Dr. Ellen-Marie Whelan (CMCS) Dr. Ellen-Marie Whelan, Ph.D., N.P., R.N., has served as the chief population health officer at the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) since 2015. She joined the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a senior advisor at the Innovation Center in 2011, where she coordinates the pediatric portfolio across the Innovation Center. In both positions, she works on the design, implementation, and testing of delivery system transformation and payment reform initiatives. Before joining CMS, Dr. Whelan was the associate director of health policy at the Center for American Progress. Her research and publications focused on the development and passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with a focus on system delivery and payment reform, primary care, and health workforce policy.
Dr. Whelan worked as a health services researcher and faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University. She worked as a practicing nurse practitioner for over a decade in a variety of primary care settings, including an adolescent primary care clinic in West Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Whelan earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Health Policy and a Master of Science degree in Nursing with a Nurse Practitioner specialization from the University of Pennsylvania. She also completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Primary Care Policy.