HEAL Prevention Cooperative Webinar Series: From Programs to Policy: The Role of Economic Evaluation in Prevention

Max Crowley, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, and Public Policy, Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University

Dr. Max Crowley is a prevention scientist investigating how to optimize investments in healthy development—with a focus on preventive strategies to reduce substance misuse and delinquent behavior. Dr. Crowley directs the Evidence-to-Impact Collaborative (EIC), a center of the Social Science Research Institute, focused on the “science of scientific impact.” The EIC supports the translation of scientific knowledge to public policy and budgets.  The EIC’s Social Investment Optimizer supports research on the costs, benefits and return-on-investment of social and health interventions. The Optimizer provides infrastructure support to the Prevention Economics Planning and Research Network that supports methods development, demonstration and dissemination. The Optimizer also provides partnership and consultation on programs, policies and practices in a wide array of settings.

Sarah Q. Duffy Ph.D., Associate Director for Economics Research in the Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Dr. Sarah Q. Duffy is principally responsible for NIDA's economics, opioid use disorder treatment services research, substance use disorder treatment quality measurement and management, and recovery support services research portfolios. As part of her work, she has authored or co-authored book chapters, manuscripts, and helped develop guidelines on economic evaluation methods, including, with Drs. Crowley and Kuklinski, the “Standards of Evidence for Conducting and Reporting Economic Evaluations in Prevention Science.” (DOI 10.1007/s11121-017-0858-1). Dr. Duffy received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of North Carlina at Chapel Hill and worked previously at the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and The State of Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission.

Laura Dunlap, Ph.D., Vice President, Community Health Research Division, RTI International

Dr. Laura J. Dunlap is Vice President of RTI International’s Community Health Research Division. She has over 25 years of experience evaluating behavioral health services, especially services for individuals at risk for or with opioid use disorders. Dr. Dunlap’s main research interests have focused on examining economic factors associated with substance use and its treatment and conducting economic evaluations (e.g., cost, cost-effectiveness analyses) of community-based behavioral health interventions. She currently serves as a senior economist on several studies funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Dunlap was a contributing author to the report Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health. She has published her research in multiple health, public health, and addiction journals. Dr. Dunlap received her Ph.D. in health policy and administration from the University of North Carlina at Chapel Hill and her M.A. in economics from the University of Chicago.

Olga Khavjou, MA, Senior Program Manager, Health Economics Program, RTI International

Olga Khavjou is an economist in RTI International’s Health Economics Program with more than 20 years of experience in the field of health economics. She has extensive experience developing cost collection instruments for many individual- and community-level public health programs and providing training and technical assistance to program staff at the federal, state, and local levels on how to track, collect, report, and analyze program costs. Ms. Khavjou has co-authored a Guide to Analyzing the Cost-Effectiveness of Community Prevention Approaches and has conducted a number of cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit evaluations for public health programs, results of which have been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Margaret Kuklinski, PhD, Associate Professor and Director, Social Development Research Group, School of Social Work, University of Washington.

Dr. Margaret Kuklinski is a prevention scientist and health economist whose work focuses on promoting healthy behaviors and positive developmental outcomes in young people through evidence-based preventive intervention. As a health economist, she has helped set methodological standards for cost, benefit-cost, and cost-effectiveness analyses of interventions for children, youth, and families. Dr. Kuklinski has also led health economic studies of several community-based and family-focused preventive interventions, including Communities That Care, the Family Check-Up, and Promoting First Relationships. She currently co-chairs the Health Economics Working Group for a set of projects funded under the HEAL Prevention Cooperative, administered by NIDA, aimed at preventing opioid misuse in adolescents and young adults. Dr. Kuklinski earned her PhD in Clinical and Community Psychology from the University of California at Berkeley and a BA in Economics from Harvard University.

Kathryn McCollister, Ph.D., Professor & Director of the Division of Health Services Research and Policy, Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Dr. Kathryn E. McCollister is a Professor and Director of the Division of Health Services Research and Policy in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. She is also Director of the Methodology Core for the NIDA-funded “Center for Health Economics of Treatment Interventions for Substance Use Disorder, HCV, and HIV” (CHERISH).  Dr. McCollister’s primary research focuses on economic evaluation of treatment interventions for individuals with substance use disorders. Dr. McCollister is one of the lead economists working on several NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term® Initiative (“HEAL”) projects, including the HEALing Communities Study, the Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN), and the Preventing Opioid Use Disorder program. Her studies include economic evaluations of prison-based treatment; adult and juvenile drug courts; continuing care and recovery management strategies for chronic substance users; and medication assisted treatment for opioid use disorders.