Jennifer McLean is NHeLP’s Project Manager on the Sexual and Reproductive Health team, where she supports the Medicaid Reproductive Health Roadmap, an initiative advancing access to reproductive health care for people covered by Medicaid. She brings a health equity-centered, systems thinking approach to her work, with a focus on building sustainable systems, coordinating cross-functional efforts, and translating policy into meaningful impact for underserved communities.

Before joining NHeLP, Jennifer built a career spanning health policy, community engagement, and direct program management. As a Senior Program Manager at Activate Care, she managed projects and partnered with multiple managed care organizations to conduct health equity centered, community engaged research for the purposes to improve care for underserved communities. She previously worked at UNC Health’s former Office of Health Equity, she led multiple projects addressing social determinants of health and embedding health equity into institutional practice. Earlier in her career, she built a community coalition from the ground up through a local nonprofit, deepening her expertise in grassroots organizing, stakeholder engagement, and community-centered program design.

Jennifer is also a DONA International-certified birth and trained postpartum doula who has a passion for supporting the birthing community, protecting birth and postpartum spaces and has a deep personal and professional commitment to maternal health equity and reproductive justice at the community level.

Jennifer holds a Master of Public Health from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Bachelor of Science of Public Health degree from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
When she’s not managing projects or supporting families through birth, Jennifer can be found somewhere new, she’s an avid traveler with a passport that keeps getting fuller.