Nakiya Parkes

Nakiya Parkes serves as Senior Manager of Payment Engagement Strategy and Market Access Strategy at BMRU, a French medical device and in vitro diagnostics company specializing in infectious disease testing. With roughly 15 years in the field, she focuses on payer engagement, collaborating with medical directors at major insurers such as Anthem, United Healthcare, and Aetna to eliminate prior authorization barriers and overturn negative coverage policies. Her work centers on expanding patient access to diagnostic tools including respiratory panels, gastrointestinal panels, blood culture tests, and microbiology panels for conditions like sepsis and Lyme disease. Parkes holds an MPH from New York Medical College, an MBA from SUNY Upstate, and a bachelor's degree in public administration from John Jay College of Criminal Justice at CUNY. She is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES) and holds a Harvard Healthcare Strategy Certification. She attributes her success to her mission-driven personality and genuine care for people, values that guide her efforts to effectuate change in healthcare policy amid challenges from shifting administrations and funding cuts affecting Medicare and Medicaid.