Ashley

Ashley Gray, MPP, is the Founder and CEO of Onyx Rose Advisors, a minority, woman-owned small consulting firm focused on helping organizations achieve business goals, shape policy, implement programs, and improve healthcare access and outcomes, with a particular emphasis on equity for underserved populations. In launching the firm, she established its mission, vision, and values around client success, integrity, growth, and work-life balance. She leads business development, strategic planning engagements, stakeholder convenings, and team development, building a practice that supports clients across healthcare policy, systems, and strategy.

Ashley brings more than a decade of experience spanning Medicaid policy, managed care, health IT, delivery system transformation, and cross-sector healthcare strategy. Before founding Onyx Rose Advisors, she served as Vice President at Sirona Strategies, where she advised clients on Medicaid, duals, social determinants of health, and health IT while developing solutions at the intersection of policy, politics, and business. She also served simultaneously as Executive Director of Aligning for Health, leading a cross-sector membership association focused on advancing integrated policy solutions across payers to improve health outcomes nationwide.

Previously, Ashley was a Principal Health Program Analysis & Transformation Specialist at MITRE, where she led a $45 million, three-year contract for the Data & Systems Group within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and managed a team of 67 full-time staff. Her work there included Medicaid delivery system redesign, value-based purchasing strategies, Medicaid Enterprise Systems certification, operational readiness and certification reviews for MMIS, HIE, eligibility and enrollment, and EVV systems, as well as analysis of state Medicaid data and development of federal guidance and rulemaking.

Ashley also held national Medicaid policy leadership roles at Blue Cross Blue Shield Association and Medicaid Health Plans of America. At BCBSA, she led Medicaid regulatory and legislative policy, representing Blue Plans on major federal and state issues including rate development, value-based payment, quality measurement, MLTSS, dual eligibles, and social determinants of health. She built relationships with federal agencies and trade associations and helped engage operational and compliance leaders at Blue Medicaid managed care plans serving more than 8 million enrollees. At MHPA, she represented the Medicaid managed care industry on leading policy priorities and managed grant-supported work on value-based payments, childhood obesity, opioid misuse, maternal and child health, and MLTSS. Earlier in her career, at Avalere Health, she served as a Medicaid subject matter expert, tracking federal and state policy, managing Medicaid enrollment modeling, and conducting 50-state research on eligibility, benefits, pharmacy management, reporting requirements, and quality initiatives.

A respected voice in healthcare policy, Ashley has contributed to publications and presentations on Medicaid managed care, childhood obesity, opioid misuse, oral health, reproductive health, value-based purchasing, and maternal and child health. Her publication record includes issue briefs, white papers, and peer-reviewed work, and she has presented at national conferences and industry convenings on Medicaid policy, managed care reform, Medicaid Enterprise Systems, and workforce development.

Ashley’s leadership extends beyond her professional roles. She has served as Co-Chair of the Board of Medical Assistance Services for the Commonwealth of Virginia, as an advisory council member for the Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention, and as a technical advisor to the WIC program. Her committee and workgroup participation has included AHIMA’s Data for Better Health initiative, Nemours’ Whole Child Health Alliance, and national roundtables on social determinants of health, infant mortality, asthma, and women’s health. Her contributions have been recognized through honors including Northern Virginia 40 Under 40, MITRE’s Trailblazer Award, Catalyst Award, and WomenLEAD recognition, along with more recent national honors such as Marquis Who’s Who and Continental Who’s Who.

Ashley holds a Master of Public Policy in Health Policy from the College of William & Mary and a Bachelor of Arts in English, Philosophy, and Public Policy from Vanderbilt University.