Alicia Blackledge

Alicia is a Vice President of Medicaid Services with the Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging, Inc., and has been with the agency for ten years. Alicia currently manages the front door team, PASSPORT assessment team, OHCW/SRS teams, and home modification team. She was instrumental in deploying the Ohio Home Care Waiver (OHCW) into our organization. When it was time to add the Specialized Recovery Services Program (SRS) in 2016, she was well prepared to incorporate a new program under her leadership. Alicia has spent the last eight years dedicated to ensuring the OHCW and SRS provide excellent customer service and ensuring quality measures for the program are met. The Agency's OHCW and SRS teams have been in the top 93% of the state for compliance since they began in 2015.

Alicia is passionate about connecting with people and has been a leader around the state as her peers look to her for guidance and leadership. Her commitment to serving others cultivates her ability to enrich established services for the individual and employees. Alicia has served on the home modification committee for OHCW and MyCare, clinical leadership committee, Incident Management System (IMS) collaboration group, complex medical cases committee, software design committees, and quarterly Joint Operating Committee.

Alicia graduated in 1999 from NC State with an associate's degree in Human Services. She worked for 12 years at Ohio Heartland Head Start, a nonprofit organization providing free preschool and social work support to low-income families. To continue her education, she returned to school at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in pursuit of a bachelor's degree in Social Work.

Alicia knew at an early age that she wanted to work with people. Her parents would laugh and say she would talk to a "wrong-number caller" for half an hour. Alicia believes that her purpose in life is to connect with people, and she hopes to motivate them with genuine love and encouragement.