About

About Joel

My name is Joel Portman.  I am from St. Louis, Missouri.  I work for Centene Corporation, a Fortune 500 managed healthcare company, working on growing our health plans and leading network development for our Health Insurance Marketplace product. I am a graduate of the University of Denver (DU) with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree through DU’s Daniels College of Business and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in International Studies, with a concentration in International Security and Conflict Resolution and minors in Business Administration and Sociology.

I like to enjoy life and learn about people. I constantly strive to improve the world around me.  I enjoy spending time in the outdoors and being there with and for my friends and family. I like to read and hike and talk and camp and plan things. I like to think of myself as forward thinking and someone who tries his best at life.

Favorite Quotes

“Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, that alluvion which covers the globe…till we come to the hard bottom of rocks in place, which we can call reality.” – Henry David Thoreau

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference”
– Robert Frost

“lo alecha hamlach ligmor, lo alecha ligmor. V’lo atah ben horin lhebttel memenah” — “It is not for you to complete the work, but neither are you free to abstain from doing it.”

“They will see us waving from such great heights,
‘come down now’, they’ll say
but everything looks perfect from far away
‘come down now’, but we’ll stay…”

“Things of the spirit are what count:
Brotherhood – in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad
Cheerfulness – in a day when the pessimists have the floor and cynics are popular …
Service – in a day when millions are interested in getting or grasping, rather that giving.”
– Dr. E. Urner Goodman, Founder of the Order of the Arrow

Favorite Music

Billy Joel, Simon & Garfunkel, Hadag Nahash, Disney, The Beatles, Snow Patrol, Subliminal, The Fray, Guster, Something Corporate, Jack’s Mannequin, The Postal Service, OAR, Akon, T.I., Ben Folds, Rascal Flatts, Kanye West, Idan Raichel, OneRepublic

Favorite TV Shows

The West Wing, CSI, Two and a Half Men, Numbers, Law and Order, NCIS, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, Shark, Entourage, Big Bang Theory, Criminal Minds

Favorite Movies

The Lion King, Oceans 11, Fiddler on the Roof, The Patriot, Yentl, Mulan, Aladdin, Shawshank Redemption, Gladiator, The Princess Bride, Charlie Bartlett, מישהו לרוץ איתו, Gran Torino, The Blind Side

Favorite Books

The Chosen, The Invisible Man, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby, A Farewell to Arms, Tale of Two Cities, Ishmael, Waterland, The Count of Monte Christo, A Separate Peace