2026 Winner of the Robert Kaplan Quality Champion Award Announced
We are pleased to announce the winner of this years Robert Kaplan Quality Champion Award is Diane Sanders-Cepeda, DO.
Dr. Diane Sanders-Cepeda is a Physician Executive and Clinical Architect at UnitedHealthcare with over 20 years of experience designing and advancing care delivery models for aging and medically complex populations across Medicare Advantage, special needs plans, and managed care environments. She operates at the intersection of clinical medicine, utilization management, benefit design, and enterprise strategy—translating frontline clinical insight and payer realities into scalable, defensible models of care.
She currently serves as Senior Medical Director for Employer Group Medicare Advantage, providing enterprise clinical leadership for populations serving more than two million retirees nationwide. In this role, she advises employer clients and consulting partners on RFP responses, benefit strategy, and solution design, and works closely with national firms including Aon, Mercer, and Segal.
Her work has driven measurable impact, including the closure of more than 20 million gaps in care since 2018; leadership of health equity initiatives resulting in the delivery of over 2 million meals to vulnerable retirees since 2022 (including over 800,000 meals in 2023 alone); and the expansion of behavioral health screening and access for more than 2 million members through analytics-enabled outreach supported by call center advocates.
