When she first visited New Haven, Felicia Norwood was newly admitted to Yale Law School and weighing decisions about where to pursue her J.D. She arrived without an appointment at Sterling Law Building, where she was greeted warmly by the registrar and introduced to the dean of admissions, who took the time to get to know Norwood and connect her with current students. “I knew from that moment,” she says, “that I was going to come to Yale.” Although already several years out of school (having worked in government after completing bachelor’s and master’s degrees in political science at Valdosta State University and the University of Wisconsin, respectively), Norwood chose to live on campus. The stimulating community she found there, from then-Dean Guido Calabresi’s teaching on tragic choices—a course “that stays with you forever”—to her involvement with the Black Law Students Association—a “family within the Yale family”—have informed her approach to life and work ever since.
Today, Norwood has drawn on her commitment to public service and expertise in law and policy to build a more than thirty-year career. As executive vice president and president of government health benefits at Elevance Health (formerly Anthem, Inc.), she oversees the insurance provider’s Medicaid and Medicare businesses and is a co-executive sponsor of its Culture Leadership Team. Elevance Health serves over 47 million people across the United States; its Medicaid portfolio is the second-largest in the country, with 10.5 million beneficiaries, and its Medicare business is the fourth-largest, supporting 2.9 million seniors and individuals with disabilities. Norwood describes Elevance’s mission to improve the health of humanity through attention to the whole person as “the perfect marriage of passion and profession.” She takes particular pride in the organization’s emphasis on advancing health equity by working to reduce disparities and improve the health of marginalized communities.
Norwood has navigated her professional path with the same curiosity and openness that characterized her Yale education. After studying subjects from corporations to contracts to constitutional and international law, she took a job at a law firm in Chicago, where she was soon encouraged by a legal partner to consider a role in state government. She spent four years as the Illinois governor’s senior policy advisor for health and human services; returned to the private sector in a nineteen-year career at Aetna; and served as director of the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services from 2015 to 2018. Through such wide-ranging responsibilities, she has made a point of considering others’ views: “Yale changes you in so many ways, but especially in terms of how you think about issues—you develop a healthy respect for opinions and perspectives that are different than yours.”
A past member of both the Yale Law School Fund Board and the Yale Law School Executive Committee, Norwood sits on the board of Wells Fargo, for which she serves on committees on risk and on corporate responsibility, and previously held a directorship with Hill Rom Holdings, serving on its audit committee. She has been recognized by Black Enterprise as one of the Most Powerful Women in Corporate America (2019); by Savoy magazine in its listings of Most Influential Black Corporate Directors (2021), Most Influential Black Leaders in Corporate America (2022), and Most Influential Black Executives in Corporate America (2024); and by WomenInc. among its Most Influential Women Corporate Directors (2023).
Norwood’s husband, Garry R. Karch, is head of employee ownership trust services at the London-based law firm Doyle Clayton. The couple, who live in Indianapolis, are ardent tennis fans and have attended all four of the sport’s grand slam tournaments.