Lujan Grisham champions power of policy during JHU talk

Michelle Lujan Grisham champions power of policy during Johns Hopkins talk - New Mexico governor urges students to lean into public health policy to 'create a sea change for the country' in eighth installment of JHU's Health Policy Forum series. Michelle Lujan Grisham was a young lawyer and mom navigating the job market when a volunteer position revealed her calling. "The program was called Lawyer Referral for the Elderly. And in six months I was running that program," said Lujan Grisham, now governor of New Mexico, during a Johns Hopkins Health Policy Forum virtual conversation with Bloomberg School of Public Health Dean Ellen J. MacKenzie on Friday, May 5. It was Lujan Grisham's job to guide seniors and their families through the tricky process of accessing health care and related social programs. "So I had to learn how to navigate health care policy and bring folks together," she said. "And that led me to want to be a policymaker and change the very laws that I saw as barriers to people getting the services that they need." Today Lujan Grisham is the 32nd governor of New Mexico and the first Democratic Hispanic woman elected governor in U.S. history.