Kathy Higgins is the Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC), overseeing all corporate communications and corporate citizenship functions. In addition to her corporate duties, she serves as President of the Blue Cross NC Foundation and has led that organization’s unprecedented growth, including the strategic investment of more than $110 million into North Carolina communities through more than 900 grants to improve the health of vulnerable populations, support physical activity and nutrition programs, and help nonprofit groups improve organizational capacity.
Kathy has engaged in significant community leadership throughout her career and has served on numerous state and national boards, currently including the Carolina Hurricanes’ Kids ‘n Community Foundation (chair), the Alexander Family YMCA, BESTNC, the Underwood Foundation, NCFOREVER (chair), GoTriangle.
Additionally, Kathy has served on the executive committee for the 1996, 2001, 2007, 2014 US Women’s Opens and the 1999, 2005, 2014 US Men’s Opens.
Among her many honors and distinctions, she has been named both an Eisenhower Fellow and Fulbright Senior Scholar, for which she was selected to study health care and philanthropy in New Zealand and Australia.
Kathy holds a bachelor’s degree in education from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a master’s degree in Community Health Education from Virginia Tech.
