Ceci Connolly is a nationally recognized thought leader, author and chief executive officer of the Alliance of Community Health Plans (ACHP). But if you refer to her as a former ink-stained wretch, she won’t object. Ceci spent 25 years in the news business, covering politics and health care, including 13 years at the Washington Post. She is co-author of Landmark: America's New Health Care Law and What It Means for Us All. Between her journalism career and ACHP, she worked at McKinsey and PwC, concluding that fee-for-service medicine is what ails us. Her passion now is to put a stake in it. She is a founding member of Women of Impact, serves on the Board of the Pharmacy Quality Alliance and a previous Board member of Whitman-Walker Health. She hosts the Healthy Dialogue podcast and is a guest host for Her Story. Ceci was the first non-physician to receive the Mayo Clinic Plummer Society Award for promoting deeper understanding of science and medicine. She remains an adrenaline junkie and stickler for good grammar.

Speakers provide their own biographies and headshots. Biographies represent the role of the person at the time of their engagement and are not independently verified by the Milken Institute.