AARP’s new CEO aims to protect Social Security and Medicare and make healthcare more affordable

AARP’s new leader will be looking at her role through the lens of healthcare.

Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, MD, is the new CEO of AARP. She says her experience as a doctor and healthcare leader will inform her work with AARP.

A physician with many years of experience as a healthcare leader, Myechia Minter-Jordan, MD, has been named the next CEO of AARP, the nonprofit group representing Americans 50 and older. Minter-Jordan, 52, took the post this week. She succeeds Jo Ann Jenkins, who led AARP for a decade before announcing plans to step down earlier this year.

Most recently, Minter-Jordan served as president and CEO of CareQuest Institute for Oral Health, a nonprofit group focusing on improving dental health. She also served as CEO of The Dimock Center in Boston, a Federally Qualified Community Health Center that has served the community for more than 160 years.

Minter-Jordan spoke with Chief Healthcare Executive® Wednesday about her goals, how her healthcare experience will inform her work at AARP, and working with President-elect Donald Trump's administration and a new Congress. She says it’s an important moment for AARP.

“First and foremost is to continue the incredible legacy that AARP has had in representing its membership, specifically around issues around Social Security, Medicare and, more recently, family caregiving,” Minter-Jordan says.

“So it is to make sure that we are continuing this legacy of representing the 39 million Americans who are members, but also more broadly, individuals within our country, that are over the age of 50,” she continues. “And one of the things that I'm really excited about is joining a team that is laser-focused on that mission and on those goals, and really leveraging the strength and all of the incredible advocacy efforts of AARP to be able to advocate policy change that will help to ensure the solvency of programs that people have worked their lifetimes to earn.”

(See part of our conversation with Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan. The story continues below.)

A healthcare mindset

With more than 110 million Americans 50 years old or older, AARP brings a big megaphone on public policy issues.

At the Dimock Center, Minter-Jordan worked as chief medical officer before serving as CEO for six years. The New England institution delivers care to many residents with low incomes. She said her work as a healthcare leader, including her time at the Dimock Center, will help her as she leads AARP and aims to improve the quality of life for older Americans.

“One of the things I most appreciate about community health centers is that community health centers have always had a different, a very broad approach, to healthcare,” she says. “Healthcare is not just physical health, but it's also well-being, it's also financial health and the social determinants of health, and so I bring that mindset from the work that I've done at the Dimock Center to the work that I'll be doing at AARP.”

Minter-Jordan says she will focus on health equity and closing disparities, but she says that is not a new area for AARP.

“I think it already has been part of the work of AARP, but also it's this broader lens of what equity means,” she says.

“Equity means ensuring that adults over the age of 50 have access to health care, have access to health care that's equitable,” Minter-Jordan says. “And I mean that in every way, in terms of veterans, in terms of those living in rural areas, in terms of race and ethnicity and sexual orientation, it is a very broad view of equity that AARP has leveraged in terms of its lens on equity, and within its programs and services, and our plan is to continue that.”

Working with the Trump administration

The AARP says voters 50 and over cited economic security as a top issue, including the need to protect Social Security.

With Trump returning to the White House and a new Congress taking office in January, Minter-Jordan will be focusing on preserving Social Security and Medicare. Some healthcare leaders have voiced concerns about what a second Trump administration could mean for public health and key healthcare programs. Minter-Jordan points out that AARP has worked with Republican and Democratic presidents for decades.

“One of the things I take very seriously is the fact that AARP has worked with every administration for the past 65 years, and so we will continue to do that with the new administration coming in,” Minter-Jordan says. “We'll continue to represent the importance of Social Security, Medicare and family caregiving.”

More than two-thirds of voters cited the need to lower prescription drug costs, and Minter-Jordan says that’s going to be a top priority as well.

“We'd love to continue to work with the administration on that,” she says.

And she adds that AARP wants to ensure that “healthcare is affordable for 50-plus within our country. So we will do everything possible to ensure that, through prescription drug pricing, through the family caregiving work that we'll do, particularly around tax credits for family caregivers.”

Helping caregivers

Minter-Jordan says she’s encouraged by the prospect of doing more to help millions of Americans caring for loved ones. Two out of three caregivers say they’re struggling to balance caregiving with their work responsibilities, according to an AARP report in May. More than a quarter have moved from full-time work to part-time roles.

“We're actually very, very much excited about the opportunity to move forward with tax credits for family caregivers,” Minter-Jordan says. “We know that family caregivers in particular are spending over $7,200 out of pocket every year. We know that 48 million Americans are caregivers, and very often, are doing that with great emotional stress and with great financial distress, and so we want to make sure that we're continuing to represent those needs of our members. And so the focus will be on those topic areas. And this comes directly from our members.”

Minter-Jordan repeatedly mentioned the needs of family caregivers during the interview, and it’s clear that will be a top priority.

“I think one of the things that we talk about here at AARP is the fact that you either are a caregiver, or you will be a caregiver, or you will need caregiving services,” she says. “So we want to make sure that we're thinking of that in the broadest sense. We've enjoyed bipartisan support within the conversations thus far around family caregiving and tax credits for family caregivers. So our goal is to continue on with that work with this new administration.”

Goals for the organization

Minter-Jordan says she is taking leadership of AARP at a pivotal time for the organization.

“Obviously, with the change in administration, there's an opportunity to work very closely with the administration on the things that are important to our members,” she says.

Plus, the number of Americans 50 and over represent one of America’s fastest-growing demographics. By 2030, one in five Americans will be over 65, as the last of the Baby Boom generation reaches retirement age.

“Every day, 10,000 people are turning 65 and the needs of that community is something that AARP is representing in its work every day,” she says. “So I'm excited about where we are in terms of understanding, as a woman who is 52 myself, being able to live out what I hope that AARP will do for me and for my family, but also for the membership that AARP represents across the country. So it's a pivotal time in many ways.”

AARP boasts 39 million members, but Minter-Jordan is hoping to see growth in membership. She also sees technology playing an important role in AARP’s growth.

“We also are very much focused on the digital strategy,” she says. “So how do we ensure that we're leveraging the tools and technology of today to provide better resources to our members? And that's something that we'll be laser focused on as well.”

Minter-Jordan says she hopes AARP can continue to challenge perceptions of what it means to grow older.

“Aging is living, and if you're not aging, then you're not living,” she says. “And so we want to make sure that we continue that sense of vibrancy and energy as we age.”