Melodie Colwell is an experienced healthcare finance professional and champion for the needs of underserved communities. Growing up in an underserved community and witnessing the challenges that rural residents face in accessing basic healthcare services inspired Melodie to work with rural providers to create a lasting, positive impact on rural healthcare systems. At Stroudwater, Melodie serves clients through financial analysis, operational improvement, and transition to value-based care.
Before joining Stroudwater, Melodie was the Chief Financial Officer for Drew Memorial Health System in Monticello, Arkansas. In that role, she sourced $14.6 million in COVID-19-related funding from various federal programs including the SBA Paycheck Protection Program Loan, multiple distributions from the CARES Act stimulus package, as well as several state and local programs; participated in $15 million revenue bond offering to fund surgery center expansion project; and reduced bad debt write-offs as a percent of gross revenue by 2.3%.
Melodie began her career in public accounting with Ernst & Young and later joined Deloitte in Little Rock serving clients in a variety of industries, including manufacturing and investment banking. She joined Drew Memorial in November 2014 after serving three years as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Administration for the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
Melodie currently serves as President-Elect for the Arkansas Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) chapter.
Melodie earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Louisiana State University and a Master of Business Administration from Louisiana State University – Shreveport. She is a Certified Public Accountant.