Chris DeMars
Transformation Center Director
971-673-1279
Chris.DeMars@dhsoha.state.or.us
Chris DeMars is the director of the Oregon Health Authority Transformation Center, which is the hub of innovation and quality improvement for Oregon’s health system reform efforts. In addition to managing the Transformation Center’s supports and programs delivered at the health system, provider and community levels, Chris plays a lead role in the agency’s value-based payment and social determinants of health reform work. Before joining the Transformation Center in 2013, Chris spent eight years as a senior program officer at the Northwest Health Foundation, where she managed the foundation’s health care reform grantmaking, including providing support for Oregon’s delivery system reform initiatives and health reform advocacy organizations.
Prior to working for the foundation, Chris spent six years as a senior health policy analyst for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, where she authored numerous reports for Congress on Medicaid, Medicare and private health insurance payment policy. Chris has also held positions at Kaiser Permanente Northwest and health-policy consulting firms, including Health Management Associates, where she focused on public health, health system design, and payment. Chris began her career as a policy analyst intern at Indiana’s Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning. She currently sits on the National Academy for State Health Policy’s Health System Performance and Public Health Steering Committee. Chris holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of Michigan.