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The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program is a two-year fellowship targeted to outstanding new PhDs in economics, political science, and sociology to advance their involvement in health policy research.

The program enables up to 9 individuals to spend two years at one of three nationally prominent universities, Harvard University, the University of California at Berkeley (in collaboration with the University of California at San Francisco), and The University of Michigan.  

The program is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2013-2015 fellowship awards.

University of California, Berkeley/University of California, San Francisco

  • Erica Czaja (Political Science), Princeton University PhD (2013)
  • Tara McKay (Sociology), UCLA PhD (2013)
  • Matthew Niedzwiecki (Economics), UC San Diego PhD (2013)

Harvard University

  • Joanna Brooks (Sociology), U. Pennsylvania PhD (2013)
  • Daniel Navon (Sociology), Columbia University PhD (2013)
  • Sarah Staszak (Political Science), Brandeis University PhD (2010), Assistant Professor, City College of New York-CUNY

University of Michigan

  • Colleen Carey (Economics), Johns Hopkins PhD (2013)
  • S. Michael Gaddis (Sociology), U. North Carolina PhD (2013)
  • Robert McGrath (Political Science), University of Iowa PhD (2011), Assistant Professor, George Mason University

Interested in Applying?

To receive our next Call for Applications (CFA) in July 2013. 

Go to CONTACT US , enter your email and type CFA into the Message area.

Find Us On The Web

      

Video: About the Program

”Someone said ‘Wow the Health Policy Program is like putting a scholar into a cannon and shooting them out like a rocket’. I tend to agree with that. "
Rashawn Ray
Alumni|Cohort 17|Sociology

Watch the About the Program Video

Featured Scholars

Benjamin Hertzberg Ph.D.
Cohort 18
Harvard University
Dr. Hertzberg received a Ph.D. in political science at Duke University in 2011.  His primary research interests are in the fields of political theory and religion and politics.  His dissertation develops a political liberal ethics of citizenship that reconciles conflicting religious and civic obligations concerning political participation and deliberation.  He defends norms for democratic decision-making that allow citizens to make religious and other controversial arguments in public political discussions while preserving citizens' commitments to liberal-democratic legitimacy, commitments that underlie protection for citizens' basic rights and liberties.  Benjamin plans to consider the normative implications of religious conflicts in health policy while a fellow in the program.
Kurt Lavetti Ph.D.
Cohort 18
University of California, Berkeley/UCSF
Dr. Lavetti received a Ph.D. in economics from Cornell University in 2011.  His primary research interests are in labor and health economics, with an emphasis on physician labor supply.  Currently, his research investigates the effects of exclusivity and non-compete contracts on the distribution of physicians and organization of practices, the relationship between physicians’ geographic labor supply decisions and physician quality, and strategic formulary design in the Medicare Part D prescription drug insurance market.  His prior research focused on the identification of compensating wage differentials, with empirical applications to the estimation of the price of occupational fatality risk and the implied value of statistical life.  
Daniel Myers Ph.D.
Cohort 18
University of Michigan
Dr. Myers received his Ph.D. in political science from Princeton University in 2011 and is interested in political psychology, political communication, and experimental methods. His research focuses on democratic deliberation as a form of civic engagement. This work draws on political psychology, political communication and game theory to examine what happens when citizens deliberate and how to design deliberative institutions. His second line of research examines the role of storytelling in political communication. He is currently working on projects examining how narratives in political communication can change attitudes, how the pre-discussion distribution of information affects the quality of deliberation, and how to optimally structure deliberative forums that are used in health policy-making.
Robert Vargas Ph.D.
Cohort 19
Harvard University
Dr. Vargas received a Ph.D. in sociology from Northwestern University in 2012. His primary research interests are in the fields of urban sociology and criminology. He is currently completing a book manuscript examining the role of the State in the reproduction of neighborhood violence in a low-income Chicago neighborhood. As a scholar, he plans to study the diffusion of health information through smart phone technology in poor neighborhoods. After completing the program, he will assume a position as Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Reed Walker Ph.D.
Cohort 19
University of California, Berkeley/UCSF
Dr. Walker received a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University in 2012. His research consists primarily of themes pertaining to the fields of public and labor economics in the context of environmental and health policy. In his dissertation, he explores the social costs of environmental disamenities such as air pollution and how regulations to limit these pollutants interact with firm and worker behavior. Ongoing work explores the interactions between environmental policy, health policy, and social policy in the United States. After completing the Program, he will take a position as an assistant professor at the University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business.
Boris Shor Ph.D.
Cohort 18
University of California, Berkeley/UCSF
Dr. Shor holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University and is currently on leave from the University of Chicago, where he is an assistant professor at the Harris School of Public Policy Studies. His research focuses on ideology and political parties in American legislatures. One current project focuses on how well state legislatures and congressional delegations represent the ideological preferences of citizens at the micro and macro levels. Another seeks to find the roots of political polarization at the state level, as well as its policy consequences. He is interested in explaining the voting behavior of individual state legislators in health policy, and collectively, the vastly different choice states make.
Francisco Pedraza Ph.D.
Cohort 19
University of Michigan
Dr. Pedraza holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington, and currently is on leave from Texas A&M University, where he is an assistant professor in the Political Science Department.  The central inquiry underlying his research is how members of marginalized groups, particularly ethnic/racial minority groups and immigrants, integrate politically in the United States.  Current projects focus on trust toward government and how that relates to perceptions of health policy and health care providers.  He is also working on the development of Latino political identity and political orientations.
Sarah Miller Ph.D.
Cohort 19
University of Michigan
Dr. Miller received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2012. Her research fields are public economics and health economics. Her dissertation examines the effect of the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform on emergency room use. After completing the Program, she will assume a position as Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Notre Dame.
Jamila Michener Ph.D.
Cohort 18
University of Michigan
Dr. Michener received her Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago in 2011. She specializes in the field of American politics, with a particular focus on the political consequences of economic and racial inequality. She is currently working on a book that examines how and why Medicaid matters for the politics of the poor. Following the program, she will join the faculty at Cornell University as an assistant professor in the Department of Government.
Tiffany Joseph Ph.D.
Cohort 18
Harvard University
Dr. Joseph received her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Michigan. Her primary research interests include: comparative frameworks of race in the Americas, the impact of immigration on the US racial system, minority and immigrant health, and the experiences of faculty of color and women in academia. Dr. Joseph’s current project explores how documentation status influences the health and healthcare access of Latino immigrants in the Boston metropolitan area. After program completion, she will begin an Assistant Professor of Sociology position at Stony Brook University.

View all current scholars...