Carola Gaines

Carola Peterson-Gaines has worked for Unity Health Insurance and the UW Medical Foundation for 20 years and presently serves as the BadgerCare Outreach Coordinator. She currently serves 14,000 BadgerCare Plus (BC+) members as the Community Liaison and Advocate. Her goals are to coordinate and provide a heightened level of support to the BC+ providers and BC+ membership.

Carola actively develops and implements programs to improve access to care for BC+ members, coordinates patient care and inform them of new state programs and initiates. She advocates for members with high-risk health care needs and works to educate BC+ members about preventive health measures such as early prenatal care. She serves on numerous community initiatives such as, Dane Co. immunization Coalition, Safe Sleep Coalition, Dane County Asthma Coalition, Fetal Infant Mortality, Black Women Wellness Coalition, African American Health Council to name a few.

She is the Wisconsin State Coordinator and Chapter President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. She has received many awards, including the YWCA- 2010 Woman of Distinction, Dane County Walk of Honor Award, the South Madison Community Service Award and the 2013 Madison Metropolitan Links and Wisconsin Women of Color Network distinguish service award.