JANICE ROCCO
Immediate Past Board Chair
Janice Rocco is Vice President, Health Care Access and Coverage for the California Medical Association (CMA). She is leading CMA’s health care reform work, including working to expand access to health care and is part of the CMA team working to address the pandemic.
Prior to joining CMA, Janice was the Principal Consultant for the California State Senate’s Pandemic Emergency Response Committee. From 2011 to early 2020 Janice was California’s Deputy Insurance Commissioner overseeing health policy and reform at the California Department of Insurance (CDI). There, she led CDI’s successful efforts to implement the Affordable Care Act and was a key leader in developing California’s related state health care reform laws.
Before joining CDI, Janice spent 12 years working for the California State Assembly, first as then-Assemblymember Hannah-Beth Jackson’s Chief of Staff from 1999-2004; then as Senior Consultant to the Legislative Women’s Caucus in 2005; and as Chief of Staff to Assemblymember Dave Jones until his term ended in 2010.
Janice has worked to address a wide range of public policy issues including health care, domestic violence and sexual assault, early childhood education, consumer protection, income inequality, civil rights and reproductive rights. As President of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW), Rocco appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News and Entertainment Tonight and was interviewed regularly on a wide range of topics. More recently, she has been interviewed regularly about health care and insurance issues. Before working for the Legislature, Janice worked for Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo. Janice has worked on numerous political campaigns and served as campaign manager for a number of successful state legislative races. She also worked on the campaign to defeat Proposition 73 (parental notification) and among her first campaigns was working to defeat Proposition 209 (anti-affirmative action measure). Janice served four terms on the national board of NOW, and has served on the PAC Boards of various organizations including the Santa Barbara Women’s Political Committee, NOW, California NOW and NARAL CAlifornia’s Privacy PAC. Janice currently Chairs NARAL California’s Privacy PAC board.