The following message was shared with the UMBC community on May 19 to announce Alice Middleton, a nationally recognized Medicaid subject matter expert, as the new executive director of The Hilltop Institute at UMBC:
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Dear UMBC Community,
I am delighted to announce that following a national search Alice Middleton has been selected as the fourth executive director for The Hilltop Institute at UMBC, effective June 1, 2025. Alice is a nationally recognized Medicaid subject matter expert and brings a wealth of experience to Hilltop.
Alice joined Hilltop in 2017 as chief of staff, became Hilltop’s deputy director in 2022, and has been serving as Hilltop’s interim executive director since May 1, 2024, following the retirement of Cynthia Woodcock. Alice will continue to provide leadership on programmatic strategy, direction, and delivery of client engagements for research, policy analysis, and data analytics on Medicaid, health care financing, and delivery system reform. She will lead Hilltop’s work with the institute’s long-time partner, the Maryland Department of Health (MDH). She will also continue to serve as the steering committee chair for AcademyHealth’s State-University Partnership Learning Network.
UMBC originally established The Hilltop Institute in 1994 as the Center for Health Program Development and Management in a unique partnership with the Maryland Department of Health acting as a non-partisan health research organization, with expertise in Medicaid and in improving publicly financed health care systems, dedicated to advancing the health and well-being of people and communities. It comprises close to 60 staff members with a broad spectrum of expertise, from social sciences, financial analysis, economics, law, and programming.
Alice came to Hilltop from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where she was deputy director of CMS’ Division of Eligibility and Enrollment and was responsible for establishing national Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program eligibility and enrollment policies for low-income children and adults. Prior to that, she held various director-level positions at the MDH, such as deputy director of the Office of Medicaid Planning and the director of eligibility policy and special projects in the Office of Eligibility Services. She served as the MDH’s liaison to the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange during the launch of Maryland Health Connection, the state’s insurance marketplace.
Alice earned her J.D. from the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. She was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 2005. She also has a bachelor’s in women’s studies from Towson University.
Please join me in congratulating Alice on this well-deserved position.
Karl V. Steiner
Vice President for Research and Creative Achievement
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Learn more about the work of The Hilltop Institute at UMBC.