Tammy Hendricks, of Hendricks Consulting, was recently named to the Hartford Business Journal’s 2022 40 Under Forty Honoree list

A core belief in the impact of community service, outreach and equity drives Tammy Hendricks so much that she made it her career. Every day, Tammy dedicates her work to advancing health outcomes for Connecticut’s most vulnerable populations. Tammy’s position as Director of Health Equity and Outreach for Access Health CT (AHCT) puts her in direct contact with community organizations across the state. She and her team work with over 1,600 community and health organizations to educate, inform, employ, economically develop and promote health equity to underserved communities in the state, predominantly of color.
 
Before joining AHCT as its Director of Health Equity and Outreach, Tammy’s career spanned positions from pharmaceutical sales to marketing and business development. Driven by a passion for digital and traditional marketing as well as the healthcare industry, she established her marketing firm, Hendricks Consulting & Co., after completing her MBA at the University of Connecticut in 2019. Her firm specialized in helping small and midsize healthcare-based businesses develop and maintain their companies. And in 2021, it was time to bring the expertise she had gained to scale with a bigger team, and the added opportunity to make a more significant impact on communities in need.
When Tammy joined AHCT as Director of Health Equity and Outreach in August 2021, the first program she was tasked to develop was the Broker Academy, a first-of-its-kind, no-cost training program. The Broker Academy provides a pathway to license health insurance brokers by recruiting and building the skillsets of people living and working in historically underserved communities in the state. It directly addresses AHCT’s mission to increase the number of insured Connecticut residents and reduce the significant health disparities in the state.  
 
The idea of the Broker Academy came from AHCT leadership, based on research commissioned by AHCT that indicated that communities of color would be more responsive to and trusting of insurance brokers who come from similar backgrounds, and would therefore be more likely to enroll. Tammy took this idea, rolled up her sleeves, and through a Herculean effort, made it a reality in under a year. When it was announced in January, the Broker Academy had the full support of Governor Lamont.
In addition to her Broker Academy work, Tammy leads her team in helping communities of color navigate the enrollment and renewal process and better understand their insurance plans. They participate in hundreds of health fairs and community engagement events per year in areas with high levels of health disparities in Bridgeport, Danbury, East Hartford, Greenwich, Hartford, Manchester, Middletown, New Britain, New Haven, Norwich, Stamford and others. Communities in these cities can be hard to reach. They may not be as responsive to traditional marketing and outreach due to a lack of trust in a healthcare system that does not reflect their communities. Tammy’s brand of personal outreach is so important to the mission of increasing the rate of the insured.
 
For Tammy Hendricks, the mission is a personal one she has been preparing for since she was 19 years old being the sole caretaker for her mother. Tammy has proven she is up for the challenge of delivering guidance, resources, and solutions to underserved populations in the state. “Connecting and educating consumers, especially in underserved communities on the importance of health insurance and preventive care is everything I’m about,” she says.