Sonya Schwartz, Program Director

Sonya Schwartz joined NASHP in 2005. She is the project director of State Refor(u)m, an online network for health reform implementation. State Refor(u)m monitors, reports on, and hopes to catalyze a more robust and effective approach to implementation of health reform at the state level. Her work on State Refor(u)m includes developing the strategy and overseeing the team’s work on an evolving interactive website design, community engagement, creation of analysis and synthesis, marketing, and management of staff. Sonya has worked to improve state and federal programs for low-income people for more than a decade. Since joining NASHP, Sonya has conceptualized, conducted research, and written papers, issue briefs, and given presentations on a broad range of health reform issues. Her particular interests include state and federal efforts to improve access to health insurance for the uninsured, efforts to expand Medicaid, and regulation of the private health insurance market. Prior to joining NASHP, Sonya worked as an advocate to expand access to health care and nutrition benefits for low-income populations such as immigrants and people living with HIV and AIDS. She holds a JD from the UCLA School of Law Program in public interest law and policy, and a BA in political science and Italian from Middlebury College.