betsey tilsonBetsey Tilson, MD, will be joining the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NC DHHS) as State Health Director and the department’s Chief Medical Officer beginning Aug. 14.
Dr. Tilson, a pediatrician and preventive medicine physician, currently is the Medical Director for Community Care of Wake & Johnson Counties, serves as the Chief Network Medical Director for Community Care of North Carolina. In her new role, she will promote public health and prevention activities as well as provide guidance and oversight on a variety of cross-Department initiatives, including Medicaid transformation, clinical quality standards, behavioral health and social determinants of health.
Since 2003, Dr. Tilson also has served as a primary care provider in the Child Health Clinic at Wake County Human Services.  Her prior roles have included serving as an Assistant Consulting Professor and Cancer Control Specialist with Duke University Medical Center and as a Clinical Pediatric Fellow at UNC-Chapel Hill.  She was the 2016 recipient of the American College of Preventive Medicine Distinguished Service Award and, in 2015, received the Steve Shore Service Award by the NC Pediatric Society as well as the WakeMed J. Michael Weeks Award for Humanitarianism.
She earned her medical degree at Johns Hopkins University, where she also completed her pediatric residency. She also completed a preventive medicine residency at UNC-Chapel Hill.  She holds a Masters of Public Health from UNC-Chapel Hill and a BA in biology from Dartmouth College.
 jay ludlamJay Ludlam will be joining NC DHHS as the Assistant Secretary for Medicaid Transformation on Aug 24.
Ludlam is an attorney and executive with extensive experience in Medicaid managed care, health care delivery reform and quality and care management innovations.  He currently serves as Missouri’s acting state Medicaid director and has overseen an expansion and significant overhaul of their managed care program.  Once onboard at NC DHHS, he will help lead the state’s transformation from a fee-for-service Medicaid program to a managed care program.
Ludlam’s prior work has included serving as Deputy Director of Missouri HealthNet (the state’s Medicaid agency); Director of Operations at Missouri Care; Assistant Attorney General with the Missouri Attorney General’s Office; and Director of Customer Loyalty at Nextcard, Inc.
He holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and a BA in Social Psychology from Grinnell College.