July 16, 2010
Healthy Montana Kids Director Jackie Forba to Retire
Healthy Montana Kids Plan (HMK) director Jackie Forba is retiring after 21 years of service, the Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) announced today.
Forba was tapped to head the Children’s Health Insurance Plan (CHIP) in 2005 and was named HMK director in 2009 when CHIP and children’s Medicaid were combined to create HMK due to the voter-approved Initiative 155.
“Jackie did an incredible job of managing the CHIP program, and has worked tirelessly over the past year helping this agency launch Healthy Montana Kids,” DPHHS director Anna Whiting Sorrell said. “Jackie’s passion for helping families secure health coverage for their children is unmatched.”
Forba’s last day will be at the end of August. “I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to work on issues that are so close to my heart, which include health care for women and children,” Forba said. “DPHHS staff and managers are so hardworking and committed to serving Montana families and I’m grateful for the time we’ve worked together. I’ll be taking many wonderful memories with me.”
Forba, 56, of Montana City, said she plans to work with her husband Russ in his recently launched solar design and installation business, Elkhorn Solar, and spend more time with her three grown children, John, Matt and Katie.
Forba graduated from Penn State University with a bachelor’s degree in Individual and Family Studies with an emphasis on health care planning in 1976. She worked in the health care-related positions for 34 years in New York, Colorado and Montana.
Whiting Sorrell said the department will move quickly to find Forba’s replacement. “Jackie will be hard to replace, but this is a very important position and one we’ll need to fill as soon as possible,” Whiting Sorrell said. “It’s an exciting time for anyone who cares about Montana children and keeping them healthy. I don't think there is anything more important we can do in Montana than to get kids health care.”
