McGovern is known for her leadership as a health and human rights scholar addressing a number of issues including LGBT equality, environmental justice, sexual and reproductive health, and overall health outcomes for low-income women. Her legal work tackling health inequalities for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS in New York City, specifically women of color with HIV has led to numerous testimonials before Congress and other policy-makers. Her research focuses on health and human rights, sexual and reproductive rights and health, gender justice, and environmental justice, with publications appearing in journals including Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, Health and Human Rights, and the Journal of Adolescent Health.[6][7] She has authored various publications and research articles challenging discriminatory norms.[8][9]
From 2006-2012, McGovern was Senior Program Officer for Human Rights, HIV/AIDS, Gender Rights and Equality at the Ford Foundation.[10][11][12]
In 2017, she published an article with colleagues Johanna Fine, a human rights lawyer formerly with the Center for Reproductive Rights, Carolyn Crisp, and Emily Battistini, both Alumni from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. The article demonstrated that Sustainable Development Goals have the potential to generate action and accountability to end the HIV epidemic among women and girls.[13] In 2019, she published a study that examined the association between legal systems and health disparities in women and girls in Nigeria.[14]
McGovern's mother, Ann McGovern, was killed in the September 11 attacks. McGovern founded a group called 9/11 Families for Human Rights and was an advocate for accountability and transparency from the US Government in the September 11 Commission.
In 2007, a play she created based on interviews with family members of September 11 victims called "9/11: Voices Unheard," which was produced in collaboration with the Irondale Ensemble Project at the Theater for the New City. She later organized other 9/11 families to protest the “Muslim Ban” and has spoken out extensively in the exploitation of the September 11 attacks to justify xenophobia and discrimination.
Since 2020, McGovern is a member on the Council of Foreign Relations.[15]
In 2022, McGovern was the recipient of the Dean's Excellence in Leadership Award at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.[16]
As of 2023, McGovern serves on the Lancet Commission on Adolescent Health and Wellbeing, the UCL-Lancet Commission on Migration and Health, and the UNAIDS Human Rights Reference Group. She currently serves on the UNFPA Global Advisory Council.[17] She serves on the Board of the NYCLU.[18]
In 2023, McGovern spearheaded the launch of the first endowed professorship in sexual and reproductive justice in the United States.[19] In December 2023, the announcement of the professorship was launched with a panel discussion on the state of reproductive health moderated by Byllye Avery and Chelsea Clinton.[20]
