Nurture NC is excited to announce that we are welcoming a new member to our team as of June 1st, 2026! Maria Ramirez Perez, MPH is joining the Nurture NC team as the Executive Program Manager.

Maria is a health policy leader with extensive experience in guiding visionary strategy, driving major system transformation, executing complex management and operations, and creating deep and trusted community partnerships.

Prior to joining Nurture NC, Maria served as Associate Director of Healthy Opportunities at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, where she led the state’s nationally recognized Healthy Opportunities portfolio. In this role, she led work designing, implementing, and scaling equity-driven initiatives that address core Social Driver of Health (SDoH) needs, including housing instability, food insecurity, transportation barriers, and interpersonal safety.

As program lead for the Healthy Opportunities Pilots, Maria oversaw strategy and operations for large‑scale Medicaid innovations that integrate health care and human services and directed the delivery of more than one million non‑medical interventions for high‑need Medicaid members, generating meaningful reductions in emergency department utilization and healthcare costs, while strengthening North Carolina’s community‑based service ecosystem. During her time with NC DHHS, she contributed to the launch of the nation’s first comprehensive Medicaid community hub infrastructure, Network Leads, and led pandemic response initiatives that supported tens of thousands of households statewide.

Earlier in her career, Maria worked in medical‑legal partnerships and grounded her policy work in direct service, legal advocacy, and community engagement. She holds a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from UNC Gillings and is known for her ability to translate complex policy into meaningful, community‑centered action.