A Special Message from Karen Love

Hello everyone,

I’m speaking to you today with a heart full of gratitude.

Since November 2018, I have had the distinct honor and privilege of serving as your President. When I look back at our years together—and especially everything we have navigated recently—I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished. You are a remarkable team, and representing your work has been the highlight of my career.

That is why it was so important to me that you were the first to hear this news.

After more than 40 years of full-time work, I’ve decided it’s time to embrace a different pace of life. At the end of September, I will be retiring to spend more time with my grandchildren and travel with my husband. While I am excited for this next chapter, leaving this organization—and all of you—is a bittersweet decision.

I want to be very clear about one thing: my retirement is a personal milestone, not a reflection of my confidence in our future. I remain absolutely committed to Cook Children’s and our Promise. This is especially true regarding our work as a Medicaid and CHIP health plan. We all share the deep-rooted belief that these families deserve a locally based, non-profit, and child-focused plan like ours. We continue to fight hard to retain our STAR/CHIP contract. While the legal status may still be unfolding when I step down, please know that I will remain available to the System to assist in that fight in any way needed. My heart is still very much in this cause and will remain so until it is resolved.

To ensure we don't lose any momentum, the System is in the process of engaging a search firm to find the next President. I’m pleased to be part of the interview process, and our goal is to have a new leader in place for a few months of overlap. I am dedicated to making this transition as smooth and supportive for you as possible. You can expect nothing less than a vigorous, continued defense of our health plan under new leadership.

I know news like this can bring up questions. As I have always tried to be, I will remain transparent and open with you. Please feel free to send me your thoughts or questions, and I will address them in our upcoming communications.

Meanwhile, we have important work to do between now and my retirement – especially our efforts surrounding the four strategic initiatives we’ve embraced for fiscal year 2026.  Each of those initiatives is well under-way and I’ve no doubt we’ll complete the work we’ve planned for this year while delivering on our trusted quality outcomes and customer service.

Thank you for allowing me to lead you, for your resilience, and for making me so proud to represent the life-changing work you do for our families every day. You are the heart of this Health Plan.