Trustee spotlight: Valerie Reardon.

"Health care is continuously changing in this country" says Valerie A. Reardon, senior vice president, Compliance, Internal Audit & Internal Controls, for EmblemHealth Inc., who speaks with considerable experience. In 2006, HIP Health Plan of New York and GHI (Group Health Incorporated) affiliated as EmblemHealth Cos. With more than 5,000 employees, HIP and GHI serve approximately 2.9 million people with access to more than 103,000 providers across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

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Reardon has been with EmblemHealth for more than 15 years and, as such, has seen a multitude of change in how health care is delivered and paid for.

A lifelong New Yorker, she received her undergraduate degree in Marketing /Management and graduate degrees in Finance and Accounting. She started her career with Touche Ross as a staff auditor, and after four years, joined the controller's department at Goldman Sachs. After Goldman she worked for First Boston in internal audit. She believes those early positions prepared her well for audit and compliance in the health care industry. "My career has had a natural progression into my current compliance role, from audit to internal audit to internal controls," she says.

Reardon has long been concerned about how people receive health care and how it is funded, and this year, she is getting a global perspective, first hand. As one of 18 individuals from around the world, she has been granted a fellowship by the International Federation of Health Plans to learn how...