Karen Davenport

Director of Health Policy

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Karen Davenport is Director of Health Policy. Before joining American Progress, she served as Washington Director for the Medicare Rights Center, coordinating the organization’s national policy activities, partnership development and fundraising activities As a Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she developed and managed national programs dedicated to increasing health insurance coverage – including Covering Kids and Families and Covering America: Real Remedies for the Uninsured – and improving long-term care financing and services for frail elders and people with disabilities. As a Legislative Assistant to Senator Bob Kerrey, she was responsible for staffing the Senator's work on Medicare, Medicaid, public health, welfare and social issues. Her earlier federal experience includes serving as a specialist in Medicaid legislation for the Health Care Financing Administration (now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) and serving on the White House Health Care Reform Task Force. Before entering public service, she worked at the Henry M. Jackson Foundation in Seattle. Davenport earned an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a BA in political science from Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington.

Expertise: Health insurance, Health system reform, Medicaid, Medicare, and long-term care