Rosalie Pacula, PhD - Health Policy Grand Rounds

Rosalie Liccardo Pacula, Ph.D. holds the Elizabeth Garrett Chair in Health Policy, Economics & Law in the Health Policy and Management Department at the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, where she is also currently serving as Interim Chair of the department.  Dr. Pacula also co-Chairs the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) Forum on Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders and is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.  Trained as an applied micro economist, Dr Pacula has been conducting evaluations of state public health policies and programs targeting risky behaviors by youth, mental health treatment, and substance use disorders for more than twenty-five years, applying advanced statistical methods appropriate for causal inference and working collaboratively with legal teams to improve measurement of meaningful aspects of policies influencing outcomes in these markets.  She has used this information in courses she has taught on cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, health economics and health care policy.  She currently is the Co-PI on the RAND-USC Schaeffer Opioid Policy Tools and Information Center of Excellence (OPTIC), a P50 Research Center in its 7th year of support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which seeks to increase the pace of scientific research that can identify cost-effective strategies for reducing the harms caused by the opioid crisis in different communities.  Her work has been used to improve insurance benefit design, prevention programs, supply reduction strategies, and treatments within the health care and specialty service sectors in the United States and abroad.