Rita is an Independent Director serving on the Boards of Nyxoah S.A. (NYXH) and Owens and Minor (OMI). She also serves on the private company boards of Quest Analytics LLC and Ellipsis Health. Rita also served on the Board of Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (BKD). She also serves as President, Southern Region for CINQCARE, a physician driven ambulatory health care provider, focusing primarily on Black and Brown communities.

Rita is a former C-suite business to consumer healthcare executive and business unit CEO for UnitedHealthcare and Centene Corporation. Rita’s background and experience include a combined 30 years of federal, state and private industry experience of which 15 years she was directly accountable for profitability of health care organizations.

Rita spent almost eleven years in progressive leadership positions with UnitedHealthcare, including CEO of UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Tennessee, a health plan serving more than 500,000 government sponsored health care consumers and over $2.7B in annual revenue.

Rita previously served as CEO of Managed Health Services and Buckeye Community Health Plan, both wholly owned subsidiaries of Centene Corporation and led the operational turnaround of each health plan. Rita possesses a strong regulatory background having spent 10 years in progressively expansive leadership roles in the State of Ohio, last of which was Chief, Bureau of Medical Assistance and almost 2 years with CMS, where she served as Director Medicaid Managed Care for the country. Rita is a 2021 SAVOY magazine Most Influential Black Corporate Director. She is a 2019 NACD Governance Fellow and a Women Inc. Magazine 2019 Most Influential Corporate Director and a 2018 Director to Watch. Rita is the recipient of numerous honors and accolades, including a 2017 Nashville Business Journal Most Admired CEO award honoree. Rita has been featured in numerous publications and journals and is a sought-after public speaker.