Kali Wilson

I oversee a Medicaid program in Florida that assists individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to receive services that help keep them in the community. Working with Florida Community Care, whose parent company is Independent Living Systems based in Miami, I manage care coordination teams responsible for day-to-day interaction with individuals, oversee provider relations, claims and billing, and ensure members receive the services they need while providers get paid for the services they provide. I have personal connections with all the different key players and stakeholders within the state, which means my day-to-day role looks different depending on what's needed. Sometimes there's travel to different town hall meetings to talk to families, sometimes it's in Tallahassee joining into the legislation sessions and listening. Before this role, I was Associate Executive Director at the Arc Tampa Bay for about 9 years, and I also served as Director of Nursing for an inpatient psychiatric crisis unit. I'm an RN by education and spent some time in the medical field early in my career. To be completely honest, it's my children who inspired me to get into this field. If it wasn't for having children diagnosed with disabilities, I don't think I would have ever gone into this field, but it's definitely become a passion to understand everything and all of the government red tape to help individuals maintain community supports and inclusion. The position I'm currently in is the most impactful I've ever been in, and my personal and professional experience with different programs through my two children has lent a lot to me being able to impact the population, at least here in Florida, in a way that I feel is needed.