Michelle Mills serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Rural Health Center, which is the State Office of Rural Health and Rural Health Association in Colorado. Colorado is a state that expanded Medicaid and has not had any rural hospital closures.
Michelle has a passion for quality improvement and collaboration, and won the Patient Safety Leadership Award in 2009. The Colorado Rural Health Center is set up as a non-profit, giving the organization flexibility in allocating resources and manpower to reach rural populations with education and tools for better health. Through her organization, Michelle and her team conduct healthy clinic assessments, which help rural health clinics to ensure they are foundationally sound.
“If you have a healthy foundation, then you’re able to build upon that foundation by adding in things like quality improvement and population health.”
Michelle is also a graduate of NORSORH’s Leadership Institute. Additionally, she serves in a number of advisory boards, including the NRHA Board of Trustees, NRHA Rural Health Congress and the RHC Consistency Group.