both within our organization and the communities we serve. It is the collective, challenging work of many areas across the enterprise, but it is also the awareness and curiosity of each associate to make health equity a priority that allows us to advance this work. Each of us looking at our daily work through a health equity lens is the key to addressing barriers to good health.

Each year, two Blue Cross associates are chosen to receive the Patsy Riley Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion award. This award honors former Blue Cross leader Patsy Riley, whose commitment to equity and inclusion inspires associates today to create healthier communities and make meaningful, actionable change.

The 2022 winners are Ana Isabel Gabilondo-Scholz, a senior healthcare analyst and Katherine Rehorst, a population health analytics manager.

2022 Patsy Riley award winner: Ana Isabel Gabilondo-Scholz

Ana Isabel Gabilondo-Scholz helped develop the metrics and evaluation measures for the Blue Cross Foundation’s Racial and Health Equity (RHE) plan. She leads projects and processes using inclusion and equity as the foundation for that work. When discussing her team’s RHE work, Ana Isabel asks questions about what stories to tell, who is not included and how to integrate the most underserved into their work. She works to integrate broad perspectives because she advocates from lived experience and knows how important that experience is. She recognizes this insight is necessary for culture and systemic change.

“I am honored to receive the Patsy Riley award,” says Ana Isabel. “I believe racial health equity, diversity, inclusion and belonging are the most important work and the root of success for every organization. I’m thankful for Blue Cross’ commitment to RHE to identify barriers and create opportunities to address health inequities with communities most impacted.”

2022 Patsy Riley award winner: Katherine Rehorst

Katherine Rehorst has worked to establish Blue Cross’ Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) hub. She has done so in partnership with many associates across the organization, especially our Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) team members.  Kate continues to grow the hub’s approach and data maturity, as well as the intentional and mindful use of SDoH data across the enterprise. Her growth mindset and orientation toward constant learning are important hallmarks for the data and analytics teams, as well as the company overall. Kate’s interest, passion and careful curation of ideas have helped Blue Cross close equity gaps.

“It's such an honor to receive this award. Data and analytics are essential to advancing RHE by enabling identification and monitoring of disparities,” says Kate. “Since nearly 80 percent of a person’s health is dictated by SDoH, we have a responsibility to examine how these factors contribute to inequities and seek strategies to address, disrupt or dismantle them. Building the SDoH hub advanced our analytics by bringing together SDoH data into one source of truth to understand the factors our members face. I am grateful for the opportunity to have led this work and for the great team of Blue Cross partners with whom I collaborated.”

History of the award

This award acknowledges outstanding accomplishments of leaders and staff whose efforts foster greater appreciation, advancement and celebration of health equity, diversity and inclusiveness in our culture and environment. Patsy Riley, former senior vice president for Government Markets, was the inaugural recipient of the award. She served on many boards, committees and work groups dedicated to equity and inclusion, and was the Executive Sponsor of the Asian Circle associate resource group. In short, she was a health equity champion.

The Patsy Riley Health Equity and Diversity Award honors associates who:

• Promote and advance equity, diversity, and inclusion.
• Make significant achievements in moving the organization toward being a more equitable, diverse and inclusive community.
• Push Blue Cross forward ensuring that all members receive the highest quality care.
• Demonstrate the emerging, impactful, or sustained commitment to the values of diversity, inclusion, and equity beyond expectations.