Margolis Scholars in Health Policy and Management Welcomes New Student Cohort

News Update

Margolis Scholars in Health Policy and Management Welcomes New Student Cohort

Date

October 30, 2018
Duke-Margolis Scholars in Health Policy and Management 2018-2019

The Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy announces the newest cohort of Margolis Scholars in Health Policy and Management selected from exceptional candidates from the MPP program at the Sanford School of Public Policy, the JD program at the Duke School of Law, and the DNP and PhD programs at the Duke University School of Nursing. The program will be expanded to professional students in the Fuqua School of Business and the Duke University School of Medicine later this academic year.

“We are pleased to grow our Margolis Scholars community across Duke with additional Scholars from Public Policy and Law this year, and our recent expansion to the Nursing School. Training the next generation of health policy leaders is an integral part of the Center’s mission,” said Duke-Margolis director Mark McClellan, MD, PhD.

“These talented students will be part of a vibrant intellectual community being built at Duke and will have opportunities to learn about and contribute to key health policy and management issues with faculty, their fellow Scholars and peers, the broader campus community, and local, national, and international health policy leaders”.

As noted by the Faculty Director of the Margolis Scholars program, Corinna Sorenson, PhD, MHSA, MPH, “the program provides an interdisciplinary perspective on health policy and management through relevant coursework and hands-on practical and research projects, as well as professional development opportunities, with the aim of preparing Scholars for dynamic careers in government, academia, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector”.

“Our goal is to provide rigorous training in health policy and management and opportunities, tailored to each student’s interests, for making impactful contributions to research, consulting projects, policy formulation and thought leadership,” she said.

The program is inspired by Duke-Margolis’ founder, Robert J. Margolis, MD, (M ‘71), who envisioned the Center as a catalyst for leveraging Duke’s expertise across disciplines to solve difficult health policy problems. The Margolis Scholars program launched in 2017-2018 with its first cohort of Scholars in Public Policy and Law. Read more about our continuing Scholars here.

The incoming 2018-2019 Margolis Scholars are:

Lauren Arrington (Nursing-DNP). Lauren earned her BA in History and Africana Studies from Brown University, her BSN from Georgetown University and her MSN in nurse-midwifery from Frontier Nursing University. Her previous and current professional roles include nurse midwife at the University of Maryland, St. Joseph Medical Center, Maternal and Newborn Health Advisor at Jhpiego, Post Abortion and Fistula Care Intern at USAID and faculty member at Sojourner Douglass College, School of Nursing and Jefferson University, Midwifery Institute.

Scott Boisvert (Law). Scott earned his BS in Biology and BA in Global Health from Duke University in 2015. Before returning to Duke, he was a Hart Fellow working in Bulgaria with the Bulgarian Council of Ministers on Roma community health initiatives. He has also led global health endeavors in Cambodia and Sri Lanka.

Michelle Franklin (Nursing-PhD)Michelle earned her BSN (2003) and MSN (2009) from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and achieved dual certification as both a family nurse practitioner and family psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner. Prior to coming to Duke, she specialized in providing integrated primary care and mental health services to individuals of all ages with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout North Carolina. She continues to serve as adjunct faculty within the UNC-CH Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities and the UNC-CH School of Nursing.

Chuck Matula (Law). Chuck earned his B.B.A. in Finance at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to coming to Duke, he worked as a health care consultant in the Chicago-area. There he assisted state governments and private health companies in developing, implementing, and evaluating health care program reforms. As an undergraduate he interned with the Council of Economic Advisers in the Executive Office of the President, where he worked on evaluating economic effects of policy initiatives.

Meril Pothen (Public Policy). Meril earned her BS in Policy Analysis and Management from Cornell University in 2013. Aiming to understand the different facets of the U.S. health care system, she spent the last five years working in pharma, patient experience and tech, and hospital finance. At Duke, she plans to use her industry background to contextualize cost reform, value-based insurance design, and alternative payment models. She is committed to developing feasible, sustainable policies that bend the health care cost curve.

Bennett Wright (Law). Bennett earned his undergraduate degree in Biomedical Engineering from Baylor University. He worked during college researching improvements for medical devices, including devices used for gamma radiosurgery and kidney-stone removal. At Duke, he has researched ways to spur biomedical innovation through patent law.

Julian Xie (Public Policy). Julian graduated from Duke University in 2015 with a BS in Economics and a minor in music. He is currently a third year medical student in the He is currently in the Primary Care Leadership Track. During his first year at Duke Med, Julian collaborated with fellow students to found Root Causes, a Duke Med student organization dedicated to healing the food system. In addition, Julian worked part-time at the Duke World Food Policy Center in his first year, a center led by Professor Kelly Brownell. His interests center on creating a better food system with sustainable production and equitable access for all.