University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Department of Public Policy e-News
No. 14 – June 2010
| Program Highlight: Health Policy |  |
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The health policy education and research activities at UMBC focus on finding solutions to the critical problems facing our health care system. Health policy is the largest study concentration in the public policy program, accounting for 35% of PhD degrees and 18% of MPP degrees awarded since the program began. Students study topics such as health care finance and delivery, the politics of health, and social epidemiology. Our nationally recognized health policy faculty include Dr. Nancy Miller, Dr. David Salkever and Dr. Adele Kirk.
The Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR), the University’s center for policy-related social science research, conducts sponsored research on a range of health policy topics including disabilities, domestic violence and disparities in health care delivery. The Center for Aging Studies, administered by MIPAR, examines the sociocultural dimensions of aging, such as physician/older patient interactions. MIPAR often partners with The Hilltop Institute, UMBC’s health services research center, on research projects. Hilltop is also providing analysis and technical assistance to Governor Martin O’Malley’s Health Care Reform Coordinating Council.
Through partnerships across campus and with agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Social Security Administration and the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, UMBC faculty, researchers and students are using their knowledge to improve health care systems and enhance the quality of life for all populations.
Faculty
The UMBC Graduate Student Association awarded Dr. Dave Marcotte (Public Policy) the 2010 Donald Creighton Outstanding Faculty Award. This award honors an outstanding advisor, mentor, or professor who strives to aid graduate students in their academic and professional pursuits during their time at UMBC.
Dr. Donald F. Norris (Public Policy) appeared on WYPR’s Midday with Dan Rodericks on May 17. He discussed the decline in the population of Baltimore City and what would make city life more appealing to the middle class in order to increase the population.
Students
Two Public Policy students participated in the UMBC Graduate School’s PROF-it (Professors in Training) program this year as Teaching Fellows at the Community College of Baltimore (CCBC). Teaching fellows work with CCBC faculty mentors, attend workshops and then apply and interview for teaching positions. Ph.D. student Brent Gibbons and MPP student Veronika Peleshchuk Fradlin taught statistics courses at CCBC in spring 2010.
Doctoral candidate Frances Carter received a Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Dissertation Fellowship award for 2010. Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the SREB provides fellowships and other support to minority doctoral graduate students.
Alumni
Rebecca Missel (MPP, 2006), Grants and Marketing Manager for the Jewish Family Service of Metrowest, is the recipient of the 2010 Leo Brody Award in Jewish Communal Service. This award is presented annually by the New Jersey Association of Jewish Communal Service to recognize the achievements of a young professional who has chosen to establish a career in Jewish communal service.
The UMBC Magazine featured the dissertation research of Dr. M. Cosar Unal (Ph.D., 2009) in an article in the Summer 2010 edition. Dr. Unal, who is an intelligence official with the Turkish National Police, researched the effects of the Turkish government’s antiterrorism policies against violence perpetrated by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
New Publications
Dr. Tim Brennan discusses how the opening and deregulation of electricity markets has affected prices, consumers and reliability in his article “Assessing electricity markets: prospects and pitfalls,” Issues of the Day: 100 Commentaries on Climate, Energy, the Environment, Transportation and Public Health Policy, Part 2, Energy Policies. Resources for the Future (2010).
An article by Dr. Todd Eberly (Ph.D., 2006, St. Mary’s College), Dr. Cheryl Miller (Associate Dean in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences) and Dr. Amy Davidoff (University of Maryland, Baltimore), examined whether racial and ethnic disparities exist for children and adolescents under managed care through Medicaid. “Managing the gap: evaluating the impact of Medicaid managed care on preventive care receipt by child and adolescent minority populations,” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, Black History Month Issue, Volume 21, No. 1 , February 2010.
Ph.D. student Pradeep Guin and Dr. Indrani Gupta make a case for a more diverse set of international aid measures to control, prevent and treat communicable diseases in a article titled. “Communicable diseases in the South-East Asia region of the World Health Organization,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Volume 88, No. 3, March 2010.
A new book by Dr. Bernadette Hanlon (Ph.D., 2007, Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education), Dr. John Rennie Short (Public Policy), and Dr. Thomas J. Vicino (Ph.D., 2006, Northeastern University) explores the changing dynamics of cities and suburbs. Cities and Suburbs: New Metropolitan Realities in the U.S. Routledge (2009).
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Visit the Public Policy home page for more information about our program, research and activities.
Department of Public Policy • University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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