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Natalie Lawson

is a Senior State Policy Analyst at the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy’s Center for Children and Families.

Natalie Lawson is a Senior State Policy Analyst with the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. She began her career as a community mental health social worker in Chicago for low-income adults with severe mental illnesses and substance use disorders. Natalie went on to hold various positions relating to health and behavioral health, including research and analysis at policy advocacy non-profits and working on federal and state technical assistance contracts. Prior to this role, she was a Graduate Research Associate on the Healthy Michigan Project examining the impact of Michigan's Medicaid expansion in the state. Natalie holds an MHSA from the University of Michigan School of Public Health and a BS in Psychology from Loyola University Chicago.

Latest From Natalie

Ensuring Continuity of Medicaid Coverage for Former Foster Youth

Youth transitioning out of foster care are at both a challenging and pivotal time of their lives. Having health coverage through Medicaid provides security and stability as they make the steep climb to adulthood, often on their own. The authors of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) took into account the needs of former foster youth and the fact […]

What State-Level Data is Available for the 988 Crisis Line?

As we wrote about earlier this summer, the national mental health crisis line, 988, recently celebrated its second anniversary and has received nearly 11 million contacts since June 2022. In recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month, we wanted to take some time to delve deeper into the state-level 988 data to see what it can […]

Community-Based Assistance Programs Support Applicants Where They Live and are a Gold Standard for Outreach

In this final installment of our series on Medicaid and CHIP outreach, we look at community-based assistance programs and resources in each state. Personalized assistance is critical to helping individuals and families find and access support to navigate confusing processes. CCF’s state outreach snapshot found state-supported outreach assistance programs in 30 states. Most, states with […]