Michelle Jester

Michelle Jester is the Executive Director of Social Determinants of Health at America’s Health Insurance Plans--the national association whose members provide coverage for health care and related services to hundreds of millions of Americans every day. At AHIP, Michelle helps health insurance providers address socioeconomic barriers to good health by bringing innovative interventions to scale, highlighting sustainable community collaboration models, and leveraging policy solutions that help advance equity. Prior to joining AHIP, she worked at the National Association of Community Health Centers for nine years in the Public Policy and Research Division, where she helped health centers build community-based and patient-centered research and data capacity. While at NACHC, she led an evidence-based and stakeholder-driven process to develop one of the first national standardized social determinant of health assessment tools built into multiple Electronic Health Records, known as PRAPARE. She helped numerous health centers, hospitals, health systems, and health plans build capacity to collect and use standardized social determinants of health data to improve care delivery, inform policy, and accelerate community change. Previously, Michelle conducted clinical research at the Johns Hopkins University.  She received her Master's degree from The Australian National University in Culture, Health and Medicine and her Bachelor's degree in East Asian Studies from Davidson College.