ABOUT JIM HICKMAN
Jim Hickman is a CalAIM Subject Matter Expert and healthcare transformation strategist who helps innovators scale where health policy and markets intersect.
As Founder of Hickman Strategies, PATH CPI Facilitator with the Camden Coalition, and Venture Partner at Suncoast Ventures, Jim brings nearly 30 years of experience bridging policy, innovation, and implementation in healthcare.
CURRENT WORK
CalAIM Subject Matter Expert
Advising healthcare companies, managed care plans, and counties on California's Medicaid transformation—including Community Supports,
Enhanced Care Management, and Population Health Management programs.
SARA LANZA HICKMAN | Founding Partner
Sara co-founded Hickman Strategies and brought deep communications expertise from 15+ years in global communications roles at LeapFrog Enterprises, NewSchools Venture Fund, and the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
PATH CPI Facilitator | Camden Coalition
Facilitating Collaborative Performance Improvement meetings across California counties implementing complex care models for high-need, high-cost populations.
Venture Partner | Suncoast Ventures
Identifying and supporting healthcare technology investments focused on serving underserved populations through Medicaid and community-based care delivery.
HOW I WORK
Jim's approach is grounded in human-centered systems thinking and storytelling for influence (IDEO U trained). He applies a practical framework:
"start with the willing, scale to the system"—identifying early adopters, demonstrating proof of concept, and building policy-aligned pathways to scale.
Core to this work is the concept of "trust as infrastructure"—recognizing that sustainable healthcare transformation requires authentic relationships between policy makers, health systems, and community organizations.
Key Principles:
Lead with outcomes, not features
Build coalitions around shared purpose
Navigate regulation as strategy enabler
Bridge policy, innovation, and community perspectives
EXPERIENCE
Jim's leadership roles have included:
Transitional CEO, Center for Youth Wellness (when Dr. Nadine Burke Harris became California's first Surgeon General)
President and CEO of multiple hospital system foundations
Bay Area Regional Director, Blue Cross of California Medi-Cal
Strategic communications lead, OneWorld Health (now PATH Drug Development)
White House Working Group on Welfare Reform (Clinton Administration)
His early work in Oakland included foundational hotspotting research that became part of the evidence base for Enhanced Care Management models—now central to CalAIM's approach to complex care.
Jim has deployed healthcare information exchanges connecting multiple hospitals and identifying thousands of shared patients, and has facilitated Medicaid waiver implementations across multiple states.
EDUCATION & CREDENTIALS
Stanford University Graduate School of Business: The Innovative Healthcare Leader—From Design Thinking to Personal Leadership
IDEO U: Human-Centered Systems Thinking
IDEO U: Storytelling for Influence
Santa Clara University: MBA, Business Administration and e-Commerce
University of California Santa Barbara: BA, Political Science & Business Economics