Michael Doonan

Michael Doonan, PhD, is a Professor at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management with the School of Social Science and Social Policy. He is also part of the leadership team of the Schneider Institutes for Health Policy and Research. He is the Executive Director of the Johnston Health Policy Forum and the Council for Health Care Economics and Policy. Michael was the most recent Associate Dean for Academics at the Heller School for Social Policy and Research. He was the founding Director of the School’s Master’s in Public Policy (MPP) program and served as Program Director for sixteen years. His Ph.D. from Brandeis is both in Political Science and Health Services Research. His research and publications focus on issues related to access to health care reform, federalism, Medicaid, federal/state relations, public health and the politics and economics of health system change.

He speaks widely on state and national health care reform. He is author of American Federalism in Practice: The Formulation and Implementation of Contemporary Health Policy, published by the Brookings Institute Press in 2013. Michael worked as program specialist for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in the area of Medicaid managed care and state health care reform. He served as a member of President Clinton's Health Care Taskforce working primarily on the Low-Income and Working Families work group, and as a member of the Taskforce Speakers Bureau. Michael also worked as a fellow for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee as they considered national reform in 1994. He began his career as a legislative aide for Senator John Kerry where he worked on health and environmental issues.