Michelle McMurry, MD, PhD

Bay Area native Michelle McMurry, one of the nation’s leading health policy experts, is running for the 12th Congressional District seat. A longtime advocate for improved healthcare for all Americans and better health for all globally, Michelle is fighting to:

• Revitalize the economy and bring jobs  to the Bay Area,
• Improve  education  for  our children  returning  science,  math,  technology,  the arts and  physical education to our schools,
• Establish universal health insurance nationally, and
• End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible, standing on the strong human rights legacy of Congressman Lantos.

Michelle is the founding director of the Health, Biomedical Science, and Society Policy Program of the Aspen Institute, a non-partisan think tank. She leads a policy team that identifies barriers to better nutrition, personalized medicine, HIV treatment globally, and reform of the U.S. medical system, and builds strategic collaborations for effective change. Most recently, Michelle’s team launched the Aspen Health Stewardship Project which seeks to broaden the healthcare debate from a narrow discussion of insurance to a more inclusive one of health, and formulate ways to protect this valuable resource.

She has nearly a decade of experience in bringing the views and critical needs of Californians to Washington policy makers. She has crafted legislation on Capitol Hill and participated in national debates on health and social issues. She oversaw health and social policy issues for Senator Joseph Lieberman and was the senior health policy advisor for the Lieberman for President Campaign. She worked on health disparities, healthcare quality, homeland security, social security, and translational research bills and addressed the plight of urban hospitals. She has also been a scholar in resident examining the California Stem Cell Research Initiative at the University of California, San Francisco.

She is also a tireless advocate for improving education. While in graduate school she spent several years teaching adult literacy programs to young offenders in North Carolina. She built upon that experience while working on science education and global US science competitiveness as a fellow to the Director of the National Science Foundation.

Michelle graduated from the Head-Royce School and studied biochemistry at Harvard University. She was the first African-American to complete the combined National Institutes of Health-funded MD/PhD program at Duke University. Michelle trained in pediatrics at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and was an Adjunct MacArthur Fellow in Global Health at the Council on Foreign Relations. Michelle is a global peace advocate who has worked in Cambodia and Rwanda. As Michelle puts it, “I have witnessed the nobility of compromise and the bravery of peace.” She is a leader for effective and responsible change.