Stanford Health Policy

Douglas K. Owens, MD, Department Chair, Health Policy, SOM; Director, Stanford Health Policy, FSI

Douglas K. Owens is the Henry J. Kaiser, Jr. Professor, Chair of the Department of Health Policy in the Stanford School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Health Policy (CHP) in the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI.) Owens is a general internist, and Professor of Management Science and Engineering, by courtesy, at Stanford University; he is also a Senior Fellow at FSI. His research focuses on technology assessment, cost-effectiveness analysis, evidence synthesis, and methods for clinical decision making and guideline development.

Alyce S. Adams, PhD, MPP, Associate Chair for Health Equity and Community Engagement

Alyce S. Adams is the Stanford Medicine Innovation Professor, a Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health, of Health Policy, and of Pediatrics (Endocrinology and Diabetes), by courtesy in the Stanford School of Medicine. She is the Associate Chair for Health Equity and Community Engagement in the Department of Health Policy as well as an Associate Director of Stanford Impact Labs and of Community Outreach and Engagement in the Stanford Cancer Institute. Focusing on racial and socioeconomic disparities in chronic disease treatment outcomes, Dr. Adams' interdisciplinary research seeks to inform health system and policy level solutions to promote equitable chronic disease treatment outcomes among older adults with multiple chronic conditions.

Laurence C. Baker, PhD, Associate Chair for Education

Laurence Baker is the Bing Professor of Human Biology, a Professor of Health Policy and the Associate Chair for Education in the department, and a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is an economist interested in the organization and economic performance of the U.S. health-care system, and his research has investigated a range of topics including financial incentives in health care, competition in health-care markets, health insurance and managed care, and health-care technology adoption. Baker is a past recipient of the ASHE medal from ASHEcon and the Alice Hersch Award from AcademyHealth. He received his BA from Calvin College, and his MA and PhD in economics from Princeton University.

Joshua Salomon, PhD, Associate Chair for Academic Affairs and Strategy

Joshua Salomon is a Professor of Health Policy and the Associate Chair for Academic Affairs and Strategy in the department, and a Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. His research focuses on measurement and valuation of health outcomes; modeling patterns and trends in major causes of global mortality and disease burden; and evaluation of health interventions and policies. He is an investigator on projects funded by the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, relating to modeling of infectious and chronic diseases and associated intervention strategies; methods for economic evaluation of public health programs; measurement of the global burden of disease; and assessment of the potential impact and cost effectiveness of new health technologies. He is Director of the Prevention Policy Modeling Lab, a multi-institution research consortium that conducts health and economic modeling relating to infectious disease.

Erin Holsinger, MD, MS, Administrative Director of the MS, PhD Programs

Erin Holsinger is a Lecturer in the Department of Health Policy and a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. In Health Policy, she is a co-director of the Health Services and Policy Research Scholarly Concentration in the School of Medicine and the Administrative Director of the Health Policy MS and PhD programs. In Pediatrics, she is an attending physician at the Gardner Packard Children’s Health Clinic. She is a member of Stanford’s LongSHOT (Longitudinal Study of Handgun Ownership and Transfer) team and performs research about the impact of gun ownership on the risk of death for the gun owner and those who live with them. 

Ben Priestley, MPH, Director of Finance and Administration, Health Policy; Associate Director, Stanford Health Policy, FSI

Ben Priestley provides leadership and oversight for financial operations, strategic planning, human resources, grant and contract administration, academic affairs, and facilities/space planning. Ben has expertise in interventional clinical research operations and management, specifically in cancer trials. His interest and career in public health began in the field of Parkinson’s Disease research. He received his MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and his BS in Cognitive Science from University of California San Diego.

Maya Rossin-Slater, PhD, Director of the PhD Program

Maya Rossin-Slater is an Associate Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic and Policy Research (SIEPR), a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA). She received her PhD in Economics from Columbia University in 2013, and was an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara from 2013 to 2017, prior to coming to Stanford. Rossin-Slater’s research includes work in health, public, and labor economics. She focuses on issues in maternal and child well-being, family structure and behavior, and policies targeting disadvantaged populations in the United States and other developed countries.

Maria Polyakova, PhD, Director of the Masters Program

Maria Polyakova, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Health Policy at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Her research investigates questions surrounding the role of government in the design and financing of health insurance systems. She is especially interested in the relationships between public policies and individuals’ decision-making in health care and health insurance, as well as in the risk protection and re-distributive aspects of health insurance systems. She received a BA degree in Economics and Mathematics from Yale University, and a PhD in Economics from MIT.