The organizations you’ve worked for most recently — the National Kidney Foundation and, before that, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) — are probably somewhat protected from today’s rancorous political climate. Is that the case?

Unfortunately, no. You might assume by the nature of our work that we have escaped some of that unpleasantness, but in fact, we get it from the right and from the left. We might oppose the research freeze at the National Institutes of Health, for example, but we are going to meet with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. nonetheless. We will work with this administration, so we get criticized for that. We have to always keep in mind, through it all, what is best for our patients, and we will talk to anyone who will listen to us — no matter what side they are on. For organizations that are even less protected from this rancorous climate, my advice is to keep your head down and stay true to your values.

You have a law degree and actually worked, early in your career, in real estate law. Tell us that story.

My undergraduate degree is in international affairs from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. My career interests were always in public policy. Somehow, I had this notion that a law degree was necessary to work in the policy world, which of course isn’t true. I got my law degree from Villanova in 2011, which was during the recession, and no one was hiring. Law firms weren’t even doing on-campus recruitment. So, with the help of a family friend who worked at a real estate law firm in New Jersey, where I’m from, I got hired there.

And how was that?

After about a year, I “rage quit,” as I think of it. I wanted to do policy. So I gave up a stable job with full benefits to be an unpaid intern for a member of Congress. I couldn’t even pay rent. So — again through another family friend — I lived in the spare bedroom of an elderly woman who lived in the Maryland suburbs of Washington. I was there for four years, and it turned into a wonderful intergenerational friendship. She was born and raised in Washington, and she knew all the stories. I helped take care of her, and she taught me to sew. Sadly, she died in 2021, in her mid-90s — a remarkable woman.