Jo Ellen McNamara

Jo Ellen McNamara

VP, Housing+Health Partnerships
National Equity Fund

Jo Ellen McNamara works nationally with healthcare organizations to invest in affordable housing in communities across the country for National Equity Fund. In addition, she is a national policy and operations speaker discussing healthcare and housing innovation, best practices, data-driven decision-making, and trends in both the healthcare and housing industries and how the needs of both intersect for low-income populations.

Jo Ellen’s experience includes over 25 years of leadership in municipal government, FQHCs, non profit organizations, community development corporations, behavior health providers, national managed care, and Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) focused on operations, fund development, and national program management before joining NEF and leading the work of Housing+ Healthcare.

In the March 2023 of Health Affairs Journal, a national healthcare policy and research journal, Jo Ellen and colleague Emily Chen (also of NEF) authored the article “Proposed Social Drivers Of Health Bonds Offer Promising Improvements But Face Many Challenges To Implementation” discussing potential political and public efforts to encourage health organizations to fund the cost of services to address social drivers of health in our communities.

At NEF, Jo Ellen brings together healthcare organizations (MCOs, ACOs, Medicare Advantage Organizations and hospital systems), community-based organizations, housing development and operations organizations serving vulnerable community members, and funding experts at NEF. These alliances create new opportunities for healthcare, community social support, and housing organizations to collaboratively plan innovation in housing to address the complex needs of vulnerable low income community members with a focus on both individual and population health outcomes.

She holds a Master of Science in Health Innovation and Community Assets from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Cleveland State University. Additionally, Jo Ellen attended Law School at Cleveland State College of Law and studied Non-Profit Finance at Case Western Reserve University.

Her volunteer services are dedicated to organizations focused on homelessness and affordable housing, behavioral health, developmental disabilities, and services for those on the Autism Spectrum.