The Horizon Foundation has welcomed three new members to its Board of Trustees: Dr. Haksoon Ahn, professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work; Jordan McKinnie, assistant portfolio manager at T. Rowe Price Investment Management; and Shannon McMahon, executive director of Medicaid policy at Kaiser Permanente. Each will serve a four-year term on the board of the Horizon Foundation, the largest independent health philanthropy in Maryland. The Foundation works side-by-side with community to build power, advocate for policy change and dismantle structural racism to achieve better health for everyone in Howard County and greater Maryland.
“We’re thrilled to welcome three new members to our Board of Trustees,” said Nikki Highsmith Vernick, president and CEO of the Horizon Foundation. “Dr. Ahn, Jordan and Shannon each bring important skills and expertise to the table and all of them are deeply passionate about making our community a better and healthier place for all people. I know they will contribute greatly to our work to make Howard County free from systemic inequities, where all people live abundant and healthy lives.”
Dr. Yvonne Commodore-Mensah will ascend to the role of board vice chair, while Lisa James will continue to serve as a trustee. Christopher Fortune, Gopi Suri and Mark Cissell will continue in their roles as chair, secretary and treasurer, respectively. Jonathan Ahn and Cathy Hamel are departing their roles as trustees following the conclusion of their second terms.
“I want to express my sincere gratitude to Jonathan and Cathy for their service and leadership over the past eight years,” added Vernick. “Jonathan helped steer our communications and advocacy committee, while Cathy led the Foundation as board chair through the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their positive impact on the Foundation and on our community cannot be overstated.”
The new trustees began their terms on January 1. Their bios are below.
Haksoon Ahn, Ph.D
Professor, The Institute for Innovation and Implementation, Policy and Social Change, University of Maryland School of Social Work
Dr. Ahn is a Professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland, serving as faculty since 2009. Her research interests include Child Welfare and Family Welfare, and advanced quantitative analysis utilizing large-scale datasets. Dr. Ahn leads research projects that include a statewide evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of Maryland child welfare services and policies; Child and Family Services Review (CFSR) and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) for child welfare policy and practice, Family Centered Practice and Recruitment and Retention of Foster Parents.
Prior to joining the University of Maryland, Dr. Ahn worked at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, D.C. as a Research Economist. She received her M.A. and Ph.D in Social Policy from Brandeis University, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, and her B.A. and MSW from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.
Jordan McKinnie
Associate Portfolio Manager, T. Rowe Price Investment Management
Jordan McKinnie is an associate portfolio manager of the Capital Appreciation and Income Fund under the Capital Appreciation Strategy at T. Rowe Price Investment Management (TRPIM). She is a member of the Capital Appreciation and Income Fund Investment Advisory Committee. Jordan also is a vice president of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc.
Jordan’s investment experience began in 2013, and she has been with T. Rowe Price since 2014, beginning in the T. Rowe Price Associates U.S. Equity Division. Previously, she was employed by J.P. Morgan as an equity research analyst. Prior to Jordan’s most current role, she was a quantitative investment analyst at TRPIM.
Jordan earned a B.A., cum laude, in economics, with a minor in mathematics, from Morehouse College. She also earned an M.S. in computer science from Johns Hopkins University.
Shannon McMahon
Executive Director of Medicaid Policy, Kaiser Permanente
Shannon M. McMahon, MPA, joined Kaiser Permanente (KP) in August 2017 as the executive director of Medicaid policy. In this role, she leads KP Governmental Relations’ national public, regulatory and legislative policy development on Medicaid across KP’s eight regions that serve over one million Medicaid members. Shannon joined KP after a 20-year career leading state publicly financed health care programs.
In February 2015, Shannon was appointed Deputy Secretary of Health Care Financing at the Maryland Department of Health, serving as Maryland’s Medicaid Director. As the chief executive of the Medicaid program, she implemented several initiatives to improve and expand coverage for over 1.3 million members. Previously, Shannon was the Director of Coverage and Access at the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) where she led Medicaid eligibility, benefit design and purchasing implementation efforts and learning collaboratives for states and the federal government during the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Prior to CHCS, she worked in executive and management-level roles in Minnesota Medicaid and spent several years working on health policy issues as a non-partisan analyst at the Maryland Department of Legislative Services in Annapolis and held the position of senior budget and policy adviser to the Secretary and Principal Deputy Secretary of Maryland’s Department of Health. Ms. McMahon has a bachelor’s degree in justice from American University and a master’s degree in public administration from Northeastern University. In addition to the Horizon Foundation, Shannon serves on the board of directors for several non-profit organizations including the Association of Behavioral Health and Wellness and Maryland Health Care for the Homeless. She also serves as Chair of America’s Health Insurance Plans’ Medicaid Policy Committee and is a charter member of the American Council of Political Leaders (ACYPL).
