Tonya Woods-Copeland
Managing Principal
Health Management Associates
Nashville, TN
[javascript protected email address]
Tonya Woods-Copeland is a strategic executive leader with more than 20 years of experience in Medicare, Medicaid, managed long-term services and supports, and the nonprofit sector. She sets new standards of excellence in the healthcare industry, maximizing profitability, improving individual experiences, and maintaining an unwavering commitment to quality and ethics.
Joining Health Management Associates, Tonya continues to mentor startups with Techstar where she provides mentorship and expert guidance to emerging healthcare startups. Tonya also previously served as a UHC Accelerator Mentor with UnitedHealthcare. In these roles, she leverages her industry knowledge to offer insights on market trends and facilitate strategic decision-making, enabling startups to navigate challenges and seize opportunities. Her experience also allows her to empower entrepreneurs to develop innovative solutions and refine their business models, resulting in measurable growth and market impact. Sharing her insights and best practices, Tonya helps these startups refine their value propositions, scale operations, and build valuable networks among entrepreneurs and industry leaders.
Tonya has a demonstrated track record of leading collaborative engagement and strategic initiatives. As vice president of solutioning for UnitedHealthcare Community & State, Tonya worked directly with internal and external stakeholders, the health plan’s chief executive officer, and community and state policy and strategic engagement partners to formulate and implement programmatic strategies, achieving exceptional readiness ahead of anticipated requests for proposals. Tonya further demonstrated her skills building partnerships in her role as vice president and executive director of UnitedHealthcare Community & State’s intellectual and developmental disabilities services, managed long-term services and support (I/DD MLTSS). She fostered a groundbreaking collaboration with the Department of Labor and strong relationships with government and community organizations, enhancing care delivery and driving programmatic innovation.
Throughout her career, Tonya has also developed her strategic and operational capabilities. She has served as Omnivisions’ regional administrator, coordinating, and overseeing the daily programmatic operations of sites in Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Tonya was also Evergreen Presbyterian Ministries’ vice president of operations in their eastern region. In this role, she led the strategic alignment of business vision and strategy; standardized best practices; oversaw projects; managed administrative, legal, and financial functions; implemented a first-of-its-kind technology project; expanded programs and launched programs ahead of schedule; acquired and merged failing providers; and developed strategies to enhance regulatory and fiscal performance. She also expanded skilled services in remote areas under Fee for Service, Medicaid, and private pay contracts.
Tonya is recognized for leading innovative initiatives, enhancing operational performance, and implementing thoughtful business strategies. She has been appointed by the governor to the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities and by the Tennessee speaker of the senate and speaker of the house to serve as a consultant to their regulatory taskforce.
Tonya earned her Master of Healthcare Administration from Trevecca Nazarene University and her Master of Business Administration from Bethel University. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Tennessee State University.