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Mike DeAgro provides a deep passion for innovating healthcare delivery as associate counsel at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. The attorney provides strategic counsel on complex regulatory and transactional issues. Leveraging his specialized law firm and in-house experience representing healthcare providers, he provides business savvy advice on provider relationships and related issues to drive improved healthcare outcomes and affordability for millions of members throughout North Carolina.
Throughout his career, both in various roles and in his personal time, DeAgro utilizes his influence to act as an ally for underserved and underrepresented populations, including in the legal profession. “Attaining a certain degree of success in the legal profession is challenging for anyone, and requires hard work and sacrifice,” he explains. “So, I think it can be particularly challenging for lawyers to see that there may be additional societal barriers inherently imposed on other individuals in the field, and that this truth does not negate the fact that they, too, may have worked really hard to get where they’re at in their career and life.”
He continues, “I try to better understand others’ challenges, and do my part to empower them. I think striving for compassion and understanding as a general ideal or guidepost in all situations makes me a better lawyer too.”
DeAgro is a man of faith. In his personal time, he is also very passionate about supporting individuals in recovery from substance abuse disorder. Prior to law school, he cofounded Young People in Recovery (YPR), an organization that flourished and grew exponentially under his leadership as the founding Board Chair. “YPR was created to elevate and positively change the public perception of recovery from substance use disorder, and to improve access to treatment, housing, employment, and education for individuals in recovery or seeking recovery,” he says. “Although things like closing a multi-billion dollar M&A deal might be more of a typical healthcare ‘corporate lawyer’ career accomplishment for me, I’ll remember impactful volunteer work as some of my most rewarding career endeavors.”
The lawyer is also the volunteer director for the Samaritan Recovery Community in Nashville, Tennessee. When not helping others on their own journeys, DeAgro can be found at home with his wife, their child, and a 110-pound rottweiler who is convinced he’s a lapdog.
