Notes on Contributors

Deborah Allen is senior researcher, Health and Disability Working Group, and an associate professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health, Boston University School of Public Health. Prior to this, she was director of the Division for Special Health Needs, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The division includes the state’s Early Intervention Program for children aged 0 to 3, the Title V program for children with special needs and their families, and the Office on Health and Disability, which addresses health needs of individuals with disabilities of all ages.

Elena M. Andresen is associate professor of epidemiology in the Department of Community Health at Saint Louis University School of Public Health. She has worked primarily in outcomes research rather than etiologic research. Recent work includes testing health-related quality of life measures for use in outcomes research with people with disability and examining potential differences in preference (utilities) ratings by people with mobility impairment compared to the general population.

Phillip W. Beatty is a senior research associate at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Center for Health and Disability Research in Washington, D.C. His recent research focuses on determinants of access to health services and on the health care utilization and expenditure profile of adults with physically disabling conditions.

Carolyn M. Clancy is director of the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland. A general internist and health services researcher, her research interests include women’s health, disparities in health care, and outcomes research. She recently edited a book entitled Ethical Dimensions of Health Policy (Oxford, 2002) and is a frequent contributor to the peer-reviewed literature.

Gerben DeJong is a senior fellow and senior research scientist with the NRH Center for Health and Disability Research, a division of both the National Rehabilitation Hospital and the MedStar Research Institute in Washington, D.C. As the center’s founding director (1985–2001), he focused the center’s research agenda on health services and policy issues facing individuals with disabilities and those facing providers, payers, and consumers of post-acute care. He is the co-director of the center’s federally funded Research and Training Center on Managed Care and Disability. He is also a professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the Georgetown University School of Medicine.

Lisa I. Iezzoni is professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Her interests include health policy and care practices relating to people with disabilities and risk adjustment for outcomes measurement.

Alan M. Jette is professor and dean of the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at Boston University. His research interests include late-life exercise, evaluation of rehabilitation treatment outcomes, and the measurement, epidemiology, and treatment of physical disability.

Gwyn C. Jones is a research associate at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Center for Health and Disability Research in Washington, D.C. Her current research focuses on the study of health risks and use of preventive services among adults with disabilities, using the most recent National Health Interview Survey data. She is also involved in research on Medicaid managed care initiatives for persons with disabilities.

Julie J. Keysor is assistant professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Boston University. Her recent research involves the exploration of the role of environmental and attitudinal factors in disablement.

Thilo Kroll is a senior research associate at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Center for Health and Disability Research in Washington, D.C. His research interests and previous work include quantitative and qualitative studies of the rehabilitation and community integration of people with violently acquired spinal cord injuries, cancer, and arthritis.

Allan R. Meyers was, at the time of his death in May 2000, professor of public health, Boston University School of Public Health; research professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, Boston University School of Medicine; and professor of anthropology, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences/Graduate School. He had a deep commitment to work related to disability and human rights issues. His interests were wide-ranging, including long-term care, disability and aging, managed medical care, substance abuse, public health and public safety, technology and health care, and alternative and complementary health care. He conducted research and published widely on these topics. In addition, he mentored students with disabilities interested in careers in public health.

Monika Mitra is disability research consultant in the Office of Statistics and Evaluation of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Her research focuses on public health and disability. She currently coordinates and conducts research on issues relating to access to health care and health promotion programs, quality of care, unmet need for assistance, and, more broadly, secondary conditions and other health outcomes among people with disabilities in Massachusetts.

Melinda T. Neri is a research analyst at the National Rehabilitation Hospital Center for Health and Disability Research in Washington, D.C. She is currently interested in qualitative analysis of the health care experiences of people with disabilities. Recent work has included quantitative and qualitative research on access barriers and consequences for adults with disabilities.

Susan E. Palsbo is director of the NRH Center for Health and Disability Research, a division of both the National Rehabilitation Hospital and the MedStar Research Institute in Washington, D.C. She researched and participated in HMO financial operations, including benefit design and implementation, for a dozen years. She recently sharpened her focus to investigate the intersection of working-age adults with managed care plans, and coined the phrase “curb cuts to care.” A new project is a collaboration with the NRH Rehabilitation Engineering department to evaluate the effectiveness of telerehabilitation.

James M. Perrin is professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Child and Adolescent Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children in Boston. His interests span a wide range of child health and health services research, with an emphasis on organization and financing of child and adolescent health services and on chronic illness and disability in children.

Charles E. Rosenberg is Ernest E. Monrad Professor in the Social Sciences, Department of History of Science, Harvard University. He has a long-term interest in the social history of medicine in general and disease concepts in particular. He is currently at work on a synthetic book focusing on changing disease concepts in the past two centuries.

Paul Tupper is Americans with Disabilities Act project coordinator at the Office on Health and Disability, Massachusetts Department of Public Health. His present assignment includes responsibility for coordinating a department-wide Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) compliance project. The mission of this project is to achieve full ADA compliance in a coordinated effort by the department, disability civil rights advocates, and department-contracted provider agencies. He is also a consumer and activist in the disability civil rights movement.

Deborah Klein Walker is associate commissioner for programs and prevention at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She is responsible for programs in maternal and child health, health promotion and disease prevention, primary care and community health (including those for HIV/AIDS and substance abuse), and data integration and information systems. She has been involved with research, program and policy development, and advocacy on behalf of children and adults with chronic conditions and disabilities for more than two decades. Dr. Walker is a founding member and current senior policy adviser to New England SERVE as well as a member of the Research Consortium for Children with Chronic Conditions. She is an elected board member of the American Public Health Association and a past president of the Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs.

Nancy Wilber is director of the Office of Statistics and Evaluation in the Bureau of Family and Community Health of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. She manages research, surveillance, and evaluation to strengthen public health programs related to disability, child and family services, and health promotion activities at the state and community level. Currently she is also providing leadership for efforts to integrate Massachusetts state public health data systems.