Cheryl DeMars joined The Alliance in 1992, assuming several roles before becoming CEO in December 2006. The Alliance is a not-for-profit cooperative with over 240 employer owners who provide health benefits to over 90,000 employees and their family members in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa. The Alliance has won numerous awards for its groundbreaking work in cost and quality measurement, public reporting and purchaser leadership. As CEO, Cheryl works with the Board of Directors and senior leadership team to establish the strategic direction of the cooperative.
Cheryl participates in a number of national and regional initiatives that align with The Alliance’s mission of controlling costs, improving quality and engaging individuals in their health. She serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, as vice-chair of the Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO) and the board of the Wisconsin Collaborative for Healthcare Quality.
Previously, Cheryl served on the Board of Governors for the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchasing Coalitions (f/k/a the National Business Coalition on Health or NBCH), and served as the Board Chair in 2015. Cheryl has also served on the National Quality Forum’s Measures Application Partnership Clinician Workgroup. She was appointed to Wisconsin’s WIRED for Health Board, which oversaw the implementation of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act of 2009 (the HITECH Act) and the successful launch of a statewide health information exchange. She also helped found Wisconsin Healthcare Purchasers for Quality, a voluntary collaboration of purchasers and payers covering 609,000 Wisconsinites, or over 10% of the state’s population.
Prior to joining The Alliance, Cheryl was a program manager at Meriter Hospital in Madison. She earned a master’s degree in social work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.