Nicole Truhe

Nicole Truhe is Senior Director of Policy, Medicaid at United HealthCare Community. Nicole has 15 years of experience working with human and social services nonprofits, and community-based organizations. For over a decade, Nicole served as the first public policy director for Youth Villages, a nationally recognized child welfare and children’s mental health organization. In that capacity, Nicole developed the organization’s policy advocacy strategy, led advocacy group discussions on child welfare, children’s mental health, and juvenile justice policy, and advised Federal policymakers to advance important legislative and regulatory changes, including passage of the Child and Families Services Improvement and Innovation Act. Nicole also led an internal workgroup focused on identifying, analyzing, and determining responses to Federal and state policy changes that had business operations and clinical implications, including the impact of the Affordable Care Act on the children and families served by the organization.

Following her time at Youth Villages, Nicole transitioned to a coalition organization comprised of 70 innovative community-based organizations. As their Government Relations Director, Nicole directed the development and execution of the organization’s collective policy platforms and advocacy strategies related to workforce development, higher education, career and technical education, Pay for Success, evidence-based policies, social innovation, and national service. In this role, Nicole became a recognized authority on evidence-based policy and practice supporting both passage of Federal legislation supporting evidence and data as well as working with coalition organizations and partners to become evidence-based.

Currently, Nicole supports community-based organizations in understanding and navigating the processes that influence implementation of the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFSPA). She is a critical resource in understanding the evidence-based provisions of FFSPA and the national policy movement surrounding Federal child welfare legislation. Finally, Nicole’s work in both child welfare, mental health and Medicaid enables her to support organizations looking to leverage across systems to better serve vulnerable children and their families.