Suzanne Wikle is the associate director for state health policy and advocacy on the public benefits justice team. In her eight years with CLASP, Suzanne has focused on increasing access to Medicaid through reducing administrative barriers and better integration with other benefit programs. Suzanne led CLASP’s work partnering with state advocates to improve Medicaid access and continues working with state advocates through the Elevating the Medicaid Enrollment Experience (EMEE) project in partnership with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Suzanne’s expertise includes Medicaid eligibility and enrollment processes, Medicaid’s intersection with other public benefit programs, and strategic guidance to state advocates advancing Medicaid access.

Prior to joining CLASP, Ms. Wikle spent seven years at Kansas Action for Children (KAC), where she directed all advocacy and legislative priorities around children’s health. Her advocacy work included advancing a Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) expansion, an overhaul of child care licensing standards, advancing strategies to reduce infant mortality, and an expansion of the newborn screening program. She also served as statewide project director of the Kansas Dental Project, an effort led by KAC to add mid-level dental providers to the workforce. Following her work at KAC, she served as senior policy analyst at Community Catalyst, focusing on the first ACA open enrollment period. In that capacity, she provided policy and enrollment knowledge to navigators and enrollment assisters as well as tracked obstacles to enrollment across the states. Ms. Wikle holds a master of social work, with an emphasis on administration and advocacy practice, from the University of Kansas and a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis.