Area(s) of Expertise: Sexual and reproductive health, pregnancy coverage, maternal health, expanding access to doula care, Medicaid coverage for doula care

Amy Chen is a Senior Attorney in the National Health Law Program’s California office, where she works on sexual and reproductive health law and policy. Her California work includes improving access to pregnancy coverage and services, and supporting implementation of California’s doula Medi-Cal benefit. Her national work includes leading NHeLP’s efforts to reduce maternal health disparities and address systemic barriers to comprehensive pregnancy care. She also leads NHeLP’s Doula Medicaid Project, which works to expand access to full spectrum doula care for all pregnant, postpartum, and post-pregnancy people.

Before joining NHeLP, Amy worked at Bay Area Legal Aid in Oakland, California for eight years, where she provided direct legal services to individuals and families across the San Francisco Bay Area, and advocated on a wide range of issues including health care reform, Medi-Cal, Covered California, and private health insurance.

Amy received her B.A. from Stanford University, where she majored in International Relations and wrote an honors thesis on U.S. policy towards Rwanda during the 1994 genocide and immediate aftermath. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Human Rights Journal. During law school, Amy interned at the Brennan Center for Justice in New York City and the Legal Aid Society – Employment Law Center (now Legal Aid at Work) in San Francisco. She was also a clinical volunteer for the Immigration and Asian Outreach Units at Greater Boston Legal Services.

Amy used to watch a lot of Star Trek: TNG and briefly tried—and largely failed—to learn how to speak Klingon.