Making sure people’s private healthcare records don’t get into the wrong hands is one of the top responsibilities of Kimberly Pharr Moses ’89. Since October, when she joined Gateway Health as senior director and deputy general counsel of privacy, Kimberly has been at work on legal safeguards to help prevent a breach of the health plan’s subscribers’ records.

Safeguards she puts in place, as well as privacy guidelines required by state and federal laws, build trust between healthcare providers and patients, especially those who are hesitant to seek care. “Unfortunately, because of the societal stigma of mental health issues and alcohol and substance use, people will be hesitant to go to the doctor for treatment,” she says. Safeguarding that information fosters more engagement of public healthcare.

Though she doesn’t do the information technology work herself, Kimberly is well versed in ransomware and other hacking techniques so that she can communicate effectively with the IT department for Gateway. Her new role marks her second stint at the Pittsburgh-based Medicare and Medicaid managed care company.

Kimberly didn’t start college with plans to become an attorney. She was a finance major at RMU who commuted from her home in the North Side to classes Downtown while working part time at a healthcare claims company. One of her favorite classes was in her junior year, when students were asked to study the governance and infrastructure of a particular corporation. She chose the Walt Disney Company. “I learned so much from that project,” she says.

After graduating from RMU, she worked two years for the healthcare claims processing company, then became interested in an employment law case that led to her going to law school. Her legal career began at Gateway, initially doing regulatory compliance and ultimately becoming their first in-house counsel. In 2007, Kimberly became associate counsel at UPMC Children’s Hospital and UPMC Mercy. A decade later, she became senior associate counsel for the University of Pittsburgh, responsible for legal affairs at the university’s health sciences schools, including medical, dental, nursing, public health, pharmacy, and rehabilitative services, as well as university-wide research.

She and her husband of 26 years, Darnell, live in Greentree. They have two sons: Thurgood, 20, is a sophomore at Lincoln University, and Langston, 18, is a senior at Central Catholic High School. The family enjoys watching NBA games and traveling together.

Kimberly also has an important civic role she has fulfilled for more than a decade. She has been a member since 2009, and now serves as the chair, of the judicial evaluation commission of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, which interviews and rates candidates running for appellate judicial seats throughout the commonwealth. It’s a service that responsible voters should consider “highly recommended.”