Just announced: Allison Hickey, former VA under secretary, will keynote CCMC 2017 New World Symposium

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J., Dec. 21, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Commission for Case Manager Certification^® announced that Allison Hickey, former under secretary for VA benefits, will present the opening plenary session for its 2017 New World Symposium™ at the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center, Jan. 26-28, 2017, in Dallas. Hickey was responsible for more than 20,000 VA employees and the delivery of benefits to more than 12 million veterans and their families. She is credited for efforts to modernize the department and for leadership through a period of unprecedented growth in the number of veterans seeking benefits.

Hickey was part of the first class of female cadets to graduate from the Air Force Academy in 1980, and rose through ranks to become a brigadier general during her 27-year military career.

"Allison Hickey's leadership to transform the VA benefits system from a paper-based system to a more efficient, 99.8 percent electronic enterprise was much more than an operational feat—it greatly speeded access to services and eliminated almost 90 percent of the VA's infamous backlog," said MaryBeth Kurland, CEO of the Commission. "That enormous task was eclipsed only by Allison's personal dedication to the people who work within the VA and to the veterans they serve."

The CCMC 2017 New World Symposium is a collaborative effort to address an urgent workforce development need for well-prepared, knowledgeable case managers. Growing demand for case managers to coordinate care for patients across care settings and to enhance communication in team-based care models created the need to identify a new cadre of qualified case managers.

Hickey's presentation, "Expertise for the Future: Cultural Awareness and Care for Those in Need," leverages her experience with our nation's increasingly more diverse military and veteran populations to offer insight on educational, social and cultural factors that can affect care delivery and health outcomes.

The CCMC New World Symposium features presentations from 38 national experts on health care trends, strategies and research relevant to case management practice. It also brings case managers from all 50 states together as a community of colleagues.

Complete speaker, agenda and registration information about the CCMC 2017 New World Symposium is available at https://symposium.ccmcertification.org. To learn more about case managers and the Commission's workforce development focus, see the overview.

About the Commission for Case Manager Certification 
The Commission for Case Manager Certification (the Commission) is the first and largest nationally accredited organization that certifies more than 40,000 professional case managers. The Commission is a nonprofit, volunteer organization that oversees the process of case manager certification with its CCM^® credential. The Commission is positioned as the most active and prestigious certification organization supporting the practice of case management. For more information, visit www.ccmcertification.org, connect with the Commission on Facebook or follow us on Twitter @CCM_Cert.

SOURCE Commission for Case Manager Certification

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