Jeanne M. Lambrew

Jeanne M. Lambrew, Ph.D., is director of health care reform and a senior fellow at the Century Foundation. From 2019 to 2024, she served as the commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. As commissioner, Lambrew helped expand and improve affordable health care to more than 100,000 people, bringing the state’s uninsured rate to its lowest point ever; contributed to Maine’s nation-leading COVID-19 response, including the highest vaccination rate of older residents and one of the lowest death rates in the country; and made historic investments in health and human services. Previously, she was a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and an adjunct professor at the New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Prior to that, she worked in the Obama administration: in the first two years as director of the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); and from 2011 to January 2017 as the deputy assistant to the president for health policy. Prior to joining the Obama administration, Lambrew was an associate professor at both the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs in Austin, Texas, and the George Washington University School of Public Health. She also served as senior fellow for health policy at the Center for American Progress. In 1996, she was a research faculty member at Georgetown University. Earlier, Lambrew served in the Clinton administration in the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (1993–1995), the White House National Economic Council (1997–1999), and the White House Office of Management and Budget (2000–2001). Lambrew earned master’s and doctoral degrees in health policy from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.