Learn more about the members and staff of Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Choose from the following:
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Joel C. Cantor, Distinguished Professor & Director
Joel C. Cantor (Sc.D., Johns Hopkins University) is a Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and the founding Director of the Center for State Health Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Dr. Cantor is published widely in the health services and policy literature on innovations in health service delivery for high-need populations and the regulation of health insurance markets. He serves frequently as an advisor on health policy matters to New Jersey state government and was the 2006 recipient of the Rutgers University President's Award for Research in Service to New Jersey. Dr. Cantor currently leads a major study funded by the National Institutes of Health (R01MD015261) examining the contribution of homelessness to racial/ethnic and geographic disparities in health services outcomes and how permanent supportive housing can mitigate those disparities. He also is co-principal investigator of the New Jersey Population Health Cohort Study, a major new investigation of the effects of stress and resilience on population health and health equity. Prior to joining Rutgers in 1999, Dr. Cantor served as Director of Research at the United Hospital Fund of New York and Director of Evaluation Research at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He received his doctorate in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health in 1988 and was elected a fellow of AcademyHealth in 1996 and the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2019.
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Margaret Koller, Executive Director
Margaret Koller (M.S., Rutgers University) is the Executive Director at Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, serving as Chief Operating Officer overseeing the development and management of the Center’s research portfolio, compliance with financial and data use agreements and the Center’s communication and dissemination strategies. Currently, Ms. Koller is directing the implementation of the NJ Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project in New Jersey which will use linked data to inform population health research and improve the efficiency of state government programs. Ms. Koller is also the co-principal investigator for the Center’s core grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and collaborated with RWJF to author a 2018 report entitled Building a Culture of Health: A Policy Roadmap to Help All New Jerseyans Live Their Healthiest Lives. Her expertise is in the areas of health care coverage and access, as well as insurance regulations, and she routinely represents the Center to policy and stakeholder audiences around the state. Ms. Koller received a gubernatorial appointment to the New Jersey Small Employer Health Benefits Program Board of Directors where she currently serves as the Board's Vice Chairperson. She is also a member of Senator Joseph Vitale’s Working Group on Health Reform and sits on the Advisory Board of Rutgers Institute for Women’s Leadership. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Koller worked for Prudential HealthCare, and later Aetna in a series of leadership roles. Prior to her experience in managed care, she served as a Congressional Aide for a NJ member of Congress. Ms. Koller was a fellow at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University where she earned an M.S. in Public Policy.
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Michael J. Yedidia, Research Professor & Senior Medical Sociologist
Michael J. Yedidia (Ph.D., Brandeis University; M.P.H., Yale University) is a Professor and Senior Medical Sociologist at the Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy and the Institute for Health. Trained in sociology and public health, his research focuses on the prevention of childhood obesity, population health disparities, health professions education, care models for serving vulnerable populations, patient perspectives on health and illness, and quality improvement. He co-leads the New Jersey Child Health Study, which follows panels of low-income children, as well as a cohort of public schools to assess the impact of aspects of the food and physical activity environment on weight status. A current focus is the impact of pandemic-related school closures on obesity and the mitigating effects of child-targeted, federal emergency food assistance. Dr. Yedidia is also collaborating on a study examining the effects of providing supportive housing services on health care use among homeless adults. In the past, he served as the national program director for Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s initiative to support evaluation of interventions addressing the nurse faculty shortage. His research has been funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation, among others. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers, Dr. Yedidia was a senior health services researcher at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and taught medical sociology, health policy, and research methods at the Department of Sociology and the Medical Education Program at Brown University.
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Ann M. Nguyen, Assistant Research Professor
Ann M. Nguyen (Ph.D., University of Washington; M.P.H., University of California Irvine) is an Assistant Research Professor and Implementation Scientist at the Center for State Health Policy. She is also the Director of the New Jersey Practice-Based Research Network and an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. Her research focuses on primary care, practice transformation, and workforce, where she applies qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Dr. Nguyen’s recent projects include the evaluation of the state’s opioid and substance use disorder program through the New Jersey Medicaid Comprehensive Waiver and the temporary licensure program for out-of-state healthcare practitioners. She has published in journals such as the Journal of Healthcare Management and Journal of General Internal Medicine. She has also contributed to textbooks including Shortell and Kaluzny's Healthcare Management: Organization Design and Behavior. Prior to joining the faculty at Rutgers, Dr. Nguyen was a postdoctoral fellow at the NYU Langone Health Department of Population Health. She also has work experience in health systems, including health workforce development and organizational learning and development.
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Jose Nova, Associate Director of Data & Analytics
Jose Nova (M.S., Rutgers University) is an Associate Director of Data & Analytics at the Center for State Health Policy. His focus areas include data analytics, healthcare quality, and health systems performance and improvement. He currently leads the data analytics team providing data management, statistical analysis, and support for several ongoing projects, including creating an analytic data infrastructure for Medicaid claims and encounter data which is utilized in many projects in the Center’s portfolio. Mr. Nova is leading the data management and integration efforts of the NJ Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project which will make data available to inform population health research and improve the efficiency of state government programs. He has been a key collaborator on all projects that involve the linkage of Medicaid data to other databases, including the New Jersey State Cancer Registry, Housing Management Information System, and others. Mr. Nova has an extensive background in healthcare administrative data management, including building a database for comparative effectiveness research that bridges prehospital and hospital care using electronic patient care records for prehospital EMS transports in New Jersey. Other contributions include analyses of state-wide health assessment surveys, hospital uniform billing data, New Jersey State Physician Census, and the New Jersey HMO Report Cards. Prior to joining the Center, Nova was an assistant lab supervisor for Rutgers University Computing Services.
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Frank J. Thompson, Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs Emeritus & Faculty Director, Newark
Frank J. Thompson (Ph.D, University of California, Berkeley) is Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Administration Emeritus at Rutgers-Newark and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy in New Brunswick. Professor Thompson has served as a fellow with the U.S. Public Health Service and published extensively on issues of health policy and implementation. He has especially focused on issues of health policy and federalism, participating in multiple funded projects related to this subject. In 2008, Professor Thompson received a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award to study the evolution of Medicaid policy during the Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama administrations. This research led to several scholarly publications and culminated in a book, Medicaid Politics: Federalism, Policy Durability, and Health Reform (Georgetown University Press). Professor Thompson’s more recent publications have focused on how the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations have sought to shape the Affordable Care Act. This research informed his co-authored book, Trump, the Administrative Presidency, and Federalism (Brookings Institution), which received the 2021 Brownlow Award from the National Academy of Public Administration. Professor Thompson is currently a co-editor of the Tracking Health Reform section of the Journal of Health Policy, Politics, and Law.
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David M. Frankford, Professor of Law & Faculty Director, Camden
David M. Frankford (J.D., University of Chicago) is Professor of Law at Rutgers Law School; Professor at the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research in New Brunswick; and Faculty Director at Camden of the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. He has been a long-time editor of Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, having served as book review and associate editor, the editor of “Behind the Jargon,” a Special Section, and now a member of the Board of Editors. Professor Frankford’s writings have focused on the interactions between health services research, health care politics and policy, and the institutions of professions and professionalism. His works include studies of state rate setting, hospital reimbursement, the regulation of fee splitting, the debates concerning privatization and national health insurance, the ideology of professionalism, the role of professionalism in medical education, the role of scientism and economism in health policy, issues of insurance coverage, and numerous other issues in health care financing. With Sara Rosenbaum, he is the author of the second edition of Law and the American Health Care System. Currently his primary research interests concern the reconstitution of professionalism as the normative integration of professions and community, and the comparison of secular and religious bioethics regarding such issues as the new genetics.
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Kate Scotto, Assistant Director of Program Planning
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. She is also responsible for the Center’s financial compliance with all relevant federal, state, University and funder policies and regulations. Ms. Scotto also provides technical support to faculty and staff during the pre-award and post-award grant management process, facilitating the coordination of proposal submissions and required financial reports. She currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer for the NJ Integrated Population Health Data (iPHD) Project, overseen by the Center, an initiative using data to inform population health research and improve the efficiency of state government programs. Prior to joining the Center, Ms. Scotto worked as a senior auditor for Deloitte. She received her M.A. in Accountancy from Rider University, a B.S. in Environmental and Business Economics and a B.S. in Food Science, both from Rutgers University.
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Dan Treglia, Instructor
Dan Treglia (PhD, University of Pennsylvania) is an instructor at the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. Dr. Treglia is a social policy researcher with a focus on housing and income instability and homelessness, with experience in government and nonprofits to connect his research to on the ground policy and action. His research has focused on homelessness, housing, poverty, and income insufficiency more broadly. This work has offered a window into related and often intersecting systems, like child welfare, veterans affairs, and health care. Dr. Treglia’s research has appeared in a wide range of peer-reviewed publications, including Public Administration Review, Health Affairs, the American Journal of Public Health, and Psychiatric Services. Prior to joining the Center, he served as the Deputy Director of Research and Evaluation for New York City’s Department of Homeless Services and as an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Arts and Sciences. He has a PhD in social welfare from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice and a master's in public policy from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Dr. Treglia is currently a Senior Research Fellow for United For ALICE, an Expert Contributor with the COVID Collaborative, and the Research and Evaluation Whaler for Whole Whale.