Ellen Duffield
Ellen Duffield is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Highmark Wholecare, formerly Gateway Health. As President and CEO, Ellen provides both operational oversight and strategic direction for one of Pennsylvania’s leading managed care organizations. Highmark Wholecare is a community-based mission-driven organization that serves more than 370,000 members through its high-quality Medicaid and Medicare health plans focused on delivering whole person care. Prior to being named President and CEO in the fall of 2021, Ellen served as Highmark Wholecare’s Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. In this role, Ellen led an enterprise-wide technology transformation to help the organization scale up for growth. She was responsible for overseeing core operations, including Member Services, Claims, Operational Excellence, Data and Analytics, and Information Technology. Ellen led Highmark Wholecare’s COVID-19 incident response team’s efforts, ensuring that the organization was prepared to safely support members in a remote work environment. She was also a key figure in the planning and execution of the company’s support for the state’s vaccine rollout. Before joining Highmark Wholecare, Ellen worked at DST Health Solutions and served as President. Prior to DST, she held senior leadership positions at Visiant Health Solutions, OptumRx, UnitedHealth Group, and Anthem. Ellen earned her MBA from Penn State and received a bachelor’s degree from Temple University.
