About Maeve McKean

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Activist, dedicated public servant, public health and human rights lawyer, Maeve McKean committed her life to improving the world for others. After receiving her B.A. from Boston College, Maeve served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Mozambique and worked for U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) in California. In 2009, Maeve received a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and a master’s degree in international negotiations and conflict resolution from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

In 2009, Maeve was selected as a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow for 2009 to 2010. Dividing her service between the International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS, an international network run for and by HIV-positive women, and the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), a human rights organization, Maeve tirelessly advocated for sexual and reproductive health and rights.

In 2010, Maeve was appointed by the Obama administration to the U.S. Department of State’s Global AIDS program, where she was the first-ever senior advisor for human rights, and then the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Global Affairs, where she led work on human rights policy, including women and children’s health, LGBT health, and gender-based violence. After concluding her tenure in the Obama administration, Maeve was appointed as an associate research professor and senior policy advisor at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health, where she helped establish the Center for Immigrant, Refugee, and Global Health.

In 2019, Maeve rejoined Georgetown University as the executive director of the Global Health Initiative, a university-wide platform for supporting faculty, students, and staff who are contributing to global health through research. She also taught bioethics and social justice at Georgetown Law and conversations in global health at the School of Foreign Service. Maeve brought her characteristic enthusiasm to engaging, inspiring, and mentoring a new generation of Georgetown global health students through her teaching in the classroom and her leadership of an innovative fellowship program for aspiring leaders.

While at Georgetown, Maeve also joined the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law as the associate director of the HIV Policy Lab, an online platform that systematically gathers and monitors laws and policies adopted by countries around the world, documenting where key HIV science has been translated into policy. 

“When Maeve joined the HIV Policy Lab team, she brought this whirlwind of positivity, vitality, and passion. She was one of the rare people who made everyone and everything around her better. Her approach and ideas, at once creative and pragmatic, made our work better. Her ability to hone in on what needed to get done and keep us focused made us work better as a team. Her bright energy and quirky, infectious laugh made work a better place to be. She was a model for the kind of advocate and public servant that I aspire to be.”

Mara Pillinger, Senior Associate, Global Health Policy and Politics
O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law

Learn more about Maeve at www.maeveandgideon.org.