Christine Erspamer: 2024 Early Career Award recipient

BSChE ’07
Chief of Growth, Product and Strategy, Optum Serve, UnitedHealth Group

A chemical engineer whose leadership has enabled her company to make healthcare delivery work better for everyone.

Since graduating from UW-Madison, Appleton, Wisconsin, native Christine Erspamer has worked in the healthcare sector, delivering solutions to make healthcare systems easier to navigate and more affordable for patients. Erspamer started her career with Accenture, a global management consulting company, hoping to focus her analytical and problem-solving skills on the incredibly complex world of healthcare.

“I found that I love being able to take the concepts of engineering—data analytics, understanding variables, and breaking down a complex problem—and use them in the business world,” she says. “There’s such an opportunity to bring engineering concepts into the way we think about, deliver and manage healthcare.”

After moving to UnitedHealth Group, based in greater Minneapolis, Erspamer started by working in Optum Advisory Services and now works for the company’s Optum Serve business, which focuses on delivering healthcare solutions, capabilities and strategies for federal agencies, including the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Health Agency and others. Over the last decade, Erspamer has held several roles in the company, including VP, Program Delivery and COO of Optum Serve Health Services. “My job is exciting,” she says. “My team and I get to think through what’s coming next in healthcare and how we can bring impactful solutions to the federal market and how to bring the best of the industry for our customers.”

Among many projects, one she particularly enjoyed was developing a healthcare-cost estimator. That involved pulling together data and complex modeling to create a tool that allows healthcare consumers to estimate the costs of services and procedures in a way that was easy to understand. That, in turn, helps them choose the right providers and understand the financial implications of their healthcare decisions. She also helped manage the implementation of the VA Community Care Network in the eastern half of the United States, which supports VA by providing veterans with access to a contracted network of healthcare providers and manages the delivery of care in the community.

How did your engineering education enable your success?

Engineering literally teaches you how to think in new ways. In college, you’re gathering tools and skill sets and learning how to solve complex problems, and you use those capabilities to tackle the challenges in your career. The other thing you learn is the importance of data. What data do I need to make informed decisions? It’s something I emphasize and carry forward with my teams.

What do you enjoy most about your career?

The biggest driver for me right now is my passion for serving veterans and service members and being able to help make the healthcare system a little bit easier to navigate while bringing meaningful services to support overall health. I always ask, ‘How we are putting solutions in the hands of people that need care and are we doing it the right way?’ Every day I am just honored to be able to serve and support those that are helping our country, whether they are serving today, served in the past or are part of the federal agencies enabling that to happen.

What do you prefer?

Winter or summer in Madison?
Summer.

Camp Randall, the Kohl Center, or the UW Field House?
Camp Randall. I went to Camp Randall every game day. No matter what, you carve out time for that on Saturdays!

Flamingos or badgers?
Badgers! On the wall of my office, I have a metal Bucky looking over my shoulder. I tell people Bucky inspires me!