Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana Announces Appointment of New Board Members

BATON ROUGE, La. – Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana announced today that Tim Barfield, Stephanie Finley and Rob Lalka have joined the board of directors, effective Aug. 1.

Barfield is the president of CSRS, Inc. a Louisiana-based architectural and civil engineering firm that specializes in program management, development advisory, planning, disaster recovery, resilience and other services for public and private sector clients. Prior to CSRS, Barfield served as the Louisiana Department of Revenue Secretary, and as the Office of the Governor’s Executive Counsel and the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s Executive Director, where he led the reform of the State of Louisiana’s workforce development. He also served as president and chief operating officer at The Shaw Group, Inc., and as the chief development officer for Amedisys, Inc., a leading home health and hospice company. Barfield lives in Baton Rouge.

Finley was the first woman to serve as a United States Attorney in Louisiana. Appointed in 2010, she served as the chief law enforcement officer for the Western District of Louisiana, leading the state’s largest federal district, comprised of 42 of the state's 64 Parishes, in Civil, Criminal and Appellant litigation. Prior to being appointed United States Attorney, Finley served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Criminal Division of the District, prosecuting a variety of criminal cases for over 15-plus years. Finley is a retired Lieutenant Colonel with more than 25 years of service as a Judge Advocate in the United States Air Force. She has held various leadership positions in community organizations and spoken at more than 100 events around the country. Finley lives in Lafayette.

Lalka is the Albert R. Lepage Professor in Business at Tulane University and Executive Director of the Albert Lepage Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He is board chairman of Public Democracy, Inc., and a board member of Venture for America in New Orleans. Lalka moved to New Orleans from Washington, DC, where he was a director at Village Capital and a senior advisor at the Howard G. Buffett Foundation. Prior, he served in the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Global Partnerships and was on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff.

“We are excited to welcome Tim, Stephanie and Rob as directors of the largest health insurer in Louisiana,” said Ann Knapp, board chair. “Their experience, perspective and insight will be vital as we navigate the largest public healthcare crisis in a generation, and continue our focus on improving the quality and affordability of healthcare for our fellow Louisianians.” 

About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is committed to our mission to improve the health and lives of Louisianians. Founded in New Orleans in 1934, we are a tax-paying nonprofit health insurer with offices in every major region to serve our customers. We were recognized in 2019 and 2020 as an honoree of The Civic 50, named by Points of Light as one of the 50 most community-minded companies in the United States.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. We are a private mutual company, owned by our policyholders, with an independent Louisiana Board of Directors and no shareholders. We invite all Louisianians to visit our website at www.bcbsla.com or talk to us on social media.