During her appointment, she focused on goals such as providing pure food and water, improving garbage collection systems, and developing better disease inspections for school-aged children. She regulated the milk supply in Oregon and paved way for school nurses to receive funding; all of her efforts helped to establish Portland as a city with high sanitation standards. Before leaving for Europe in 1909, she also established ties with several civic groups such as the Council of Jewish Women, the Consumer's League, and the Portland's Woman's Club. From 1907-1908, Lovejoy also helped prevent an outbreak of Bubonic Plague in the Portland area. While serving on the Board of Health, Lovejoy was also an author of various documents that reside at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in their Public Health in Oregon digital collection. Among these documents is an annual report that addresses the public health situation in Portland in 1908, including death rates and recommendations for further improvements of sanitation standards. She also authored a report that discusses impure milk and its effects on health and infant mortality, in addition to several other documents. Running for Congress Upon returning to Portland in 1920, Lovejoy decided to run for Congress as a progressive candidate against Clifton McArthur, the Republican incumbent. This was also the year that the 19th amendment to the US constitution, also known as the National suffrage amendment, was ratified. The first Red Scare was also rampant across the nation, causing the public to accuse Lovejoy of believing in Communism and supporting the Bolsheviks in the Russian Revolution. Lovejoy was still able to win 44 percent of the vote. Medical Women's National Association (MWNA) and American Women's Hospitals (AWH) In 1915, the Medical Women's National Association (MWNA) was established to advocate for women physicians; the organization utilized petitions, rallies and various other efforts to try and grant officer status to the women serving in the US Army Medical Corps. Lovejoy herself argued that women were already performing medical relief work, and that they were prepared and eligible to organize their official service in the war. Due to these efforts, the MWNA decided to establish a War Service Committee led by Dr. Rosalie Morton in June 1917. Subsequently, Lovejoy was appointed to be the chair of an additional committee on Maternity Service, which was established because maternity cases in areas of war were left to women physicians as a result