Nominated By: Allison Sesso, Undue Medical Debt Executive Director
Age: 32
Based In: Washington, DC
After earning her Master’s in social work at Washington University, Jennifer Holloway pursued a Juris Doctor at UC, Berkeley. She interned with the Office of the New York State Attorney General’s Health Care Bureau and clerked for the National Center for Youth Law before joining Tzedek DC as a staff attorney, where she works on projects focused on alleviating medical debt.
“Jennifer Holloway is the kind of lawyer who makes you believe that systemic change is possible. As a staff attorney at Tzedek DC, leading their Medical Debt Project, she combines frontline legal representation—defending DC residents with low incomes who have un-payable medical debt—with policy advocacy aimed at changing the structures that burdened families in the first place. One of her biggest current priorities is DC’s Medical Debt Mitigation Amendment Act, developed alongside Councilmember Christina Henderson, which would require hospitals to offer reasonable, three-year maximum payment plans to low-income patients, ban medical debt from credit reports and prohibit wage garnishments and home liens—making D.C. a national model if passed this session. [The act passed unanimously through the D.C. council in June and is now awaiting Mayoral review.]
Jennifer came to this work having navigated a cancer diagnosis in college, emerging debt-free thanks to insurance coverage she knew most people would never have. That awareness drives everything she does. At Undue Medical Debt, we work in the same ecosystem as Jennifer and have seen firsthand how her legal acumen and moral clarity move the needle—for individual clients and for the policy landscape that shapes millions of lives. She is exactly the kind of activist this moment calls for.” –Allison Sesso
Allison Sesso: You were diagnosed with a rare cancer during your senior year of college and walked away without a single dollar of medical debt—an experience you’ve said stays with you. How did that personal encounter with the healthcare system’s inequity shape the legal path you chose?
Jennifer Holloway: Illness is random. Which patients get financially ruined over that illness is not. I went into the ER with appendicitis and walked away with cancer. This experience showed me that there is no rhyme or reason behind who gets sick, but historic inequities and systemic racism dictate who gets burdened by medical debt. I was always the youngest one in my oncologist’s waiting room, and my parents shielded me from a lot of the burden, especially financial, that normally accompanies cancer. I try to use my legal education and social work background to help shield others from this burden and fight back against these inequities.
Sesso: You work on three levels simultaneously: representing individual clients, educating communities about their rights, and advocating for policy change. When you’re sitting across from someone who’s being sued by a nursing home or pressured into a medical credit card with 30 percent deferred interest, what does it look like to translate that single case into systemic change?
Holloway: Everyone has a medical debt story. While I work with clients to solve their immediate problem, their stories shed light on a systemic failure that I document and collect. Taken together, the data and these stories show policymakers where they can enact change. Many clients still feel shame around medical debt, and part of my work is explaining to clients how the system failed them and how, by sharing their story, they can change the system for others. I can write the report on medical debt, but policymakers get drawn in by the clients themselves and the struggles that they encounter.
Sesso: The U.S. healthcare system is built around the idea that patients are consumers—responsible for shopping for care, comparing prices, and bearing the financial consequences of their care. How has that framing influenced our policy choices and what does it miss?
Holloway: Framing patients as consumers treats healthcare as a consumer transaction instead of a public good. It has driven policies that prioritize price transparency, cost-sharing, and complex insurance design on a theory that people will shop for the best deal. Instead, patients are often making urgent decisions, without the knowledge that prices may vary across providers or the mental energy to shop for medical relief. This framing over-emphasizes personal responsibility while minimizing the role of hospitals and insurers in setting reasonable prices. Healthcare can be more affordable, but the onus needs to fall on systemic players, not individual patients.
Sesso: Medical debt is often treated as a personal moral failing, a sign someone overextended themselves. You see the reality every day. What do you wish more people understood about how debt actually accumulates, and who it accumulates for?
Holloway: Most Americans with medical debt have health insurance but can’t afford the high deductibles and copays. Unforeseen medical needs like a broken arm or a cancer diagnosis, coupled with high costs of care and a complex insurance and billing system, leave folks burdened with bills they couldn’t have anticipated and that exceed any rainy-day funds they may have. Medical debt is disproportionate: Black Americans and people with disabilities are more likely to have medical debt (and at higher amounts), and Black people are more likely to be sued over that debt.
Sesso: CULTURED‘s readers care deeply about culture, design, and the built environment of daily life. What does a world without medical debt look like to you—not just as a policy outcome, but as a lived experience for the people and communities you serve?
Holloway: In a world without medical debt, there are no trade-offs regarding healthcare. My friends and neighbors don’t have to decide whether to pay for prescriptions or afford groceries. Retirement savings don’t get used on a hip replacement, no one delays care because of the cost, and credit scores aren’t ruined because of an autoimmune disease. Our communities experience less stress and shame and more stability and economic mobility. Healthcare would be something people move through, not a financial shadow that follows them for years.
This feature is part of CULTURED’s 2026 Young Activists list, spotlighting those around the country working to champion the causes closest to them. Each is nominated and interviewed by a leader in their field. You can read their features here.
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