Megan Shepherd-Banigan PhD

Megan Shepherd-Banigan is an Assistant Professor in Duke University’s Department of Population Health Science and School of Medicine and Core Faculty in the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy. She is also a Health Research Scientist at the Durham VA. She received her PhD in Health Services Research from the University of Washington. She focuses on mental health, aging, and health services research methods that improve the health, emotional well-being, and social functioning of adults with mental and physical disabilities. Her research has focused on how parental disability and caregiving affect the health of children, how to integrate family caregivers into the health system, and integrate family-centered innovations in to health care. Dr. Shepherd Banigan’s methods combine empirical approaches that address methodologically challenging research questions in health systems and policy research. 

Dr. Shepherd-Banigan won a VA Career Development Award from 2019-2024 that will determine ways to strengthen family support for veterans under-going traumatic stress treatment. She is a co-investigator in the Durham VA-Cares Evaluation Center where she leads a project that surveys family caregivers of Vietnam-era veterans who might be eligible for expanded support services under the VA Mission Act. As co-investigator on an NIA-funded CARE IDEAS study, she is investigating outcomes among care partners and persons with dementia (Terri Wetle, PI) where she will examine patient/caregiver communication and drivers of long-term care preferences. Finally, Dr. Shepherd-Banigan is leading a Rosalynn Carter Institute project that explores the effects of a caregiver training program on child anxiety.

Areas of Expertise: Health Services Research, Health Policy, and Health Economics