Faculty & Staff

Joel C. Cantor, ScD is the director of the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy and a distinguished professor of public policy at the Rutgers Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Dr. Cantor is a national leader in health policy and services research and focuses his work on informing and evaluating innovations in health services financing and delivery for Medicaid beneficiaries and other groups experiencing health-related social needs and other barriers to high quality health services.

Margaret Koller, MS, is the Executive Director at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Ms. Koller serves as the Center’s Chief Operating Officer who oversees the development and management of the Center’s research portfolio, compliance with financial and data use agreements and leads the engagement with the Governor’s Office and state agency policy leadership on projects of mutual interest.

Erica L. Eliason, PhD, MPH (she/her/hers) is an Assistant Professor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy and the Department of Urban-Global Public Health in the Rutgers School of Public Health.

David M. Frankford, JD, serves as the Faculty Director at Camden of the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. He is also a professor with appointments at Rutgers Law School and the Rutgers Institute for Health.

Ann M. Nguyen, PhD, MPH, is an Assistant Research Professor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Dr. Nguyen also serves as affiliate faculty in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Jose Nova, MS, is an Associate Director of Data & Analytics at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Mr. Nova is experienced in data analytics, healthcare quality, data integration, health systems performance and improvement and focuses much of his work on leading the Center’s data analytics team, providing data management, statistical analysis and other support.

John S. Palatucci, PhD, MPA, is an Assistant Research Professor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

Kate Scotto MA, CPA, is the Assistant Director of Program Planning at Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. In this capacity, she oversees the strategic management of the Center’s funding portfolio, including oversight of the Center’s grants and contracts and overall budget.

Mara Getz Sheftel is an Instructor (Tenure Track) at the Rutgers University Institute for Health, Health Policy and Aging and in the Rutgers School of Public Health.

Mandi Spishak-Thomas, PhD, MSW, LCSW is an Assistant Research Professor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

Frank J. Thompson, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Administration Emeritus at Rutgers-Newark and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. He also serves as co-editor of the Tracking Health Reform section of the Journal of Health Policy, Politics, and Law.

Dan Treglia, PhD, MPP, is an Instructor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Dr. Treglia also serves as an Instructor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at the Robert Wood Johnson School of Medicine.

Michael J. Yedidia, PhD, is a Professor and Senior Medical Sociologist at the Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy and the Institute for Health.

Manisha Agrawal, MPH, is a Senior Research Analyst at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, where she provides research and project management support for several ongoing projects.

Jolene Chou, MPH, is a Senior Research Analyst at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Her responsibilities range from data analysis to synthesis of findings, and she supports various research efforts at the Center.

Jennifer Farnham, MS, is a Senior Research Analyst at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

Yasmeen Khellah, MPH, CPH, is a Research Project Coordinator at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

Oliver Lontok, MD, MPH, MBA, is a Senior Research Manager at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Dr. Lontok is experienced in qualitative research methods and research administration and compliance and focuses much of his work on IRB submissions, conflicts of interest, compliance, pre and post award research activities.

Joshua Lue, MPH, is a Data Analyst at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

Matt Mleczko is a Post-Doctoral Associate jointly appointed at the Center for State Health Policy and the Ralph W. Voorhees Center for Civic Engagement in the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

Mojdeh Nasiri, MD, PhD, is a Research Analyst at the Center for State Health Policy. Dr. Nasiri is experienced in data management and statistical analysis and focuses much of her work on quantitative analysis of health systems performance and healthcare quality measures.

Allison Oh, MPH is a Research Coordinator at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy.

Julian Rodriguez, B.S., is a Research Analyst at Rutgers University, working on the New Jersey Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project and Medicaid data initiatives.

Jonathan Whitmore, BA, is a Data Analyst at the Center for State Health Policy, where he is deployed to work within the Medicaid Office of Business Intelligence at the New Jersey Department of Human Services.

Jacob Yun, MS, is a Data Analyst at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. He is experienced in data management and biostatistical modelling across various health data types, such as clinical, epidemiological, and genomic data.

Joseph Brecht, MA, is a Communication Coordinator at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. He is experienced in digital content creation and strategy and focuses much of his work on managing the Center’s social media presence.

Angelina Lowder, MHA, is the Executive Assistant to Dr. Joel Cantor, Director, and Margaret Koller, Executive Director at Rutgers, Center for State Health Policy.

Tara Adams Ragone is an Assistant Professor in Seton Hall Law’s Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy.

Derek DeLia, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Bloustein School.

Michael K. Gusmano is a Professor of Health Policy the College of Health at Lehigh University. He also serves as the Associate Dean for Academic Programs, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Lehigh.

Dr. Shawna Hudson is Vice Chancellor for Dissemination and Implementation Science for Rutgers Health and Senior Associate Dean for Population Health Research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Professor John Jacobi's work is primarily in the areas of Health, Finance, Insurance, and Access; Mental Health Law; and Disability Law.

Ashley Koning is the director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling (ECPIP), the oldest statewide university-based survey research center in the country.

Dawne M. Mouzon (Ph.D., Rutgers University, 2010) is an Associate Professor of Sociology and engages in research that seeks to identify and explain risk and protective factors for the physical and mental health of populations of African descent.

Felix Muchomba is an Assistant Professor of Social Work. He is broadly interested in examining how social policies and institutions influence the well-being of girls and women.

Punam Ohri-Vachaspati is a professor of nutrition at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University, where she leads the ASU Food Policy and Environment Research Group.

Emmy Tiderington, PhD, MSW, LMSW, is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and Associate Faculty at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, & Aging Research at Rutgers.

Dr. Tsui is an Associate Professor in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine at USC.

Sharifa Z. Williams, MS, DrPH, joined the Bloustein School in September 2022. Her research interests include biostatistical methods applied to identifying and quantifying health disparities that arise from exposure to structural adversity.