Director
Richard M. Scheffler, PhD [View CV]
Richard M. Scheffler is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Health Economics and Public Policy at the School of Public Health and the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also the Chair Emeritus in Healthcare Markets and Consumer Welfare endowed by the Office of the Attorney General for the State of California in 1999. In addition to directing the Petris Center, Dr. Scheffler is also the Director of the Global Center for Health Economics and Policy Research. He has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, Charles University in Prague, at the Department of Economics at the University of Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona and at Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain. Dr. Scheffler has been a visiting scholar at the World Bank, the Rockefeller Foundation in Bellagio, and the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences and a consultant for the World Bank, the WHO, and the OECD. Professor Scheffler has been a Fulbright Scholar at Pontifica Universidad Catolica de Chile in Santiago, Chile, and at Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic. He was awarded the Chair of Excellence Award at the Carlos III University of Madrid in 2013. In 2015, Dr. Scheffler was awarded the Gold Medal for Charles University in Prague for his longstanding and continued support of international scientific and educational collaboration. In 2018, Petris Center Director Dr. Richard M. Scheffler was awarded the Berkeley Citation, among the highest honors the campus bestows on its community presented on behalf of the Chancellor to individuals whose contributions to UC Berkeley go beyond the call of duty and whose achievements exceed the standards of excellence in their fields.
Staff Members
Brent D. Fulton, PhD, MBA – Associate Director [View CV]
Brent D. Fulton, Ph.D., MBA, is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy, and Associate Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. His research areas include healthcare market concentration, health insurance markets (rate review regulation, risk adjustment and reinsurance), health reform (accountable care organizations), health workforce (pay for performance and task shifting), and mental health services (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder). Brent’s doctorate is in public policy analysis from Pardee RAND Graduate School and his MBA is from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Daniel Arnold, PhD – Research Director [View CV]
Daniel Arnold is the Research Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare. He conducts research in the fields of health economics, industrial organization, and behavioral economics. His current research focuses on the impact of market concentration on hospital and physician prices, plan choice in the ACA Exchanges, and the drivers and consequences of anxiety disorder among Millennials. Dr. Arnold obtained his doctorate in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Nina Nguyen – Program Manager
Nina Nguyen is currently a Master of Public Health candidate in the Health Policy and Management program at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Prior to pursuing graduate school, Nina worked with different health systems to design, build, and implement electronic medical records at various hospitals to improve workflows and increase patient safety. Her research interests are around health equity, particularly equitable access to quality health care among vulnerable populations.
Caitlin Kearns – Graduate Student Researcher [View CV]
Caitlin Kearns is a graduate student researcher with the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Healthcare Markets and Consumer Welfare and a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests center around public policies related to inequality, particularly in the areas of consumer finance, housing, and education. Before coming to Berkeley, Caitlin worked as an Associate Economist with the Finance group at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Caitlin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Wellesley College.
Caterina Y. Liu, MD – Graduate Student Researcher [View CV]
Caterina Y. Liu is a graduate researcher at the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Healthcare Markets and Consumer Welfare. She is currrently a MPH student in the Health Policy and Management track at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. She is also currently a third-year resident physician in internal medicine and preventive medicine at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco and UCSF. Her research interests include access, cost, and organization of health care. Caterina received her bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from Harvard and her MD at UCSF.
Jamie Godwin – Graduate Student Researcher
Jamie Godwin is a PhD Candidate in Health Policy & Management at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. His research interests center around healthcare industry competition, expenditures, insurance, and pricing. Jamie’s dissertation focuses on hospital and private insurance market structure in the state of California. Prior to joining the Petris Center, Jamie worked as a graduate student researcher at the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, studying pay for performance quality improvement initiatives and other delivery system reform programs. Jamie worked in healthcare consulting and electronic medical records implementation before beginning his graduate studies. He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Samuel Valdez – Graduate Student Researcher
Sam is currently a PhD candidate in Economics at the University of California, Irvine (UCI). His research interests center around the causes and consequences of integration between hospitals and physicians—specifically focusing on the restricted referral patterns that occur once integration takes place. For the last four years, he has worked as a research assistant to Mireille Jacobson at the Health Policy Research Institute housed at UCI. Sam holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics/Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Patrick Crocker, JD, LLM – Graduate Student Researcher [View CV]
Patrick is a graduate student researcher at the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Healthcare Markets and Consumer Welfare. He is currently a dual MBA/MPH student with a concentration in Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health and Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Prior to coming to Berkeley, Patrick spent a decade in the U.S. Army as a Judge Advocate, mostly practicing in the criminal, operational, and intelligence law fields. He holds a BS in psychology from Texas Christian University, an MS in criminal justice from Virginia Commonwealth University, a JD from the University of Richmond School of Law, and an LLM in criminal law from U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s School.
Lizzie Jekanowski – Graduate Student Researcher
Lizzie Jekanowski is currently a Master of Public Policy and Master of Public Health dual degree candidate at the Goldman School of Public Policy and School of Public Health. Her research interests include reproductive justice policy, provider incentives, health care operations, racial justice and queer liberation. Prior to UC Berkeley, Lizzie supported child and adult sexual assault survivors at the YWCA Rape Crisis Center and provided comprehensive reproductive health care and abortion services at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte. Lizzie graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Boston College in 2013 with a B.A. in Political Science and Women’s & Gender Studies.
Alexandra Peltz – Undergraduate Research Assistant [View CV]
Alex Peltz is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. Alex is a third-year student at the University of California, Berkeley majoring in Public Health and pursuing minors in Public Policy and English. Alex is interested in health policy particularly with respect to healthcare coverage and accessibility to services. Alex is also interested in data analysis and aspires to learn more about health policy research as she continues to work at the Petris Center. Alex hopes to pursue a Master’s in either Public Health or Public Policy and perhaps a Doctorate in Public Health or Public Policy.