The high price of health care and private health insurance exacerbates health disparities—buttates have options to tackle these challenges head on. 

On Tuesday, March 18 at 2:00 PM ET, join The Century Foundation as we highlight a new series of reports on the specific difficulties LGBT people, women, Black people, and immigrants face in achieving optimal health. The event will explore barriers and state solutions to them in a panel discussion with experts and advocates.

Live CART and ASL interpretation will be provided.

Welcome Remarks:

  • Alexandra Spratt, director of health care – commercial sector prices, Arnold Ventures 

Featuring:

  • Ijeoma Egekeze, senior fellow, The Century Foundation
  • Lowell Hamilton, senior manager of research and community engagement, United States of Care
  • Lee Che Leong, senior policy advocate, Northwest Health Law Advocates
  • Moderator: Jeanne Lambrew, director of health care reform and senior fellow, The Century Foundation

Presented by The Century Foundation.

Speaker Bios

Ijeoma Egekeze is a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, where she works on issues related to maternal health and reproductive rights. Prior to joining TCF, Ijeoma served as a policy advisor in Congress, where she conducted research, staffed hearings, and drafted legislation on public health and health equity issues. She earned her MPH in health policy from The George Washington University, and her BA in English literature from Georgetown University.

Lowell Hamilton, PhD is a senior manager of research and community engagement at United States of Care. His research focus includes global HIV prevention strategies for Black men, specifically the use and uptake of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP). He joined the U.S. Peace Corps, where he served two years in Africa and also worked in local government in North Carolina and Wisconsin. He earned his bachelor’s and his master’s degrees at East Carolina University and his PhD in health promotion, education, and behavior at the University of South Carolina.

Lee Che P. Leong is Northwest Health Law Advocates’ senior policy advocate, bringing extensive experience in public health, higher education, international human rights, youth engagement, and reproductive justice in New York City and Washington State. She has worked for nonprofits at the local, state, and national levels, including directing the NYCLU’s Teen Health Initiative and collaborating in the launch of two of Washington’s Accountable Communities of Health. In 2023, Families USA honored Lee Che with its Health Justice Advocate of the Year Award for Health Coverage for her work on immigrant health expansion in Washington.

Alexandra Spratt develops and oversees strategic investments to reduce provider prices in the commercial market and improve competition in hospital and physician markets to ultimately reduce health care costs for American families, employers, and taxpayers.

Prior to joining Arnold Ventures, Alex was a senior policy analyst at CapView Strategies, a boutique health policy consulting firm in Washington, D.C., where she primarily focused on Medicare and Medicaid payment and delivery reform and alternative payment models, health reform, and drug pricing. During law school, Alex interned on Capitol Hill, in the Maryland Senate, and at several policy and advocacy organizations focused on health care and women’s issues.

Alex holds a J.D. from American University’s Washington College of Law and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Florida.

Jeanne Lambrew, PhD is the 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.