Dee Dee Ricks is an entrepreneur, public health advocate and expert on patient navigation. She is the founder of RICKS Consulting Group, Inc., which serves and advises hedge funds on talent acquisition that maximizes portfolio optimization. Dee Dee began the company 20 years ago, shortly after earning her bachelor’s degree from HHP. She received the Ernst & Young’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1998 for her groundbreaking recruiter training venture, Internet Research Services.

Dee Dee is now a sought-after inspirational speaker on mending the gap in access to quality healthcare, patient navigation and entrepreneurship. Since diagnosis with breast cancer and the debut of her HBO documentary, The Education of Dee Dee Ricks, she has given over 100 keynote addresses to Fortune 500 companies, foundations, and non-profit organizations, both domestically and internationally.

Also a philanthropist, Dee Dee supports various organizations in their efforts to serve marginalized communities and to mend the gap in access to quality healthcare. She is active with a number of charitable and service-providing organizations, including her role as chairman of the board for the Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute, which supports patient navigation training and aims to provide information about chronic disease prevention. In 2016, Dee Dee was inducted into the HHP Alumni Hall of Fame.

[Profile added in 2016]

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