Kimberly Chavalas Cripe, Commissioner

An expert in children's health, Kimberly Cripe is also president and chief executive officer of Children's Hospital of Orange County (CHOC). Ms. Cripe joined the CHOC staff in 1991 and was named to head the hospital in 1997. Under her leadership, CHOC offers a number of healthcare programs that provide more than 60,000 well-child and urgent care visits each year to underserved children who might otherwise go without critical care.

Ms. Cripe has long been an advocate for children, focusing her efforts on expanding health care access to underserved children and adolescents in the community. Those efforts earned her the 1999 Mentor in Medicine Award from the March of Dimes.

Ms. Cripe did her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California and the University of South Florida. She went on to receive a master's degree in public administration with an emphasis in health services management from Golden Gate University.

She is the mother of three sons and lives with her family in Newport Beach.