Allison Sesso

Allison Sesso became the President and CEO of Undue Medical Debt, also known as RIP Medical Debt, in January of 2020. Undue Medical Debt is a nonprofit, charitable institution that relieves medical debt across the U.S., providing financial, physical, and emotional relief to people saddled with medical debt. Undue has relieved $15,007,982,958 to date for over 9.85 million people.

Under Sesso’s leadership, Undue Medical Debt has expanded its reach by working with a wide range of health care providers to purchase medical debt, working in partnership with states, counties, and cities on local medical debt relief initiatives, developing its capacity to highlight the impact of medical debt on families, and contributing effectively to the larger conversation around the root causes of medical debt. She has become a prominent voice on the topic of medical debt and is frequently interviewed by media outlets, including "CBS Sunday Morning," NPR, the New York Times, and others.  

Prior to joining Undue Medical Debt, Sesso served as the Executive Director of the Human Services Council of New York (HSC), an association of 170 nonprofits delivering 90% of human services in New York City. 

Under her leadership HSC pioneered the development of nationally recognized tools designed to illuminate risks associated with government contracts, including an RFP rater and government agency grading system. She led negotiations with New York City and State government on behalf of the sector and successfully pushed for over $500 million in investments to address the nonprofit fiscal crisis. 

During her tenure at HSC, Sesso also led a commission of experts focused on social determinants of health and value-based-payment structures and published the report, "Integrating Health and Human Services: a Blueprint for Partnership and Action," that examines the challenges of operationalizing relationships between health and human services providers. She also served on the New York State Department of Health’s Social Determinants and Community Based Organizations (CBO) Subcommittee helping to formulate recommendations around the integration of CBOs into Medicaid managed care. 

Sesso’s work on behalf of the human services sector led City & State to recognize her as a top nonprofit leader in 2018 and 2019, one of the 25 most influential leaders in Manhattan in 2017, and one of New York City’s 100 “Most Responsible” in 2016. She again received the 100 “Most Responsible” award for the second time for her efforts at Undue Medical Debt. She has been recognized by Modern Healthcare as one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare in 2024, and was selected for TIME Magazine’s 2025 TIME100 -- an annual list of the most influential people in the world. Under her leadership, in 2022, Undue Medical Debt received the NYC Imagine award for innovation.