Simone Marstiller is an accomplished executive, lawyer, and public servant who has held several highly visible leadership positions in Florida’s executive and judicial branches.
Most recently, she served as Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), Florida’s chief health care policy and planning agency, appointed to that position in February 2021 by Governor Ron DeSantis. In that role, she oversaw the state’s $38 billion Medicaid program serving roughly 5.6 million citizens primarily through contracted managed care organizations, and implemented programs to improve the quality, cost-efficiency, and transparency of Florida’s health care system.
Before taking the helm at AHCA, Simone served as Secretary of the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ), appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis in January 2019. There, she led the agency in administering a continuum of prevention, detention, education, rehabilitation, and probation services for children in or at risk of entering the juvenile justice system. She also successfully implemented improvements in detention policies to protect children in the department’s care which were upheld in subsequent federal class action litigation.
Simone’s other executive branch leadership positions include Secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, Interim Secretary of the Department of Management Services and State Chief Information Officer, under Governor Jeb Bush; Associate Deputy Attorney General, under Attorney General Bill McCollum; and Executive Director of the Florida Elections Commission.
In addition, Simone served for six years as a judge on Florida’s First District Court of Appeal, appointed to that office in 2010 by Governor Charlie Crist. During her tenure on the court, she served on the District Court of Appeal Performance and Accountability Commission and as vice chair of the District Court of Appeal Budget Commission where she was instrumental in
steering adoption of a new, collaborative structure for managing and allocating budget resources equitably among the state’s district courts.
Simone also has been Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant General Counsel to Governor Jeb Bush; General Counsel for the Department of Management Services; and Chief Appellate Counsel for the Agency for Health Care Administration. She is currently Of Counsel with the Gunster Firm in its Health Care, Government Affairs, and Appellate practice groups.
She is a member of Leadership Florida Cornerstone Class 21 and a graduate of the Council of State Governments, Southern Regional Conference, Center for Advanced Leadership Skills Program. Recently, she was named among City & State Florida’s “Florida Health Care Power 100” and “Florida Women Power 100.”
Simone was born in Monrovia, Liberia, and grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1988 from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida, and her Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 1996 from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida.