Dr. Jannifer Drake Harper from Flint, Michigan, has been selected Chief medical officer for Florida Blue which is the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Company in Florida.
She is the first African American woman to fill this position and said it is an honor. Before being selected to this position she was the vice president of medical operations.
Her duties include the development of Clinical strategy and activities and serves as Florida Blue’s organizational clinical representative. She will be overseeing Florida Blue’s clinical activities as well as all healthcare management, wellness programs, coverage policies, pharmacy and quality initiatives, and retail health initiatives.
Mrs. Harper’s mother and sister as well as much of her husband’s family still live in Flint, most on the North side. She admits that she does not get home as often as she should.
Dr. Harper graduated from Flint Northern in 1973. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in psychology with a minor in chemistry. She attended medical school at Case Western Reserve University while her husband worked.
She has been married for 33 years and her and her husband share two beautiful children. A son who is 27 attends law school at the University of Pennsylvania and a daughter 23, is working on her Master’s degree in public health at Columbia University, in New York. Both will receive their graduate degrees in May. Dr. Harper considers her children to be her biggest accomplishments in her life.
