Durham, N.C. - The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation is excited to announce the addition of two new staff members, welcoming Sarah Smith as Director, Learning and Evaluation and Rob Thompson as Senior Program Officer, Early Childhood. Both began their tenures with the organization on January 21.
As Director, Learning and Evaluation Smith steps into a newly created role where she will be responsible for developing the organization's overall approach to utilizing data, evaluation, learning, and research to help the Foundation and its partners measure progress, influence strategy, and share insights.
Smith comes to the Foundation from the Missouri Foundation for Health where, as the organization's Learning Officer, she has been leading similar work, specifically around their focus on gun violence prevention, access to care, childhood obesity, and public health infrastructure. Smith's previous experience also includes evaluation and policy related to cancer and obesity prevention.
Thompson comes to the Blue Cross NC Foundation with more than a decade of experience advocating for child health policy in North Carolina, including the past six years at NC Child, having most recently served as Deputy Director. He also served as the Executive Director of the Covenant with North Carolina's Children for six years prior, and helped lead the creation of NC Child during that time. Thompson will leverage his experience and statewide network of child advocates to build out the Foundation's expanding focus on early childhood.
"Our team is stronger and our work will be better as we welcome Sarah and Rob to our organization," said Blue Cross NC Foundation president, Dr. John Lumpkin. "They are joining us at a very exciting time and their contributions will be invaluable as we look to advance our goal of making North Carolina one of the healthiest states in the nation."