Search
Toggle navigation
!
Close Navigation
**Breadcrumb**
****
* Leadership
  + 
**Section Menu**
# Jill C. Klar
## Chief Operating Officer for UNM Medical Group
## Headshot Jill Klar
Jill C. Klar has nearly 25 years of leadership experience as a healthcare executive within a variety of settings: physician practice, business and clinical operations, business strategy, payor and provider contracting, human resources, government relations, communications and marketing, compliance, health plan operations and provider network management. A collaborative, transformative and goal-oriented leader, Klar is driven by a strong desire to mentor, inspire and motivate teammates to perform at their highest levels.
Klar joined the UNM Health Sciences Center in January 2016 as Chief Operating Officer and was shortly thereafter named to the Chief Executive Officer position as well. During her tenure, UNM Medical Group improved financial and operating performance, through a lot of change and hard work by a great team. With a passion for operations, in January of 2020, Klar began dedicating 100% of her efforts to the COO role. She came to UNM from ABQ Health Partners, where she served as Chief Operating Officer. During her tenure there, she was a member of the team that transformed an unprofitable large multispecialty medical group into a prosperous, independent, multispecialty practice owned and led by physicians. She also led efforts to build Total Care, a new care delivery model focusing on value for the whole of the patient.
Klar is a graduate of UNM and is a Lobo and New Mexican at heart. She also recently earned a Master of Healthcare Administration from Colorado State University. Klar serves on the TriCore Board of Directors, the Lovelace UNM Rehabilitation Hospital Board of Directors and the La Tierra Sagrada Society Board of Directors.   Klar is an American Heart Association Circle of Red founder and is still actively serving with the American Heart Association. In 2014, she was honored as an Albuquerque Business First Woman of Influence, and currently, serves as a Bizwomen mentor.
## About UNM Health System
## 
## More Resources
## Ways to Give
### UNM Hospital
2211 Lomas Blvd NE
Albuquerque, NM 87106
505-272-2111
### UNM Children's Hospital
### UNM Sandoval Regional Medical Center
3001 Broadmoor Blvd NE
Rio Rancho, NM, 87144
505-994-7000
### UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center
1201 Camino de Salud NE
Albuquerque, NM 87102
505-272-4946
### UNM Medical Group
800 Bradbury St. SE, Suite 116
505-272-3303
### UNM Our Locations
©
# Dr. Jennifer Phillips
## Chief Medical Officer
!Dr. Jennifer Phillips joined the UNM Medical Group (UNMMG) as the new Chief Medical Officer (CMO) in March.
Dr. Phillips has been a medical director of the UNM Hospital Family Medicine clinic on Tucker and in the Southeast Heights, and has been the co-medical director of the UNMMG Center for Reproductive Health.
She is a key physician leader in primary care, and an integral part of the MG Clinical Operation’s Group. As a primary care leader, Dr. Phillips has played a critical role in studying, developing, advocating for, and piloting the team-based model of care, or APEX. Her appointment as Interim CMO is timely, as we embark upon the creation of our new Medical Group Rio Rancho Primary Care clinic and important new community relationships.
Dr. Phillips is a Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine who has excelled in previous roles as Vice Chair for Clinical Services and as Associate Chair.
Dr. Phillips was previously elected as UNMH Chief of Staff from 2017-2019.
Dr. Phillips is a lifelong New Mexican who graduated from UNM in 1997 and UNM Medical School in 2001. She is truly a Lobo for life! Her special clinical interests are women’s health and reproduction, obstetrics, pediatrics, and preventive care. She comes from a long line of educators and likes to teach those who would like to learn about health and medicine. She practices patient-centered care and seeks to inspire her patients to be attentive to living healthy lives, involving the body, mind, and spirit. Her current passions are creating systems and leading teams that address the social determinants of health, celebrate and promote diversity, and reduce health disparities in New Mexico.
# Jared Udall, MBA
## Chief Financial Officer
### Biography
!Jared Udall was born in Eastern Arizona and was raised on a small farm/ranch.  He was involved with the various family-owned business’s including a flower shop, restaurant and a wholesale food distribution business. His ancestors homesteaded a ranch between Lordsburg and Silver City and he has deep roots in New Mexico, on both his fathers and mothers’ side of the family. He has been married to his wife for 25 years and he has 5 children ranging from 24 to 13.  While he has no grandchildren yet, he is quietly hoping for one soon.
Jared first entered the business of healthcare when he helped open a new facility in Las Vegas, NV, for Encompass Health (formerly known as HealthSouth) as the controller in 2001.  He served as the CFO for DaVita Medical Group prior to joining the UNM Medical Group 3 years ago as the Senior Executive Director of Finance and Controller. His teams at UNMMG previously included Finance, Financial Planning, Financial Reporting and Provider Reimbursement.
Jared attended Brigham Young University in Hawaii and University of Phoenix where he completed an MBA with a focus on Health Care Management. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Syncronys, the New Mexico Health Information Exchange, as the Chair of the Finance and Audit committee. He has hobbies that range from working on his family’s ranch to racing dirt bikes in off-road races here in New Mexico.
# Helen Nielsen
### Vice President, Human Resources
Helen Nielsen is a seasoned professional with over 30 years of Human Resources experience in a variety of industries including healthcare, telecommunications, and construction.   As a strategic business partner, she has built successful HR teams and understands that teamwork and collaboration are the keys to achieving goals. In her role, Nielsen has improved metrics such as employee engagement, recruitment, and turnover. She is a trusted advisor and enjoys mentoring others.
Nielsen is a native New Mexican with deep roots in the Albuquerque community and earned her bachelor’s degree from UNM. She has also studied law and public administration. She has served on the Board of Directors for the American Red Cross and was a surveyor for the Quality New Mexico organization. Nielsen and her husband are proud parents of four children and four grandchildren.
# Aaron Jacobs
## Executive Medical Director of Population Health Management
Dr. Aaron Jacobs was appointed as the Executive Medical Director for Population Health Management for the UNM Medical Group, Inc. in July. Prior, he had served for the last year as Associate Medical Director for this department. Additionally, Dr. Jacobs is an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics.
He received his MD from Case Western Reserve University SOM in 2000 and completed his Pediatric residency at UNM in 2003. Since that time, he has served in various leadership roles including as the Medical Director for the General Pediatrics Unit and as Section Head for Pediatric Hospitalists. He is board certified in Clinical Informatics and served as one of the Chief Medical Informatics Officers for UNMH.
# Andrew B Baatz
## Vice President Health System Managed Care Serv
!Andrew Baatz joined the UNM Medical Group in 2015 as the Executive Director for Clinical Contracting and Vice President Health System Managed Care Services. Prior to UNMMG, Baatz was the Executive Director of Contracting and Credentialing for ABQ Health Partners/DaVita Medical Group.
With nearly 30 years of healthcare and healthcare leadership experience, Baatz started his career at UNM Hospital at the conclusion of his graduate studies. Since then his career has spanned the management of clinical department operations, development and oversight of a provider network to strategy and managed care and clinical contracting. Over the past decade Baatz has been a leader in developing and implementing value based relationships including full risk arrangements.
Baatz is originally from Minnesota and received his BA in Economics from St. Cloud State University. Additionally, he earned an MPA from UNM.
# Erica Richards
## Vice President of Strategic Development & Business Development
!Richards' career goal has long been to help make peoples’ lives better. To do that, she attended Montgomery Community College, where she earned an associates of science in nursing. Since then, she has worked her way up from directly caring for patients to helping improve health care on a regional level as the vice president of Health System Strategy and Business Development.
Richards', born in Washington, D.C., but whose roots reach back several generations in New Mexico, also attended University of Maryland at Baltimore, where she earned her BS in nursing; the University of Tampa, where she earned both an MS in nursing and an MBA with honors; and currently the University of New Mexico, where she is planning to graduate with her DNP in the spring of 2021.
In 2003, Richards' returned with her family to Albuquerque. She has a blended family consisting of six children.