Lisa Esgar serves as the Deputy Directory of the Colorado Governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting, which is responsible for the State's budget of $18 billion.  Prior to April 2007, she held the Senior Director of the Operations and Finance Office position at the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, the department that administers the State's Medicaid program, the Children's Basic Health Plan, and the Colorado Indigent Care Program.  She was responsible for budgeting, accounting, human resources, rates, data analysis, and information technology systems for the $3.4 billion department.  She had been with the Department since 1996. 

She also held prior positions at Oregon Medicaid, CHAMPUS, and residential treatment centers.  She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the National Honor Society of Nursing.  Her initial background is in nursing, primarily in mental health care for adolescents.  Ms. Esgar received both her bachelors and masters degrees in nursing from Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma.