Faculty and Staff
Use the directory to the right to quickly access staff bios.You may contact all faculty and staff through the main Institute number at 202-687-0880.
Joan Alker - E-mail
See Center on Children and Families
Liz Arjun - E-mail
See Center on Children and Families
Eliza Bangit - E-mail
Eliza Bangit, M.A., is a Researcher at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. Her current research focuses on state external review of health plan decisions and the effects of pending federal patients' rights legislation. She has conducted research on managed care consumer protections and federal and state health insurance market reforms.
Prior to joining the Institute, Ms. Bangit served as Program Associate at the Institute for Health Policy Solutions, where she conducted a wide array of data research and analysis involving issues related to employer-based health insurance coverage and initiatives to expand health insurance coverage to children and families. She also provided assistance and established collaborative relationships with numerous sites and organizations developing consumer-choice purchasing alliances and cooperatives.
Ms. Bangit holds an M.A. and a B.A. from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.
Chris Bender - E-mail
Doreen Cavanaugh - E-mail
Jennifer Combs - E-mail
See Center on Children and Families
Jeffrey S. Crowley, M.P.H. is a Project Director at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University. He joined the Institute in October 2000, and is currently conducting research projects related to access to care for people with AIDS and other disabilities, with an emphasis on public health care programs.
Mr. Crowley worked for more than six years at the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA). For the last three years of his tenure there, he was the Deputy Executive Director for Programs, overseeing the organization’s public education, community development and training activities. Additionally, he conducted policy analysis and advocacy related to protecting and expanding access to health care for people living with HIV. In this capacity, he represented NAPWA as a Board Member and Health Task Force Co-Chair of the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), a coalition of more than 100 national disability organizations.
Mr. Crowley holds a master of public health (M.P.H.) from the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and a bachelor of arts from Kalamazoo College.
Judy Feder is Professor and Dean of the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. She is one of the nation's leaders in health policy--most particularly, in efforts to understand and improve the nation's health insurance system. A widely published scholar, her three decades of policy research began at the Brookings Institution, continued at the Urban Institute, and, since 1984, has flourished at Georgetown University. Her expertise on the uninsured, Medicare, Medicaid, and long-term care is regularly drawn upon by members of Congress, Executive officials, and the national media.
Feder has also held leadership policy positions, both in the Congress and in the Executive Branch. As staff director of the congressional Pepper Commission (chaired by Senator John D. Rockefeller IV), Feder is widely credited with setting the stage for the health reform debate of the 1990s. She became a key actor in that debate, as a senior official in the Clinton Administration. In her three years as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary at Health and Human Services, Feder helped shape the Administration's health care policy, working intensively with members of Congress and with the national media to promote the expansion of health care coverage.
Feder today pursues her policy leadership first and foremost by educating future policy leaders at Georgetown’s Public Policy Institute. She continues her research as co-director (with Sheila Burke) of the Georgetown University Long-term Care Financing Project and as senior advisor to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and a member of the Commonwealth Task Force on the Uninsured.
Feder is past-President and board member of AcademyHealth; a Policy Council Member of the Academy of Public Policy and Management; an elected member of the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Academy of Social Insurance
Feder is a political scientist, with a B.A. from Brandeis University (1968) and a Master's (1970) and Ph.D. (1977) from Harvard University.
Sandra Fournier - E-mail
Administrator
Robert Friedland - E-mail
Robert Friedland is Associate Research Professor at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University and the Director of the Center on an Aging Society. Friedland has had a wide range of research and public policy experience, including Chief Economist for Maryland's Medicaid program; Senior Research Associate at the Employee Benefit Research Institute; Director of the American Association of Retired Person's Public Policy Institute; Research Director, National Academy of Social Insurance; and Economist on the staff of the U.S. Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care, better known as the Pepper Commission.
Friedland has written on issues pertaining to the financing and delivery of health care and long-term care and retirement income security. His book, Facing the Costs of Long-Term Care, was awarded the 1992 Elizur Wright Award by the American Risk and Insurance Association.
Friedland is on the board of the National Academy for State Health Policy, the Long-Term Care Education Foundation, and the Editorial Board of Aging Today. Friedland received his Doctorate in Economics from the George Washington University in 1983.
Jocelyn Guyer - E-mail
See Center on Children and Families
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Jack Hoadley - E-mail
Jack Hoadley is a health policy analyst and political scientist with over 20 years experience in the health policy field. He joined Georgetown University=s Health Policy Institute in January 2002, where he is conducting research projects on health financing topics, including Medicare and Medicaid, with a particular focus on prescription drug issues. Prior to arriving at Georgetown, Dr. Hoadley held positions at the Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE); the Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC) and its successor, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC); the National Health Policy Forum at George Washington University; and in the office of U.S. Representative Barbara Kennelly.
While at Georgetown, Dr. Hoadley has undertaken projects for a variety of government and foundation clients, including MedPAC, DHHS/ASPE, the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Some projects completed for foundation sponsors have included a study of retiree health coverage for state government employees, a review of cost containment approaches for prescription drugs, the use of formularies in the Medicare drug benefit, approaches taken by state pharmaceutical assistance programs in adapting to the Medicare drug benefit, and the use of evidence-based medicine to manage pharmacy costs in Medicaid. His recent report on Medicare Part D formularies, published by the Kaiser Family Foundation, received considerable attention from both media and policymakers. He is currently working on several projects, including a study of the potential for standardizing benefits in Medicare Advantage and the Medicare drug benefit for the Commonwealth Fund and an evaluation of the new Florida Medicaid waiver for the Jessie Ball duPont Fund.
During his time in ASPE, Dr. Hoadley played a key role in the development of legislative options for Medicare modernization, especially a prescription drug benefit. He headed a Department team that released a report in April 2000, “Prescription Drug Coverage, Spending, Utilization, and Prices.” During his time at PPRC and MedPAC, Dr. Hoadley was a lead contributor to the Commission=s annual reports, including analysis of trends and developments in Medicare managed care, risk adjustment, health system reform, and Medicaid managed care
Dr. Hoadley received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1979. He taught political science at Duke University and at the State University of New York at Stony Brook before coming to Washington as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in 1983-84. He has published one book, Origins of American Political Parties, 1789-1803, and several articles in professional journals.
Dawn Horner - E-mail
See Center on Children and Families
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David Jernigan - E-mail
See Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth
Donald Jones - E-mail
Donald Jones is the Information Technologies Coordinator at the Institute. He is responsible for web design, desktop publishing, computer hardware setup and troubleshooting, purchase recommendations, Unix administration, and software support. He is also a SAS programmer on projects involving long-term care, high cost Medicare recipients, and Employment Based Health Insurance. In his time at the Institute, Mr. Jones also co-authored a report on Medicare+Choice with Geraldine Dallek.
Mr. Jones recieved a B.S. in Social Studies Education from The Ohio State University in 1995 and a M.A. in Communications, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University in 2007.
Theresa Jordan - E-mail
Executive Assistant
Mila Kofman - E-mail
Mila Kofman is an Associate Research Professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. She conducts a range of studies on the uninsured and underinsured problems focusing on private market reforms, regulation, access, affordability, adequacy of job-based and individual health coverage, cost-shifting, and financing strategies including health savings accounts, association health plans, discount medical cards, and new product designs including consumer driven health care. Ms. Kofman is a published author whose work includes a report on health insurance scams (published by BNA) and articles on state and federal health insurance reforms in peer review journals. She has presented on these topics to a wide range of audiences including elected officials, regulators, insurance industry, and consumer groups. She has also testified before the U.S. Senate and state legislatures. She has served as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases involving health insurance scams and unauthorized insurance. In 2005, Ms. Kofman was appointed co-editor for the Journal of Insurance Regulation (a peer reviewed journal).
She is recognized (and cited) as a national expert on insurance regulation, unauthorized insurance, and ERISA by the National Public Radio, CNN, CNN Financial, CBS Evening News, BusinessWeek, Consumer Reports, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, U.S. News and World Report, Associated Press, AM Best, and other national and trade press.
Ms. Kofman was appointed to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) Consumer Participation Board of Trustees in 2002 for a 2-year term and reappointed in 2004 and 2006. She also serves on the Board of Directors for URAC (a health care accreditation firm).
Ms. Kofman was a federal regulator at the U.S. Department of Labor from 1997 to 2001. She worked with federal and state legislators developing health care initiatives and worked on federal legislation concerning managed care reform, access and association health plans, retiree health, Medicare prescription drug coverage, tax credits, and other proposals affecting private health coverage. Ms. Kofman developed guidance to implement HIPAA and other federal reforms. In the fall of 2000, she was a special assistant to the Senior Health Care Advisor to the President at the Domestic Policy Council at the White House assisting with legislative and regulatory health care reform initiatives including the Patient’s Bill of Rights, long-term care insurance, nursing home reform, and ERISA reform. In March 2000, Ms. Kofman was honored with the Labor Secretary’s Exceptional Achievement Award.
Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Ms. Kofman was Counsel for Health Policy and Regulation at the Institute for Health Policy Solutions (IHPS). She researched and analyzed state initiatives on access, cost, and quality of health insurance for small businesses and individuals. She also worked with employer purchasing coalitions. Prior to joining IHPS, Ms. Kofman worked at the NAIC and a private law firm.
Ms. Kofman holds a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park (summa cum laude).
Harriet Komisar - E-mail
Harriet L. Komisar, Ph.D., is an Associate Research Professor at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University. She is an economist with more than fifteen years experience researching topics related to health care financing and policy. Since joining Georgetown University in 1996, and previously at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, she has analyzed health sector data and prepared quantitative and qualitative evaluations of the effects, or potential effects, of policy changes. She has considerable experience communicating findings to a broad audience through journal articles, reports, chart books, and fact sheets.
Dr. Komisar’s current research focuses on assessing the needs of the long-term care population and evaluating the capacity of current and alternative politics to address those needs. She has a major role in the Georgetown University Long-Term Care Financing Project, which involves research on problems in long-term care financing and the analysis of policy options to address those problems. Her other current and recent projects examine the lifetime risk of long-term care needs and costs, unmet long-term care needs of Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles, Medicare’s new prescription drug benefit, and the effects of changes in Medicare’s home health policy. Before joining Georgetown, Dr. Komisar was a principal analyst at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office where she worked on a range of issues related to Medicare policy. Dr. Komisar holds a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University.
Jennifer Libster - E-mail
Mr. Lucia, an Assistant Research Professor, joined the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute in June of 2001. His research interests include a wide range of issues associated with the uninsured problem. Specifically, his research focus is on consumer protections in the regulation of the health insurance sold through the private health insurance markets. Mr. Lucia has written about access, affordability, adequacy of job-based and individual health coverage, consumer protections in health insurance under federal and state law, the external review of medical decisions and regulation of the health insurance sold through associations.
Mr. Lucia holds a law degree from The George Washington School of Law. He received a BS and MHP from Northeastern University.
Cindy Mann - E-mail
See Center on Children and Families
Leyland McGann - E-mail
Toni McRae - E-mail
Administrative Assistant/Receptionist
Kate Miller - E-mail
Kate Miller, M.A., is the Project Manager for the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute (HPI). She has worked at HPI since January 2006. Prior to joining the center, she worked for Georgetown Liberal Studies Program in student affairs, and completed an externship at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Baltimore working closely with patients with Alzheimer’s disease and their caretakers. Ms. Miller received a B.A. in Organizational Development from Rollins College. She holds a M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Argosy University, and is current taking courses within the Georgetown Liberal Studies program for an M.A.L.S with a concentration on ethics within professions.
Michael Odeh - E-mail
See Center on Children and Families
Karen Pollitz is a Research Professor at the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. There she directs research on health insurance reform issues as they affect consumers and patients. Her areas of focus include regulation of private health insurance plans and markets, managed care consumer protections, and access to affordable health insurance. She is also an adjunct professor in Georgetown’s Graduate Public Policy School. Her projects include the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Consumer Guides Project and the Consumer Healthcare Education Project.
Prior to joining the Institute faculty, Ms. Pollitz served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Legislation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 1993 to 1997. In this capacity she was the Secretary’s legislative liaison on all federal health care issues, including national health care reform, Medicare, Medicaid, and U.S. Public Health Service agencies and programs.
From 1984 to 1991, Ms. Pollitz worked as a health policy advisor to Members of Congress. She was legislative assistant to Senator John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV), Congressman Sander Levin (D-MI), and the Subcommittee on Compensation and Employee Benefits of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. After leaving the Hill, Ms. Pollitz worked as the Assistant Director of the Washington Office of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and taught at the Marymount University School of Business.
Ms. Pollitz holds an M.P.P. from the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. with Honors from Oberlin College.
Joy Pritts - E-mail
Joy Pritts is an Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute. Her primary area of research is the privacy of medical information, including individuals’ access to their own medical information. Ms. Pritts conducts legal research and analysis on both state and federal privacy laws. Her current research is focused on the implementation of the Federal Health Privacy Rule (also known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule), the interplay of the federal and state privacy laws, and the access to and use of medical information by financial institutions.
Ms. Pritts writes and speaks extensively on medical privacy issues .She is the primary author of The State of Health Privacy: An Uneven Terrain, a survey of state health privacy statutes, written while she was Senior Counsel at the Health Privacy Project, formerly associated with Georgetown. She has testified before Congress on issues related to privacy and the commercial use of medical information.
Ms. Pritts holds a law degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where she was an associate editor of the law review. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Joseph Schmidt - E-mail
See Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth
Kristin Schwarz - E-mail
Accounts Analyst
Laura Summer - E-mail
Laura Summer is a Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. She has over 25 years of experience in the federal government, state government, independent policy organizations and academic institutions. She directs research that examines the manner in which states design, administer, and operate publicly financed health and long-term care programs. The focus of much of Laura’s recent work has been on methods to increase enrollment in public programs for moderate and low-income Americans. She has written extensively about access to health insurance and health and long-term care for populations of all ages, as well as about the operation of the Medicaid and Medicare programs. Ms. Summer served as the Deputy Director for the Institute’s Center on an Aging Society for six years. Prior to joining the Georgetown faculty, Summer was a policy consultant to a number of Washington-based organizations and spent several years as a health policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. She holds a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan.
Jennifer Thompson - E-mail
Jen Thompson is a research associate at the Georgetown Health Policy Institute, working primarily on projects related to Medicare and Medicaid. She holds a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University and a A.B. in American History from Harvard University.
Tricia Waller - E-mail
Financial Analyst
Tim Westmoreland - E-mail
Tim Westmoreland is a Research Professor at the Institute and a Visiting Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. From 1979 through 1995, Professor Westmoreland served as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment in the U.S. House of Representatives. From 1995 through 1999, he was the Senior Policy Fellow at the Law Center's Federal Legislation Clinic. From mid-1999 through January 2001, Professor Westmoreland was the Director of the Medicaid program for the Federal government. He has worked extensively on public health and health finance policy. Professor Westmoreland was counsel to the Advisory Committee on Tobacco Policy and Public Health and an advisor to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Professor Westmoreland holds a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University and a J.D. from Yale University.
Philip Zorn - E-mail
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