PEBP Board

About the Board

The Board of the Public Employees Benefits Program helps to make decisions regarding the program, with the ultimate goal of helping PEBP best serve Nevada public employees and their benefit-plan needs.

The PEBP Board consists of eleven members appointed by the Governor. Each appointee represents a specific class of public employees and retirees—these include the Nevada System of Higher Education, retired public employees, state employees and local government employees. Additionally, two members must have substantial and demonstrated experience in risk management, health care administration or employee benefits programs. One member must be employed in a managerial capacity for the Department of Administration. NRS 287.041.

Board Members

JOY GRIMMER, Board Chair

Joy Grimmer was appointed Director of the Department of Administration in July 2024. Prior to being appointed Director, Joy served as the Deputy Director of the Division for 3 months. She served for over four years as Administrative Services Officer IV for the Department of Taxation and acted as the Department's Chief Financial Officer. Joy started her career with the Nevada System of Higher Education in 2009 and transferred to the State of Nevada in 2010. She began working in fiscal management for the state in 2010 and has encountered many unique financial/budget situations as a result. Joy has participated as Fiscal Staff for five Departments which has allowed her to learn different funding sources, complete budget build and implementation, Accounts Payable, Payroll, distribution of funds to other government entities, document management retention, contract and lease functions, and facility management.

Joy is a native Nevadan raised in rural Nevada and attended the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Lee Business School where she obtained a Bachelor of Science in Business with an emphasis in Management. She also has two associate degrees from College of Southern Nevada and is a Certified Public Manager.

MICHELLE KELLEY, Vice Chair

Michelle Kelley is the Director of Retirement Plan Administration for the Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE). In this position, she serves as Chair of the NSHE Retirement Plan Advisory Committee and directs the operations of the NSHE defined contribution 401(a) mandatory retirement plan and the associated 403(b) retirement plans. Prior to this, Michelle was the Benefit Manager for the NSHE Business Center North at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she was responsible for the sourcing and delivery of benefits to the employees of UNR, TMCC, DRI, WNC and GBC, including the delivery of health insurance offered by the Public Employee’s Benefits Program.

Michelle has worked in benefits administration for over 18 years in both public and private settings. Over her career, Michelle has been involved in all aspects of the benefits pipeline—from analysis, design, and pricing through to sourcing and delivery. This background has given her a deep understanding of the complexity of the issues involved in developing a benefit package that is both cost effective and valued by employees.

Michelle has been a member of the Public Employees Benefits Program since 2008 and has assisted both employees and retirees in navigating and maximizing the benefits provided by PEBP. She has advocated for employees facing billing errors and other service issues with the third-party providers with whom PEBP contracts. Michelle is passionate about service delivery and the importance of developing effective and accessible materials and tools to educate employees about their benefits programs, including strategies for maximizing benefits.

Michelle was appointed to the PEBP Board in September 2020.

JIM BARNES

Governor Sisolak appointed Jim Barnes to the PEBP Board in August, 2021. Jim has had a lengthy career in law and State government administration.

After graduating from Columbia University School of Law in 1972, Jim began practicing law in Reno. In 1975 he began a career in State service as Deputy Attorney General and Chief Deputy Attorney General at several State departments, including the Department of Commerce, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Motor Vehicles and Public Safety. He also served as Director of the Nevada Department of Industrial Relations and as Director of the Nevada Department of Energy. Jim also served as Deputy District Attorney for Washoe County.

Jim has also served as chairman of the Nevada Deferred Compensation Committee, the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Review Board, the Washoe County Planning Commission, and the Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Commission.

DR. JENNIFER MCCLENDON

Jennifer McClendon is Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno. She served as Director of the Human Services Network (HSN) from 2018-2021, a collective organization of non-profits and government agencies in the human service sector across Northern Nevada. Prior to her work with HSN, Jennifer was Board Chair for Crisis Support Services of Nevada, a statewide organization providing crisis/suicide intervention and sexual assault advocacy services. As a consultant, she has worked on community-based projects in Nevada’s rural and urban areas, most recently with Nevada’s Department of Education Office of Safe and Respectful Learning to expand access to mental health care for underserved children. She has a child with a serious chronic health condition and a spouse who survived a traumatic brain injury; these experiences have led to a depth and breadth of understanding around the healthcare and disability needs for state employees.

Jennifer earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Wellesley College, and has an M.S.W. and Ph.D. in Social Work from Washington University in St. Louis.

JANELL WOODWARD

Originally from Kenosha, Wisconsin, Ms. Woodward moved to Nevada in 2001 and is currently the State Hazard Mitigation Officer at the Division of Emergency Management. She came to the Division of Emergency Management in 2012. Prior to joining state service, she spent 28 years in healthcare working with insurance, transcription, training, and direct patient care. Woodward currently manages the state’s Hazard Mitigation Program, where she has developed and managed multimillion-dollar budgets, performed benefit-cost analysis, created grant applications, as well as managing the grants for five different mitigation programs. 

Woodward received both a BS in Business Administration as well as AA in Management Information Systems from Liberty University. She also earned a certification as a Medical Assistant.

STACIE WEEKS

Stacie Weeks is the current Division of Health Care Financing and Policy Administrator. She has over ten years of experience in Medicaid and health care policy from the public and private sectors. Stacie also held key leadership roles in Minnesota’s Medicaid agency, including serving as chief of staff, where she oversaw the agency's legal, compliance, communications, and legislative divisions, and as director of federal waivers and policy, where she helped oversee the implementation of federal regulatory changes and multiple state health care reforms and initiatives. Stacie also has knowledge of state Medicaid financing from her time as an administrator for the health and human services budget committee at the Minnesota Senate and experience in advocacy and public policy from previous roles representing the priorities of a large safety-net hospital and the health care needs of clients served by legal aid. Stacie holds a Juris Doctorate from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock and a master’s in public health from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

BEPSY STRASBURG

Bepsy Strasburg has over 30 years of executive and financial management experience leading emerging and Fortune 500 companies to identify growth opportunities, create strategies and drive change to support their overarching business goals.

As the Chief Financial officer, she brought the company to financial stability building the in-house finance organization and managing service external providers for legal, audit, tax, IT, insurance and benefits administration covering union employees. She led multi- disciplinary teams in internal audit, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance, process improvement, risk assessment and consulting projects to assist the office of the CFO across financial services and retail industries. Currently, she is working as the North America Controller for a technology and solutions provider in the energy and industrial sector.

After graduating with a Chemistry (Honors) Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, she moved to California where she completed a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) with a Finance option from California State University, Hayward. Upon graduation, she started her professional career at Stanford Research Institute (SRI) followed by 17 years at Sun Microsystems which was later acquired by Oracle. This was the foundation for her later successful career solving problems of the Chief Financial Officer executive office.

Her board experience include Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital Foundation Audit Committee, Carson Tahoe Health Philanthropy Advisory Board, Patient, Caregiver Partnership Council and Carson City Government Audit Committee.

She was appointed to the Nevada State Public Employees’ Benefits Program (PEBP) Board in 2023.