The People of GCHEPR
Researchers
Erica received her BA in Economics from Wellesley College and her MSW and PhD in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley. She was a Hartford Doctoral Fellow in Geriatric Social Work. Erica's dissertation concerned activity participation of retirees — the pattern and factors influencing post-retirement participation. Her research interests include the outcome of mental health policy changes, the role of social capital for older adults, and the economic and physical well-being of retirees.
Chandrakala received her PhD from the Department of Health Policy and Administration from Penn State University. She also holds a Bachelor's in Pharmacy and a Post Graduate Diploma in Pharmaceutical Management from universities in India. Her doctoral dissertation examined the prescription drug use for Alzheimer's disease by Medicare beneficiaries. Her research interests include (a) economics of aging and mental health, (b) effects of health care technology, (c) prescription drugs, (d) Medicare policy, and (e) disparities research. She has also worked for over three years in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, prior to obtaining her doctorate.
Past Researchers
Christine Brown-Mahoney, PhD
Christine Brown-Mahoney, PhD received her PhD in from the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management. She also holds an AA in nursing, a BS in animal science and genetics, and an MS in quantitative genetics and statistics. Her PhD examined the labor supply of registered nurses. She has designed, analyzed, and reported on data in clinical trials, on patients' surgical outcomes, technology changes and costs, healthcare workers labor supply, and meta-analyses. Chris has published over 40 of these in peer refereed journals and presented at over 100 conferences internationally. Chris has consulted extensively with medical device companies, government agencies, and hospitals and clinics. She taught statistics to graduate students for 15 years at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Chris is currently Assistant Professor of Health Care Administration, Dept. of Management & Labor Relations, Nance College of Business Administration, at Cleveland State University.
Cheryl Cashin, PhD received her BA in Chemistry from Bucknell University, her Master's in Agriculture from Cornell and her PhD in Economics from the University of Washington. She is a specialist in health financing policy research, design, and implementation. As Director of a health reform program funded by the US Agency for International Development, she advised the government of the Republic of Georgia on national health care financing policy design and implementation. She also managed integrated health policy programs in the Republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, providing technical assistance to national health financing policy development and implementation, including national health insurance, and designing and implementing health financing, service delivery, and provider payment systems. She has led the design, implementation, and analysis of household and health facility surveys to support health policy development and monitoring and evaluation in Central Asia, and participated on research teams for a series of studies of the cost-effectiveness of health and nutrition interventions in Latin America.
Jangho Yoon, PhD, MSPH
Jangho Yoon, PhD, MSPH received his MSPH and PhD degrees in health policy and economics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His primary research interests are health economics, the evaluation of mental health policies and laws, financing and delivery of health care for vulnerable populations, social capital, and applications of advanced econometric techniques to mental health services research. His current research topics include (1) relationships between the supply of mental health care, mental health outcomes, substance abuse, and criminal justice outcomes, (2) intra-and inter-system impacts of mental health financing including an examination of the relationship between managed behavioral health care, up-coding, and cost-shifting to the criminal justice system, (3) inter-relationship between physical and mental health, (4) social capital and health outcomes such as healthy lifestyles, obesity and mental health, and (5) the evaluation of the California Mental Health Service Act. Jangho is currently Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, at Georgia Southern University.
Tim-Allen Bruckner, PhD
Tim-Allen Bruckner, PhD received his BA in Biology from Dartmouth College and his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of California at Berkeley. His research investigates population responses to ambient events (e.g., policy change, perturbations in the social/economic environment). Key projects as an AHRQ Postdoctoral Fellow include evaluating involuntary civil commitments in California following the enactment of Proposition 63 / Mental Health Services Act; and examining determinants of ethnic disparities in medication use for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Tim's doctoral dissertation focused on economic antecedents of parenting behavior and infant mortality due to SIDS and accidents. He is currently Assistant Professor within the College of Health Sciences, Public Health and the Department of Planning, Policy, and Design at the University of California, Irvine.
Gordon C. Shen, MSc
Gordon C. Shen, MSc is completing his Health Services and Policy Analysis Ph.D. at the UC Berkeley Petris Center. He received his bachelor's degree in Psychobiology and Public Health from UCLA and master's degree in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. Gordon has conducted both neuroimaging and psychiatric epidemiology research. His nascent research interests include the evaluation of the Mental Health Services Act of California, mental health care for disaster victims and public mental health issues in general.