Rita Johnson-Mills, MS, MPA, is an Independent Director serving on the Board of Brookdale Senior Living, Inc. (BKD). She chairs the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee and is a member of the Investment Committee. Johnson-Mills is a former C-suite business to consumer healthcare executive and business unit CEO for UnitedHealthcare and Centene Corporation. Her 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. Johnson-Mills currently serves as interim CEO, Nightingale Partners, LLC, a Washington, DC based Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund and Advisory Services Business dedicated to improving quality and reducing costs of health care by making investments in social determinants of health for vulnerable Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.

Johnson-Mills 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.

Johnson-Mills 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. She 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.

Johnson-Mills is a 2019 NACD Governance Fellow and a Women Inc. Magazine 2019 Most Influential Corporate Director. She is a 2018 Director to Watch and the recipient of numerous honors and accolades, including a 2017 Nashville Business Journal Most Admired CEO award honoree. Johnson-Mills has been featured in numerous publications and journals and is a sought-after public speaker.