1997 Honoree - Cora M. Tellez
President, Prudential Health Care Plan of California, Inc.
"As an Asian American in a leadership position, I'm conscious of modeling values and behaviors that reflect positively on my family, my company, and my racial heritage. It's a tremendous privilege and responsibility at the same time." -Cora M. Tellez, October 1997
Cora M. Tellez is President of Prudential HealthCare Plan of California, Inc., part of the Prudential HealthCare Group, which provides coverage to over 14 million individuals. She is responsible for Prudential's HealthCare Operation in California, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, with annual revenues of $1 billion. She attained this position after 20 years in the health care industry and leadership positions with both Blue Shield, where she was Senior Vice President and Regional Chief Executive of the Bay Region, and Kaiser Permanent, where for five of her sixteen years with the organization she was Vice President and Regional Manager of the Hawaii Region.
Ms. Tellez came to the U.S. in 1961, after spending the early part of her childhood growing up in Paranaque, south of Manila in the Philippines. She returned to the Philippines to study during her junior year at college. "I came back to the United States with a clear resolve to seek American commitment to help extend opportunities to others," she said. Her community involvement began early, at age 11, when her mother asked her to go door to door on behalf of the March of Dimes, American Heart Association, Muscular Dystrophy Association, and American Cancer Society.
Ms. Tellez is a member of the Philippine International Aid (PIA), the S.H. Cowell Foundation, Holy Names College, Asian Community Mental Health Services (ACMHS), and the UCSF School of Dentistry Advisory Board. She also sits on the Board of Glendale Federal Bank.
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