Alison Evans Cuellar

Associate Professor

Health care systems, Medicaid, Mental health, Justice involved populations

Dr. Cuellar, Associate Professor of Health Administration and Policy, has extensive research experience in health care systems, Medicaid, mental health, and justice involved populations. Her contributions include work on identifying and evaluating new organizational forms, such as hospital systems and physician alliances, and their effects on quality, efficiency, costs, prices, and technology adoption. In other work supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, she has examined the intersection of behavioral health and the juvenile justice systems; on Medicaid policies and their impact on justice-involved youth and youth with behavioral health problems; on mental health courts as an innovative alternative for juvenile delinquents; and on health care services for incarcerated youth and adults returning to the community.  She was a member of a national collaborative Mental Health Policy network supported by the MacArthur Foundation. She also was co-investigator on a pediatric health needs assessment in Washington, D.C. with a special focus on vulnerable and minority populations. In addition, she spent the 2005-06 academic year as a visiting economist to the U.S. Department of Justice. She is co-editor of the Economic Grand Rounds column in the journal Psychiatric Services. Her work has been published in several journals, including Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Journal of Health Economics, American Journal of Public Health, Health Affairs, Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, American Journal of Psychiatry and Psychiatric Services, among others.  Previously, Dr. Cuellar was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University.

Education

• Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley, 2001
• M.B.A., University of Texas at Austin, 1989
• B.A., University of Texas at Austin with Highest Honors, 1987

Research

2011-2012

Grants & Contracts

“Health Impact Assessment to Foster Healthy Community Design.” U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011, Cuellar (PI), $104,224.