HEALTH POLICY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Operations
- Director of Operations at the Duke - Margolis Institute
Dr. McBroom is the Director of Operations at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy and the Program Manager of the Evidence Synthesis Group/ Evidence-based Practice Center at the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI). She received her undergraduate degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Oklahoma State University and her doctorate in Biochemistry from the Duke University Medical Center as a James B. Duke Graduate Fellow.
In her post-graduate career, Dr. McBroom has pursued progressive roles in multidisciplinary project and program management. Her areas of operational management expertise include Phase II-III clinical trials in vaccines, women's health, and infectious disease therapeutics; secondary data analysis; comparative effectiveness assessment; decision modeling; and evidence synthesis. Her recent work has included studies assessing strategies for diagnosis and treatment of both acute and chronic conditions, with end products of summary reports to inform decision making by clinical guideline committees, healthcare providers, policymakers, and patients. Her role within Duke-Margolis spans financial and business operations, resource management, program and project management oversight, and strategic development.
Job Titles:
- Research Team
- Senior Policy Advisor
Job Titles:
- Policy Research Assistant
- Research Team
Asher Wang is a Policy Research Assistant on the Institute's Health Care Transformation team. Asher is a recent graduate of Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology. As an undergraduate, he led Yale's chapter of United Against Inequities in Disease, an organization that develops community-based projects to address local health injustices, and performed research under professors to study the links between social mobility and long-term health outcomes. They were also a Human Rights Scholar at the Yale Law School's Schell Center, with a particular focus on the global realization of the right to health. Asher's research interests lies in advancing value-based health policy to support the social drivers of health and health equity.
Job Titles:
- Senior Advisor, Frazier Healthcare Partners
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Team
- Research Director for Payment and Coverage Policy
- Research Director of Payment
Beena Bhuiyan Khan, MSc is a Research Director of Payment and Coverage Policy at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. Her research focuses on increasing access to novel technologies such as pharmaceuticals, gene therapies, and medical devices under Medicare and Medicaid through coverage and payment policy reform. Beena manages the Institute's Value for Medical Products Consortium, actively engaging with stakeholders addressing implementation considerations for implementing new payment models nationally with CMS as well as in the states. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Beena worked in the medical device industry focusing on health economics and market access. In this capacity, she collaborated with CMS and other health authorities in the United States and major international markets to establish the reimbursement frameworks for novel cardiovascular technologies.
Job Titles:
- Policy Research Associate
- Research Associate at the Duke - Margolis Institute
Beth Boyer is a Research Associate at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, working on policy issues related to biomedical innovation and global health policy, including the global COVID-19 response. Beth brings her background and expertise in global health and access to medicine challenges into her work at Duke-Margolis. Previously, she worked as a Senior Associate at Global Health Strategies providing strategic communications support to clients, primarily supporting the global health work of a multinational pharmaceutical company. She also worked at the Access to Medicine Foundation as a Researcher for the 2018 Access to Medicine Index, analyzing and ranking the efforts of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to improve access to medicine in low- and middle-income countries. Beth graduated from Messiah College with a Bachelor's degree in Biology and from Boston University with a Master's of Public Health with a concentration in Global Health. Beth is based in Durham, NC.
Job Titles:
- Associate Research Professor
Beth Gifford is an Associate Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy. Gifford is leading the Social and Economic Component of the Children's Health and Discovery Institute housed within the Duke School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. She is currently leading a Child Maltreatment Prevention Research Team that is examining cross-agency collaboration between the health and social service systems.
Her primary research interests involve evaluating programs and policies that are designed to improve outcomes for vulnerable children. These populations include children who live in low-income families, are in the juvenile justice system or in foster care, require special education or have emotional and or behavioral problems.
Job Titles:
- Staff Assistant to Dr. Gillian Sanders Schmidler
Job Titles:
- Advisory Board Member With the Duke
- Founding Member, Bridger Management & Portfolio Manager, Bridger Healthcare
Blake Goodner is an Advisory Board Member with The Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and a founding member of Bridger Management and is Bridger Healthcare's Portfolio Manager. Prior to joining Bridger, Blake was a Research Associate at Tiger Management, LLC, where he specialized in health care investments. From 1996 to 1998, he was an Investment Banking Financial Analyst in the health care group at Morgan Stanley & Co. Blake graduated from Duke University in 1996. He was a member of the Duke University Trinity Board of Visitors and now is a member of Duke Financial Economics Board as well as a founder of the Duke University Goodner Equity Research Project economics class.
Job Titles:
- Policy Research Associate
Brian Canter is a Policy Research Associate working on policy issues related to biomedical innovation and COVID-19 therapies. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Brian completed a PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a focus in Biomedical Engineering from Rutgers University. His thesis research focused on utilizing radiation therapy systemically to treat metastatic breast cancer that spread to bone. Brian also graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from Tufts University.
Brianna Van Stekelenburg is a Research Associate supporting Institute projects in health care delivery and payment reform. Brianna comes to Duke-Margolis from the NC Office of State Budget and Management, where she served as a Senior Analyst on the health and education team. She previously worked at the NC Council for Women as a Research Analyst. Over the last five years, she also worked part-time as a Senior Research Aide for the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke, where she conducted home interviews with adolescents. Brianna received her Master's in Public Policy from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke and her Bachelor's degree in International Studies and Spanish from the University of Mississippi.
Job Titles:
- Senior Policy Analyst
- Senior Policy Analyst at the Duke - Margolis Institute
Cameron is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. He supports the Institute's work on antimicrobial resistance. His previous experience focused on vaccine safety and supported the FDA, CMS, and other agencies' biological products monitoring projects. He also worked on Charlotte's COVID-19 small business support response.
Cameron holds a B.A. in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Camryn Lemke joins Duke-Margolis as an Administrative Assistant. Camryn earned her Bachelor's degree in Social Policy and Global Health at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, she worked for a variety of nonprofit organizations; most recently, in eviction defense services and community-driven K-12 education partnerships. Camryn brings her organizational prowess and passion for health equity to Duke-Margolis to support the executive team and enable the education and research teams to succeed in their mission.
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Research Director
Job Titles:
- Policy Analyst
- Policy Analyst With the Biomedical Innovation
Christina Bush is a Policy Analyst with the Biomedical Innovation team, where she focuses on medical technology diffusion and medical product payment. A Duke alumna, Christina formerly served as the Worksite Wellness Program Coordinator for MountainWise, implementing wellness programs to increase access to clinical services and health resources for underserved populations across North Carolina's western region. Christina also has worked in various clinical settings and as a Master's student at UNC Gillings School of Public Health, she conducted clinical research at an Asheville-based free medical clinic. She studied topics including health disparities and inequities, barriers to healthcare access, insurance coverage gaps, the medical needs of uninsured populations, and the healthcare safety net. Christina holds a Bachelor's degree in Public Policy from Duke and a Master of Public Health degree from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.
Job Titles:
- Research Director for Digital Health at the Duke - Margolis Institute
- Research Director, Digital Health
Christina Silcox is the Research Director for Digital Health at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, working on policy solutions to advance innovation in health and health care and improve regulation, reimbursement, and long-term evaluation of medical products, with a focus on digital health.
Dr. Silcox's portfolio includes multiple areas in digital health policy and real-world evidence, with an emphasis on medical devices. Currently, she is concentrating on challenges to regulating and adopting of artificial intelligence-enabled software as a medical device, using mHealth to collect real-world data, and characterizing real-world data quality and relevancy. Her projects have included the use of patient-generated health data in medical device evaluations, the exploration of value-based payments for medical devices, and the convening the National Evaluation System for health Technology (NEST) Planning Board.
Before she joined Duke-Margolis, Dr. Silcox was a senior fellow at the National Center for Health Research, focused on federal regulation of and policies for medical products. She earned a M.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Electrical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Medical Engineering and Medical Physics from the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST).
Corinna Sorenson, PhD, directs the Margolis Scholars Program in Health Policy and Management. She also co-leads a number of the Institute's educational initiatives.
Dr. Sorenson has extensive research and policy expertise in value assessment in health care, comparative effectiveness research, drug and device regulation and payment, and health policy evaluation. She is interested in the design, implementation, and assessment of innovative, evidence-based strategies to enhance value-based health care, particularly with regards to new and existing health care treatments and services. In this work, she also examines the economic, methodological, political, cultural, organizational, professional, and legal levers that support or hinder the adoption of such approaches.
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President and Chief Health Officer, Cigna / Chairman, Health Evolution
Job Titles:
- President and CEO, Cerner Corporation
Job Titles:
- Operating Partner, Healthcare at Pritzker Private Capital
Deepti Agnihotri is a rising second-year in the Master of Science in Global Health program at the Duke Global Health Institute. This May, she graduated from the Duke University Trinity School of Arts and Sciences with a Bachelors of Arts in public policy and global health. As an undergraduate, Deepti wrote for The Chronicle, served on the Duke Disability Alliance executive board, and conducted mental health research under Dr. Sumedha Ariely. Currently, Deepti is a research assistant for Dr. Catherine Staton in the GEMINI lab. Her master's thesis will focus on the role of self-determination in the effectiveness of a brief intervention for alcohol use in emergency department patients. At the Margolis Center, Deepti will be conducting a quantitative analysis on the impact of value-based care on pregnancy outcomes in the US. Ultimately, Deepti hopes to pursue a career in public health research and policy, focusing on equity and empowerment.
Dennis graduated from Davidson College with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. At Davidson, he served as a college tutor and volunteered at a free clinic for several years. He is currently pursuing his M.D. degree at Duke University School of Medicine where he served as co-president of the Duke Chapter for Health Career Academy, a national program that focuses on introducing underserved high school students to careers in healthcare through weekly case-based learning sessions. He has also been involved with student government at Duke SOM for the past two years and was elected class president. His interests include educational access and health equity, with a focus on cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality.
Devdutta Sangvai, MD, MBA is President, Duke Regional Hospital, and Vice President for Duke Population Health Management, Duke University Health System. Dr. Sangvai is also professor of family medicine, pediatrics, and psychiatry at the Duke University School of Medicine and professor in the Program in Education at Duke University..
In addition to his work at Duke, Dr. Sangvai is significantly involved in leadership and organized medicine both locally and nationally. He has served as president of the North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS), and served as the chair of the young physician's section of the American Medical Association (AMA). Dr. Sangvai has also served in national roles with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). He has been a member of the North Carolina Medical Care Commission and currently serves on the North Carolina Medical Board.
Dr. Sangvai graduated from the Ohio State University and received his M.D. from the Medical College of Ohio, where he also completed his family medicine and chief residencies. He earned his M.B.A. from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business. Dr. Sangvai is a certified physician executive with the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) and fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). He has received national recognition as Presidential Leadership Scholar by Library/Foundation of Presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton for potential to have impact on community and society.
Job Titles:
- President and Chief Executive Officer, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Research Director
- Assistant Research Director for the Biomedical Innovation
Dure Kim, is an Assistant Research Director for the Biomedical Innovation portfolio, focusing on the Institute's Cooperative Agreement with the FDA in the advancement of regulatory science and health policy research. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, he was a Research Scientist at the National Evaluation System for health Technology Coordinating Center, where he helped manage and develop Real-World Evidence studies with medical device stakeholders and researchers. Dure received his Doctor of Pharmacy from Mercer University in 2016 and completed a fellowship in Comparative Effectiveness Research and Patient-Centered Outcomes Research at the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2018.
Job Titles:
- Policy Analyst
- Policy Analyst Within the Institute
Emily Proehl is a Policy Analyst within the Institute' Health Care Transformation team, where she will provide support to the work on North Carolina Medicaid's value-based payment strategies. She holds a Master of Public Health in Health Policy from the UNC-Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, specializing in maternal and reproductive policies. Before joining Duke-Margolis, Emily was a research assistant at UNC and a Fellow for the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC), where she contributed to a wide range of projects encompassing social determinants of health research, maternal and newborn care initiatives, and health equity research. Emily also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Public Health from the University of Florida.
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Research Director
Duke alumna Erin Soule, PhD, is a Assistant Research Director for the Institute's Biomedical Innovation portfolio, where she works with the medical products development and regulations team, specifically the leading the Center's FDA convener grant. Erin comes to Duke from a two year AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellowship at the U.S. Department of Defense. Her placement was with the Laboratories and Personnel Office in Research and Engineering, where she worked across the STEM Education and Outreach, Technology Transfer, and Laboratory Infrastructure portfolios. She was as a basic research postdoctoral researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland where her projects focused on the intersection of blood coagulation and inflammatory signalling. Erin completed her PhD in Pharmacology and Cancer Biology at Duke University in 2016, where she developed and characterized novel anticoagulant aptamer therapeutics. She received her Bachelor's in molecular biology from Colgate University.
Job Titles:
- Executive Vice President, MI Health
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Research Director
Frank McStay, MPA, re-joins the Institute as an Assistant Research Director on the Health Care Transformation team. Frank was a member of Duke-Margolis in its earliest days. Since his time with Duke, he has been a senior policy advisor and health policy advisor at Baylor Scott & White in Dallas, TX, where he handled special projects, regulatory and legislative policy; spearheaded applied health policy research; and represented the system in several national and state associations. Frank's portfolio at the Institute will focus initially on fast turnaround projects about pressing payment and delivery reform topics.
Job Titles:
- Health Equity Policy & Primary Care Fellow
Gabriela Plasencia is the 2023-2024 Health Equity Policy & Primary Care Fellow. She will be working with Duke-Margolis and Duke Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, and plans to continue using population health strategies to reduce health disparities in the community. Gaby is also currently a family medicine and primary care physician for Duke Family Medicine, and a National Clinician Scholar. She worked with Duke-Margolis during her residency to study the systemic exclusion of Latinx communities from COVID-19 testing, vaccination, and treatment. Gaby earned her Doctor of Medicine from Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, her Master of Applied Science in Population Health Management from Johns Hopkins University, and her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Microbiology from the University of Florida.
Job Titles:
- Research Director for Biomedical Regulatory Policy
Gerrit Hamre, MA, is a Research Director in Biomedical Regulatory Policy at the Institute. Gerrit has worked for nearly 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry with a focus on clinical research, regulatory, and commercial roles. Central to much of his career work is extensive internal and external stakeholder engagement to advance innovative, evidence-based healthcare solutions. He has often worked in the drug development and approval environment. Highlights of Gerrit's career so far have included his work in the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Legislation and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in South Africa.
Gillian Sanders Schmidler, PhD, is Professor of Population Health Sciences and Medicine at Duke University and Deputy Director of the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. Dr. Sanders Schmidler has a PhD in Medical Informatics from Stanford University and was an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford's Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research from 1998 until the Fall of 2003 when she joined the faculty at Duke University. As the Duke-Margolis Deputy Director she oversees the Institute's educational, policy, and research missions. In addition to her leadership role within Duke-Margolis, she is core faculty within the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Dr. Sanders Schmidler's research focuses on the development of evidence-based decision models to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of alternative prevention, treatment, and management strategies for chronic diseases - and the translation of such models into formats/tools that patients, healthcare providers, and policymakers can use in their decision-making process. Dr. Sanders Schmidler is Past President of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) and Director of Duke's Evidence-based Practice Center (EPC) funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) since 2009. She co-chaired the Second Panel on Cost Effectiveness in Health and Medicine. Dr. Sanders Schmidler has extensive research expertise in both methodology and application of comparative effectiveness and patient-centered outcomes research and leading collaborative investigator teams to perform successful and high-quality comparative effectiveness research.
Job Titles:
- Duke - Margolis As a Policy Research Assistant
- Policy Research Assistant
- Research Team
Grace Hoover has joined Duke-Margolis as a Policy Research Assistant in Biomedical Innovation, and will be supporting the work around drug pricing and value-based payment models. Previously, Grace worked at Carolina Population Center, where she created the first database for nurse midwife reimbursement through Medicaid and explored global implications of chlorhexidine policy for umbilical cord disinfection. She was also the co-president of UNC Partners in Health-Engage, a CNA at Duke Regional Hospital, and a volunteer violin teacher for child refugees in the Chapel Hill area. Grace graduated from UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health in May 2023 with a Bachelor's in Health Policy and Management and a minor in Chemistry.
Job Titles:
- Communications Specialist
Hannah Vitello, MA, is the Institute's Communications Specialist. Hannah holds a BA in English from Webster University and received their Master's in Science Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She has worked with a range of industries, including in the health care sector for Mercy, where her writing connected potential patients to the latest treatments and technologies, and kept the company website fresh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Internationally, with the ITER Organization in France, Hannah wrote engaging and informative stories on fusion energy. They bring their talents to Duke-Margolis, where they contribute engaging and informative content about the Center's important work.
Job Titles:
- Area Lead for Institutional Research and Analytics
Hilary Campbell rejoins Duke-Margolis as an Area Lead for Institutional Research and Analytics, where her input spans the Institute's research and educational aims. On the research side, Hilary contributes to a range of timely projects, including her focus on launching the Center's 21 st century public and population health initiative. Hilary also plays a key role in strategic efforts to expand the Institute's quantitative research capabilities by growing and maintaining the Institute's analytic and data resource capacity. Additionally, she works collaboratively with our Education and Operations teams to develop strategies and manage the systematic collection, evaluation, and dissemination of metrics and data relevant to Duke-Margolis analytic and educational programs.
Hilary received her JD from Duke School of Law, her PharmD from UCSF, and brings a unique interdisciplinary perspective to her health policy work. Most recently Hilary served as Director of the North Carolina Health Professions Data System at UNC's Sheps Center for Health Services Research.
Jada Allen is majoring in Public Policy, minoring in Chemistry, and pursuing the Health Policy Certificate. She will graduate with the class of 2025 and is from Lumberton, NC. Her primary research interests are health equity in rural and BIPOC communities, nutrition and health outcomes, and investment in Native healthcare systems. In Durham, NC, she is researching hypertension and self-monitored blood pressure on a Bass Connections team and serves as an Advocate with the Community Empowerment Fund (CEF). Jada is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She is currently serving on the National Council of Urban Indian Health (NCUIH)'s Youth Council and worked to address vaccine hesitancy in her tribal community. As a Margolis Scholar, Jada is excited to collaborate with fellow Scholars and Margolis faculty to build on her knowledge and develop innovative, community-centered health policy.
Job Titles:
- Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, Verily ( Formerly Google Life Sciences )
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Team
- Assistant Research Director at the Duke
Jonathan Gonzalez-Smith is an Assistant Research Director at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy where he is responsible for helping lead the Center's work on improving health care access and outcomes for medically and socially underserved populations. His work considers how to support health system transformation at the organizational, regional, national, and international level, with particular attention to the intersection of health care policy and payment reform. His recent work includes identifying strategies for advancing safety net participation in accountable care, improving specialty care engagement in population-based payment models, and expanding access to home-based care.
Previously, Jonathan worked as the Legislative Director for Texas State Representative Terry Canales and as Program Assistant for the national think-tank Demos. He holds a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas LBJ School and a B.A. in Philosophy and International Relations from Northwestern University.
Professor Bundorf's research focuses on health policy and the economics of health care systems. She has studied public and private health insurance markets, the organization of health care providers, and consumer decision making in health care. Prior to joining the faculty at Duke, Professor Bundorf was an associate professor of health research and policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Bundorf received her MBA and MPH from The University of California at Berkeley and her PhD from The Wharton School. She was a Fulbright Lecturer at Fudan School of Public Health in Shanghai, China during 2009 and 2010. Her research has been published in leading economic and health policy journals and has received funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She received the 13th Annual Health Care Research Award from The National Institute for Health Care Management in 2007.
Job Titles:
- Policy Analyst
- Policy Analyst With the Biomedical Innovation
Kate Tsiandoulas has joined Duke-Margolis as a Policy Analyst with the Biomedical Innovation team, supporting the work on medical products development and regulations. Kate recently graduated from Johns Hopkins with a Master's in Bioethics. During graduate school she wrote her thesis on birth control misinformation on TikTok and was also a research assistant at the Berman Institute of Bioethics. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto where she graduated with a Bachelor's in Bioethics & Health Studies.
Job Titles:
- Senior Events and Marketing Manager
Job Titles:
- Founder and CEO, ADVI Health
*Duke-Margolis is a client of ADVI Health and consults with its subject matter experts on a range of technical health policy topics.
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Director, Biomedical Innovation
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant to Dr. Mark McClellan
Job Titles:
- Policy Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Policy Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Member of the Senior Team
- Research Director
Job Titles:
- CEO, Care Solutions at Optum
Job Titles:
- Vice Chairman of Investment Banking & Global Co - Head of Healthcare, Lazard
Job Titles:
- Research Director, North Carolina Health Care Transformation
Job Titles:
- Clinical Associate Professor, Louisiana State University Schools of Public Health & Medicine
Job Titles:
- Senior Research Director, Health Care Transformation
Job Titles:
- Policy Research Assistant
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Member of the Senior Team
- Research Director
Job Titles:
- President and CEO, America 's Physician Groups
Job Titles:
- Assistant
- Research Director
Job Titles:
- Policy Research Associate
Job Titles:
- Member of the Senior Team
- Research Director, Health Care Transformation for Social Needs and Health Equity