Staff Biographies

Led by principal investigator Lynn Blewett, SHARE is staffed and supported by a unique combination of experienced professionals in health care access research, survey design and state health policy.

Lynn A. Blewett, Ph.D., Program Director
e-mail: blewe001@umn.edu
ph: 612-625-2594

Dr. Blewett is an Associate Professor in the Division of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Blewett has more than 15 years of research and health policy experience at both the state and national levels. She is the founding Director of the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC), a research and policy center that provides technical assistance to state analysts and policy makers across the country in the areas of survey design, data collection and policy development, as well as research on factors contributing to health care coverage and access in the United States.

Blewett holds a Ph.D. in health services research, and her expertise is in health care access and applied policy research. She has been successful in the application of research in a policy analysis framework. From 1992-1998, she was the state Health Economist and Director of the Health Economics Program for the Minnesota Department of Health. During this period of health reform, she oversaw data collection, research, and applied policy analysis of changing trends in Minnesota's health care market and helped developed Minnesota's approach to monitoring the uninsured.

Elizabeth Lukanen, M.P.H., Deputy Director
e-mail: elukanen@umn.edu
phone: 612-626-1537

Ms. Lukanen is the Deputy Director of the State Health Access Reform & Evaluation (SHARE) and is based in the State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. SHARE supports the systematic evaluation of state health care reform activities. The findings of the program will help state policy makers identify approaches to health reform that are right for their state by assembling evidence from a wide variety of reform approaches. SHARE will run for four years, awarding $7 million in grant funding over that term. Prior to joining SHADAC, Ms. Lukanen worked as Senior Research Economist in the Health Economics Program (HEP) at the Minnesota Department of Health. Ms. Lukanen holds a master's degree in public health from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree in economics from McGill University.

Faculty Advisors

Kathleen Thiede Call, Ph.D.
Dr. Call specializes in data collection through household and employer surveys and community-based participatory research. She is the principal architect of SHADAC's survey instrument, the Coordinated State Coverage Survey (CSCS). Her research interests include access to health insurance coverage and health care services among vulnerable populations, measuring and estimating rates of insurance coverage, documenting characteristics of people with different kinds of insurance contracts, and barriers to insurance coverage among the young, low-income and minorities. Dr. Call is also an Associate Professor in the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Management. She holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Minnesota.

Jon B. Christianson, Ph.D.
Dr. Christianson holds the James A. Hamilton Chair in Health Policy and Management and is the Director of the Center for the Study of Healthcare Management at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Christianson is a leader in the field of managed care research and contributes his technical expertise as an econometrician to the Center. He also provides leadership in the development of technical assistance products and in translating research to applied policy.

Michael Davern, Ph.D.
Dr. Davern is an expert on federal population surveys and a specialist in the technical aspects of survey design and analysis, including sampling, weighting, editing and imputation, documentation and analysis strategies. He was formerly a statistician with the United States Census Bureau. Through his experience and familiarity with federal processes and analysts, he helps states find and translate relevant federal data, and his work with federal analysts has led to improvements in national data collection. Dr. Davern is also an Assistant Professor in the University of Minnesota's School of Public Health, Division of Health Policy and Management. He holds a doctorate in sociology from the University of Notre Dame.

Program Staff

Kelli Johnson, M.B.A., SHADAC Center Director
Ms. Johnson facilitates the center's ongoing procedural functions and strategic direction, such as seeking out and securing grants and other opportunities, hiring, budget decisions and coordination of the executive committees. She is also involved in project work, particularly in the area of program evaluation, and has extensive experience in the state health policy arena and an in-depth knowledge of government structures and political processes. Ms. Johnson holds a MBA from the University of St. Thomas and is pursuing a doctorate in evaluation studies at the University of Minnesota.

Nitika Malik, M.P.P., Research Fellow
Ms. Malik conducts research and analysis of health at the state and federal level. She has experience with issues of economic development at UNESCO and interests in both domestic and international policy. She holds a master's degree in public policy from the University of Minnesota.

Karen Soderberg, Research Coordinator
Ms. Soderberg provides research and project support, as well as general technical assistance. Her increasing involvement in research project work follows largely her interest in research methods, for which she is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Before joining SHADAC in 2004, Ms. Soderberg consulted for private sector finance and software industries, as well as non-profit organizations in the Minnesota community.

Donna Spencer, M.A., Senior Research Fellow
Ms. Spencer has extensive experience in evaluation and needs assessment studies and has collaborated with state agencies to conduct surveys on the health status, access and level of health care, and insurance coverage. Ms. Spencer is skilled in research design, sampling, development of quantitative and qualitative research protocols and instruments, data analysis, and policy application. She holds a master's degree in applied social research and is pursuing a doctorate in sociology at the University of Minnesota.