Chris DeMars (Oregon Health Authority) Chris DeMars, M.P.H., is the director of Delivery System Innovation at the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), where she also plays a lead role in the agency’s value-based payment and social determinants of health work. She previously served as the director of OHA’s Transformation Center.
Before joining OHA in 2013, Chris spent eight years as a senior program officer at the Northwest Health Foundation, where she managed the foundation’s health reform grantmaking portfolio. Chris also worked for six years as a senior health policy analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where she authored numerous reports for Congress on Medicaid, Medicare, and private health insurance payment policy, and spent time at Kaiser Permanente Northwest and health-policy consulting firms, including Health Management Associates.
Chris currently serves on the National Academy for State Health Policy Executive Committee. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Michigan.