Merilyn Francis

Director of Health Policy and Research 

Merilyn serves as AIDS United's director of health policy and research. Merilyn’s passion is to get health care right for all. To AIDS United, she brings not only an extensive knowledge of federal and state policies, but an understanding of how front-line practices, especially under-resourced clinical practices, are impacted by differing policies and quality-reporting programs. 

As project director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative at the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, she gained an important perspective on how active partnerships between consumers and clinicians, as well as community organizations, can be effective for revamping “business as usual” to reduce or eliminate inequities in access, costs and quality of care across populations. 

She has also served as a principle in the MITRE Corporation’s Center for Transforming Health, vice president of the National Quality Forum, and director of quality management and health services research at the American Association of Health Plans (now known as AHIP). 

Together, her experience gives her a multifaceted view of how health policies impact stakeholders in health care — patients and families, and health care providers including health plans, payers and employers.

Outside of work, Merilyn enjoys writing, listening to jazz, going to the theater for plays and dance. She also loves trying new restaurants.