Jennifer Christian-Herman, Ph.D.

Dr. Christian-Herman is a licensed clinical psychologist and board member of the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health.  She serves as the Head of Clinical Strategy at Headway, whose mission is to build a modern mental healthcare system where everyone can get the right care from the right therapist, covered by insurance.

Prior to joining Headway, Dr. Christian-Herman was the Vice President of Clinical Strategy & Programs at Blue Shield of California, a nonprofit health plan serving 4.8 million members in the state’s commercial, individual, and government markets. In that role, Dr. Christian-Herman led an evolving portfolio of innovations that leverage technology and clinical interventions focused on behavioral health, lifestyle medicine, social drivers of health, and digital therapeutics, with the goal of improving access to care, member engagement, and clinical outcomes.

She was responsible for developing and leading the strategy to transform total-person health for Blue Shield’s members and providers by expanding access to behavioral health care, enhancing care coordination, integrating behavioral health into primary care, and offering robust upstream digital solutions rooted in lifestyle medicine.

Prior to joining Blue Shield, Dr. Christian-Herman was the Executive Director of Strategic Customer Engagement, Product Innovation and Evaluation at Kaiser Permanente. She previously served as the National Vice President for Integrated Health Improvement at Health Net and as the Regional Director of Clinical Research for CIGNA Health. Dr. Christian-Herman has also held roles with Cerner Health Solutions and at UCLA’s Neuropsychiatric Institute & Department of Psychology.

She has a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of New York – Stony Brook. In addition to a focus on maternal mental health, she is passionate about community models of mental health and radical hospitality supporting unhoused individuals with
mental health challenges.