Kai Tao

Kai Tao is a clinician with experience in health policy, programs, and clinical operations. Her experience includes opening a birth center for underserved women to starting affordable vasectomy services.  For the last 18 years, she has been practicing as a Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM) with a large FQHC and Northwestern Hospital, delivering babies on the weekends.

Her previous day jobs include overseeing operations for 17 clinics with Planned Parenthood of IL and serving as a Senior Policy Advisor, co-creating the Illinois Family Planning Action Plan- a multipronged approach to expanding contraceptive access via payment reform. Prior to her role as the Principal for ICAN! (Illinois Contraceptive Access Now), Kai was the Chief Program Officer for the Chicago Department of Public Health overseeing the Maternal, Infant, Child and Adolescent Health Bureau and STI/HIV Bureau. ICAN’s mission, which is grounded in reproductive justice, is to democratize access to contraceptive services by improving the quality of care and increasing coverage by increasing capacity and quality with community health centers, leveraging a direct-to-consumer digital platform, and enacting fiscally prudent policies. Kai received her Master of Science and Doctor of Nursing from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center and her Master of Public Health from Harvard School of Public Health.