Cristina Boccuti is Vice President of Health Security at the AARP Public Policy Institute. In this role, she leads a team of senior health policy professionals to deliver research and analysis that drives and supports the public policy priorities, advocacy efforts, issue campaigns, and communication activities that advance AARP’s work on behalf of older adults.

Before joining AARP, Boccuti served as Director of Health Policy at West Health, where she led strategic research and analysis on federal and commercial health care spending and Medicare-related issues, including out-of-pocket costs, access to care, provider payment, quality measures for geriatric care, and health workforce. Prior to West Health, she was an Associate Director at the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), where she analyzed Medicare reform proposals as part of a major initiative on the future of Medicare. Boccuti has also held senior positions at the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and The Urban Institute. 

Before transitioning to health policy, Boccuti was a speech-language pathologist at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Chicago. She completed her graduate studies at Georgetown University and George Washington University and her undergraduate studies at Cornell University.