Tara Oakman, PhD, is a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation working to improve the value of our investments in health and health care and also to help ensure that all young children—supported by their families and communities—have the building blocks for lifelong health and well-being.

Prior to joining the Foundation in 2013, Oakman served as director of the Quality Team in the Exchange Policy and Operations Group at the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight (CCIIO) in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In this role, she oversaw implementation of the sections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that set the quality-related requirements for the new Health Insurance Marketplaces and participating issuers. She also helped to write some of the first market reform regulations under the ACA. Earlier, she was an international health officer with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Global Health Affairs implementing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. She also served as a program analyst in the HHS Budget Office with responsibility for evaluating the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) budget.

Oakman received a BA in Political Science from Brown University, a Masters of Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a PhD in Health Care Policy from Harvard University. She has written and lectured on the uninsured, Medicare, health care reform, and a host of other issues.

Featured in: Helping kids cope with trauma