Carol Kim
Healthcare Executive | Public Affairs Operator | Ardent Advisor at Shasta Advisory
Government Relations
Education: University of California, Irvine - University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy
Los Angeles, CA, USA
Biography
Known to be highly effective at creating impactful strategies to elevate company profile and deliver value to stakeholders, Carol perceptively cultivates influential relationships resulting in valued commercial engagement and critical support for communities-at-large. Her combination of a business mindset, effective strategic planning, and operational excellence has enabled Carol to lead strategic initiatives and organizational change for impact.
A highly trusted advisor who skillfully influences, builds alliances and drives consensus towards plan execution, Carol is entrusted to turnaround business operations and build new teams, function, and operational playbook. With an extensive public affairs career spanning across corporate, healthcare, and government sectors, Carol is Founder and Principal of Shasta Advisory, LLC advising CEOs and early stage, startup companies requiring launch and strategic market positioning in highly regulated industries.
Carol was a Vice President at Health Net (NYSE: CNC), a $7B health insurance company in California, leading the government relations, corporate giving, and public affairs operations statewide. During her tenure, she was designated to manage a portfolio of $170M in community and infrastructure investments which required building a new business team and establishing and leading two advisory boards composed of state regulators, investment fund managers, and industry experts. Under her leadership, Carol strategically invested over $40M in three years to expand health coverage, support workforce development, enable telehealth/virtual care, and finance Federally Qualified Health Centers and senior assisted living homes.
Prior to Health Net, Carol served as Health Deputy to former Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, advising the strategic policy and direction of the nation’s second largest municipality on its $4B delivery system of health, mental health, and public health services to 10 million county residents. She also served as a policy adviser to US Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and a Senior Adviser at the US Department of Treasury.
Carol serves as a board member and advisor on the California Insurance Guarantee Association (Assembly Speaker appointee), Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services Commission (County Supervisor appointee), Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Los Angeles, Community Foundation of the Valleys, and Optum Startup Studio. Carol received a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Michigan, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of California, Irvine.
Passion
Topics of interest include:
Career transitions and promotional path for women
Organizational innovation and turnarounds
Issues impacting the Asian Pacific Islander American community
Featured Video
When it comes to payments
Everything is negotiable
Topics
Best Story
My career can be described as a trifecta of corporate, government, and social impact sectors.
I happen to have spent the past 10 years at a Fortune 100 managed care company where I got to accomplish big things and left with a strong legacy behind knowing the operational playbook I developed is still in place. Yet, the golden thread to my varied sector experiences is that I am a strategist and an effective builder- a builder of partnerships, teams, and brand equity. And in every role I have had in the private and public sectors, I have always been an ardent champion for communities, causes, and change.
Origin Story
As a high school student, I instinctively knew it was not enough to take a stand but to mobilize. Activating a large crowd of Korean Americans to protest the single-sided coverage of the L.A. riots- “Sa-I-Gu”- brought the local TV news station to us to listen to our message of discontent and the need to join our community’s pleas for representation.
The experience from the riots led to an undergraduate degree in English followed by a Master’s degree in Public Policy at the Ford School at U. of M. which trained me to access my assets: to withstand the continuous fire drills in the workplace; to build critical alliances; to intuit strategic planning; to engage in measurable public policy; and to heed the need for change. This defines me.
Roles in the U.S. Treasury Department and as a Policy Advisor for U.S. Majority Leader Tom Daschle were followed by productive years as the Health Deputy in L.A. County for Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, in overseeing health, public health, and mental health services agencies serving the County’s 10 million residents and over 25,000 professionals.
The move from government affairs to a decade in health care proved how the skills I practiced in public sector could so seamlessly and measurably transfer to corporate.
Example talks
Served Up- The Podcast
Hosts Bridget Albert and Julie Milroy welcome Carol Kim - public affairs operator, brand equity builder, and Founder & Principal at Shasta Advisory
https://linkpaw.com/serveduppodcast
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/served-up-carol-kim/id1533768278?i=1000614167451
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2W2pC1o2WV6FwYkYbkNkda?si=VMIbRRzMRy2-xgp3hS_sGA
Fireside Chat with a Wall Street Journal best-selling author
Host and moderator for a book talk with Randi Braun, Wall Street Journal best-selling author of “Something Major: The New Playbook for Women at Work”.
Philanthropy and Equitable Giving in AANHPI Communities
The Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) found that while the AAPI population in the United States continues to grow, AAPI communities account for only 0.20% of all U.S grant making: "for every $100 awarded by foundations for work in the United States, only 20 cents is designated for AAPI communities" (AAPIP). To overcome this invisibility within philanthropic funding, we'll investigate how to increase investments into AAPI communities and move beyond supports from our own AAPI networks and pipelines. This session represents leaders from various levels of corporate, private, and family philanthropic sectors to uncover the barriers and gaps in philanthropic funding and partnerships benefiting AAPI communities. Speakers will share stories based on their own lived experiences to explain the challenges in gaining recognition and support from philanthropy. Here, we aim to equip, empower, and enable AAPI communities in fostering advocacy and collaboration across AAPI communities and philanthropic organizations to create and maintain positive change and long-term impacts. Watch the panel session: https://lnkd.in/gUBKZwsU