2023 Rising Star: Aurelle Amram

By Kery Murakami,
Senior Reporter

Connecting state and local government leaders

| December 12, 2023

Senior director of strategic partnerships, Code for America's Social Safety Net

Sometimes people sit at their desks and while their future might look bright, they think, “Meh, This isn’t for me.” That’s what Aurelle Amram was thinking nine years ago when she was working at a financial consulting firm in midtown Manhattan, eating greasy takeout food at 4 a.m., working on how to make investment companies $20 million instead of $10 million.

The child of an Israeli immigrant whose family had moved as refugees to Israel from Iraq, Amram, 33, said she “grew up in a home that really prioritized social justice and empathy.”

Now, two years into a position as the senior director of strategic partnerships for Code for America's Social Safety Net, she has made a difference—not only for low-income people but for the state and local workers tasked with running programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Amram coordinates work between the nonprofit’s tech and policy experts and state and local agencies. The goal, she said, is to “alleviate poverty and advance equity with the mindful use of technology.”

When Minnesota’s Medicaid agency was faced with the enormous task of having to reevaluate whether participants could continue to get health care coverage, Code for America helped the agency automate its review system, allowing hundreds of thousands of recipients to be automatically renewed without having to do anything and cutting the average case processing time from 70 minutes to 11.

Amram was recently promoted to senior director of growth and partnerships, where she will be in charge of expanding the organization's work to streamline government processes related to criminal justice or taxes. “I'm so lucky that I'm able to figure out how to take some of the unique skills I have and put them to use for good,” she said.

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