Biography
Linda Schofield, State Representative for Connecticut’s 16th State House District, is a longtime Simsbury resident and past public servant, with decades of public policy and government relations experience.
Prior to her election, Linda was president of Schofield and Associates Consulting, an independent firm specializing in health care policy and management. Since her election, Linda closed her consulting firm to devote her time to her legislative responsibilities. Prior to her election, Linda worked extensively with numerous clients dealing with the new Medicare drug benefit. Linda was appointed by Tommy Thompson, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, to a federal commission on Medicare’s drug program, comprised of 24 state officials and business stakeholders. The commission was charged with making recommendations to Congress and the President regarding how to best transition Medicare beneficiaries, who were already in programs like ConnPACE, into the new Medicare drug benefit in a manner that would be most beneficial to the beneficiaries as well as the states. In 2006, she published a paper describing the impact of the new Medicare drug program on state programs that already provided prescription drug assistance.
Career
Linda began her career in health care as a registered nurse, working in settings ranging from a community health program for migrant workers, to an Indian Health Service hospital on the Navajo reservation in Arizona, to a county correctional facility in Oregon. She returned to graduate school to earn a Master’s in Public Health, with an emphasis on Public Policy & Administration, from University of Hawaii. Schofield subsequently worked in the public policy units of two Connecticut insurers, Aetna and Travelers.
In 1988 she was hired to serve the State of Connecticut as Director of Medicaid, at that time, a $2 billion program of health care benefits for the state's poorest and most disabled citizens. During her tenure, she worked with federal and state legislators to secure legislation resulting in approximately $200 million in new federal revenue for CT annually. This was a key in solving the state’s budget crisis at the time. In addition, she identified and implemented several cost containment strategies and expanded outreach and health promotion services to children in the Medicaid program.
Linda returned to Aetna in 1993 as a Vice President, to head up the public policy unit, focusing especially on the Clinton health reform debate. She then became executive director of Aetna's health plan for Connecticut, and subsequently became executive director of Kaiser Permanente in Massachusetts.
After years of private sector and government work, Linda parlayed her in-depth health care policy and operations management experience to establish Schofield & Associates Consulting, which she ran for 10 years.
Family
Linda has lived in Simsbury, with her husband Mark Deming, for 14 years. Though Linda and Mark have no children of their own, they have had three exchange students live with them for a year each, and all are still in frequent contact.
Simsbury Life
Schofield volunteers with the Simsbury A Better Chance (ABC) Program, a not-for-profit organization with the mission to substantially increase the number of well-educated minority youth capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society. Indeed she was President of ABC for 7 years until 2009. She is an active volunteer elsewhere as well, with hours of service for the Simsbury Garden Club, Simsbury Rotary, Friends of the Simsbury Library, and the Talcott Mountain Music Festival. She also served on the 2005 Simsbury Charter Review Commission.
Other Volunteer Activities
Linda served in recent years on the boards of CT Community Care Inc. (a non-profit serving the frail elderly), CT Voices for Children (a non-profit that works on behalf of children’s rights and needs) and the UConn School of Nursing.