Lauren Underwood

“As a nurse, I know that health care is a right, not a privilege, and I'm fighting every day to make it more affordable and accessible for the families I represent.”

Lauren Underwood is a registered nurse and public health expert who has represented Illinois’ 14th Congressional District since 2019. First elected in 2018, she became the youngest Black woman ever to serve in Congress, and she remains one of its few members with a clinical health care background.

Underwood earned her nursing degree from the University of Michigan and dual master’s degrees in nursing and public health from Johns Hopkins University. She served in the Obama administration at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she helped implement the Affordable Care Act, before returning home to run for office.

In Congress, she co-founded and co-chairs the bipartisan Black Maternal Health Caucus and authored the Momnibus legislative package to reduce maternal mortality and health disparities. Raised in Naperville, in the district she now represents, Underwood has focused on lowering the cost of health care, protecting coverage for people with pre-existing conditions, and supporting the suburban and exurban communities of northern Illinois.