Senior Staff

Kyle joined AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana in June 2014 as Director of Plan Operations and Administration, a role in which he managed the plan’s business systems, community education, and provider operations areas.

He has 13 years of experience with multiple Louisiana health care organizations, including 10 years at the state’s Department of Health and Hospitals (now the Louisiana Department of Health), many of which were spent working directly on the state’s Medicaid and CHIP programs. He was a leader in the state’s effort to dramatically reduce its rate of uninsured children from more than 20 percent to less than 5 percent.

From 2009 to 2011, he was the Deputy Medicaid Director, overseeing the agency’s $6.5 billion budget for Medicaid administration and services that provided care to over 1 million members. 

Kyle holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Public Administration degrees from Louisiana State University. 

To round out his experience in health care delivery, Thomas Kyle has also gained experience from several Fortune 500 health insurers and managed care organizations, including UnitedHealthcare, Wellcare, and, his most recent role, prior to joining AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, as Chief Operating Officer for Molina Healthcare of Mississippi.

Thomas Kyle is a graduate of Louisiana State University (LSU), where he earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He also graduated from the LSU Paul M. Hebert Law Center.

From 2009 to 2012, he was the Medicaid Medical Director for the Louisiana Department of Health. Dr. Wise currently serves on the Louisiana Commission on Perinatal Care and Prevention of Infant Mortality.

Rhonda has more than 25 years of nursing experience in both clinical and administrative capacities within the health care industry. Her clinical nursing background included emergency medicine, flight nursing, and air rescue. Rhonda joined AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana in 2015 and has served within the Quality Department over the past six years. Prior to joining AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, Rhonda served as a Program Manager for the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (now Louisiana Department of Health) with a focus on health care quality improvement, provider services and education, and health care data analysis.

She has a wealth of experience in Medicaid, including more than two decades with the Louisiana Department of Health. Lesli worked in Medicaid eligibility for more than 10 years before transitioning to Medicaid Managed Care plan relations. Her duties included oversight of the Enrollment Broker, MCO grievances and appeals. Lesli holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in secondary education from University of Southwest Louisiana (now University of Louisiana, Lafayette).

Prior to her current role, she was the Marketing Communications Manager for Magellan Healthcare in Louisiana and Virginia. Paula also worked for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana for more than 15 years before transitioning to Medicaid managed care.

Paula holds a Master of Business Administration and Master of Arts in Education degree from the University of Phoenix and received her undergraduate degree from Southeastern Louisiana University.

He has served on many advisory boards and is the former president of the South Baton Rouge Kiwanis Club. Before joining AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, Harrison served as Program Director and then Executive Director at the Baranco-Clark YMCA in Baton Rouge for eight years.

Shannan has more than 20 years of financial experience in the health care industry, working in hospital accounting as well as commercial health insurance. Before joining AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana in 2017, she was the Director of Accounting for Coventry Health Care of Louisiana and Senior Controller for Physicians Medical Center. Shannan holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from the University of New Orleans.

In 2012, Kelli was promoted to Provider Network Manager and then promoted to Director of Provider Network Operations in 2015.  

Tivis has a degree in business administration from Delta University and is trained on multiple project management platforms and software. After retiring from the airline industry, she provided human resources services for Coventry Health Care (Aetna) in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas. 

She spearheads development of health equity practices and policies that improve outcomes for AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana’s diverse populations.

Jeanine is a graduate of the University of Houston and Xavier University of Louisiana where she received her pharmacy degree in May 2007. Jeanine brings extensive experience from different aspects of the pharmacy industry. She began her career at Walgreens as a pharmacy student and continued with the company as a retail pharmacist upon graduation. She was quickly promoted to Pharmacy Manager and held that position for two years before joining Ochsner Medical Center ― Baton Rouge as a staff pharmacist. Jeanine joined AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana in 2015 and currently serves on the Medicaid Pharmacy Advisory Council.

Dr. Spooner received her undergraduate degree from Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY and her medical degree from Medical College of Pennsylvania. She completed her internship and residency in Family Medicine at Baton Rouge General Medical Center.

Dr. Spooner came to AmeriHealth Caritas from the Baton Rouge General Medical Center Family Medicine Residency Program where she served as medical director for the Family Health Center’s north and south locations and was a member of the Family Medicine faculty. Earlier in her career, Dr. Spooner practiced in various settings such as a primary care group practice, veterans’ outpatient clinic, university student health center, emergency department/urgent care and residency education.

Prior to her roles with AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, Suconda worked in multiple divisions of the Louisiana Department of Health including the Office for Citizens with Developmental Disabilities (Assistant Director of Nursing), Office of Public Health (Supervisor, Emergency Preparedness) and the Office of the Secretary (Supervisor, Special Investigations Unit).

Suconda is active in the National Black Nurses Association and the National Society of Leadership and Success. She is currently working toward the completion of a Master of Science in Nursing degree in Leadership and Administration at Capella University.

Before joining AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana, he worked for a surgical hospital and was responsible for reporting and all functions of information technology. He graduated from Southeastern University with a degree in applied mathematics.

Gwen has more than 20 years of experience in the health care industry and 10 years of experience with managed care organization startups. Prior to joining AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana in July 2011, she worked for the Louisiana Medicaid Fiscal Intermediary in Provider Relations.

In 2015, Gwen was promoted to Manager of Provider Network Management at AmeriHealth Caritas Louisiana and promoted to Director of Provider Network Management in February of 2023.