Trish Riley is President Emerita of the non-profit National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) with offices in Portland, Maine and Washington, D.C. She built the organization as CEO from 1988 to 2003 with initial support from the Muskie School at the University of Southern Maine and returned as CEO in 2014 retiring in 2020, after completing a turnaround and restoring the organization’s budget and reserves. From 2003 to 2011, she served as director of the Governor’s Office of Health Policy and Finance, where she was the principal architect of Dirigo Health Reform and served as Maine’s liaison to the federal government and Congress, particularly during deliberations around national health reform. She chaired the Governor’s Steering Committee to develop a plan to implement the Affordable Care Act in Maine. She was the distinguished senior fellow in State Health Policy at George Washington University and taught at USM’s Muskie School of Public Service.
Ms. Riley has also held appointed positions under five Maine governors, directing the Office on Aging, Medicaid and state health agencies. She has published and presented widely about state health reform. Nationally she has served as a member of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), the Health Services Committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, and the Federal Council on Aging. In Maine, Ms. Riley has served on numerous boards and commissions including the Maine Community Foundation, the Maine Humanities Council, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics, the Maine Health Access Foundation and the Mitchell Scholarship Research Institute. She is an alumna of the University of Maine to which she returned, while working full –time, to earn an M.S. in Community Development. She has chaired the University’s Board of Visitors and the Alumni Association and served on the Board of the University of Maine Foundation. Ms.Riley resides in Brunswick.