Director
Richard M. Scheffler, PhD [View CV, View Publications, View Wikipedia, View News Articles]
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.
Research Leadership
Brent D. Fulton, PhD, MBA – Associate Director [View CV]
Brent D. Fulton, Ph.D., MBA, is a Research Professor of Health Economics and Policy and Associate Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare in the School of Public Health at University of California, Berkeley. Professor Fulton’s primary research examines how markets and regulation can improve the delivery of healthcare, including its cost, quality, and access. His research areas include healthcare mergers and acquisitions, healthcare payment and delivery system reforms, accountable care organizations, health workforce, and cost analysis. In addition, he is developing public-private financing strategies that will provide funding for social drivers of health for families with children residing in low-income communities. He teaches health economics and was the first faculty lead for the health policy and management concentration in the School’s Online MPH Program. His doctorate is in public policy analysis from Pardee RAND Graduate School and his MBA is from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Affiliated Scholars
Daniel Arnold, PhD – Research Director [View CV]
Daniel Arnold is an Assistant Research Economist and Research Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the impact of market power on health care prices, quality, and access as well as economy-wide wages. He has also worked on identifying the factors that contribute to the gender pay gap among physicians, forecasting future health workforce shortages, plan choice in the ACA Exchanges, and the drivers and consequences of anxiety disorder among adults. Dr. Arnold obtained his doctorate in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Deborah Ann Haas-Wilson, PhD – Distinguished Senior Scholar
Professor Haas-Wilson served as the testifying expert for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in the matter of Evanston Health Corp. (Docket No. 9315) and in the U.S. District Court for the plaintiffs in the matter of Saint Alphonsus Medical System v. St. Luke’s Health System (Case No. 1:12-cv-00560). She has served as an economic consultant on antitrust matters for the Massachusetts Attorney General, the California Attorney General, the California Department of Managed Care, and numerous private parties. Professor Haas-Wilson’s current research focuses on competition and competition policies in health care markets. Her articles have been published in the Journal of Political Economy, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Law and Economics, Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Health Economics and other peer-reviewed journals. She is the author of Managed Care and Monopoly Power: The Antitrust Challenge (Harvard University Press, 2003) and co-editor of Uncertain Times: Kenneth Arrow and the Changing Economics of Health Care (Duke University Press, 2003). She received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley and her B.A. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Former Researchers
Ola Abdelhadi, PhD – Postdoctoral Scholar [View CV]
Ola Abdelhadi is currently at Stanford University. She was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focused on examining factors associated with health care quality and medical expenditures among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. Her research areas of interest include health behaviors, health care access, prevention of chronic conditions, health care quality and health care utilization. Dr. Abdelhadi is trained in medicine, public health, and epidemiology. She holds a medical degree from Ain Shams University, a master’s degree in public health (MPH) from Purdue University majoring in family and community health, and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of California, Davis.
Arjun Teotia, PhD – Postdoctoral Scholar [View CV]
Arjun Teotia is currently at the Henry Ford Health System. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. Effective August 1, 2023, Dr. Teotia began an an appointment as Assistant Research Economist at the Petris Center. His research interests include health markets, tobacco regulatory science, and maternal and children’s health. His work focuses on estimating causal effects of state and federal policies on public health, health behaviors, and health care – quality, access, and utilization. Prior to joining the Petris Center, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Rutgers University Center for Tobacco Studies, conducting economic evaluation of recent policies to curb smoking and vaping in the US. Arjun holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Georgia State University.
Student Researchers
Bryson Leong – Health Policy Research Assistant
Bryson Leong is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. He is a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Molecular & Cellular Biology and Economics. At the Petris Center, Bryson is involved in research about healthcare economics at the state level and studies how public policy, insurance, and the medical workforce affects health and healthcare outcomes. He is interested in learning more about how to address physician shortages and how private financing, such as private equity, affects healthcare markets. After graduation, Bryson hopes to attend medical school.
Andie Yi – Health Policy Research Assistant
Andie Yi is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. She is currently a senior at University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Political Economy with a concentration in Health Economics and Policy. She is also minoring in Public Health and Korean. At the Petris Center, Andie’s work primarily focuses on provider reimbursement policies, physician incentives on practice location, and other healthcare workforce-related data and policies. Andie is interested in how institutions, systems, and policies shape people’s health. After graduation, she plans to find work opportunities in the health field and return to school for a masters degree either in public health or public policy.
Richard Li – Data Analytics Research Assistant
Richard Li is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. He is a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Economics and Data Science. At the Petris Center, Richard engages in research on Medicare payments and geographic cost adjustments. He is interested in the drivers of healthcare spending, measures of neighborhood disadvantage, and how policies can shape incentives more broadly in healthcare and labor markets. After graduation, Richard hopes to continue working on applied economic research and to pursue graduate studies in economics.
Maya Rao – Petris Coordinator and Research Assistant
Maya Rao is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. She is a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Economics and Data Science. At the Petris Center, Maya engages in research surrounding global healthcare private equity and AI in healthcare services. She is especially interested in learning about how capital shapes healthcare systems and the potential of artificial intelligence to improve healthcare efficiency and access. After graduation, Maya plans to explore opportunities that support innovation in biotech and healthcare delivery industries.
William Siu – Data Analytics Research Assistant
William Siu is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. He is currently a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Economics and Data Science. At the Petris Center, William is engaged in research on the determinants of medical worker location, with particular emphasis on regional wages, amenities, and cost-of-living. He is particularly interested in empirical analysis in the fields of urban and behavioral economics, with an emphasis on real estate markets. After graduation, William hopes to pursue a graduate degree in economics and continue academic research in economics.
Natalie Chau – Health Policy Research Assistant
Natalie Chau is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. She is currently a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Public Health and Molecular Environmental Biology. At the Petris Center, Natalie is involved in research on how health insurance premium increases affect enrollment and consumer price sensitivity across markets. Her work also focuses on tracking and projecting the growth of Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRA). She is passionate about making healthcare more affordable through the data-driven analysis of policy and economics. After graduation, she hopes to work in health and benefits or public health consulting and eventually return to school to complete an MPH and MBA.
Neha Gottimukkala – Health Policy and Data Analytics Research Assistant
Neha Gottimukkala is an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. She is a senior at the University of California, Berkeley, majoring in Economics and minoring in Data Science. At the Petris Center, Neha’s work focuses on physician wages and Medicare wage reimbursement, with an emphasis on geographic differences in healthcare labor markets and policy. She is interested in development economics and how economic policy and healthcare systems can shape access to care and opportunity. After graduation, Neha hopes to continue working in applied economic research.
Recent Graduates
Preethi Subbiah – Research Assistant and Petris Coordinator
Preethi Subbiah served as Program Manager and Undergraduate Research Assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. She graduated from UC Berkeley in December 2025, majoring in Economics and Public Health. At the Petris Center, Preethi conducted research on mergers and acquisitions and private equity in the healthcare industry, analyzing trends in market consolidation and their implications for healthcare markets and competition. Her work examined how healthcare transactions shape provider strategy, system efficiency, and patient access to care. After graduation, Preethi plans to pursue a career focused on strategic transactions within the healthcare sector.
Saniya Pendharkar – Research Assistant
Saniya Pendharkar is a former undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. She graduated in May 2026 with degrees in economics and statistics. At the Petris Center, Saniya was involved in research on how market power affects health insurance premiums and economic and accounting profits in the healthcare industry. She is particularly interested in how insurance premiums vary between the employer-sponsored markets and ACA Marketplaces and the role of Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRA). After graduation, Saniya plans to pursue a graduate degree in statistics or go into health economic consulting.
Natalie Zazula – Research Assistant
Natalie Zazula was an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. She graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2024, majoring in Public Health and minoring in Creative Writing. At the Petris Center, Natalie engaged in research surrounding hospital affiliations and its associated outcomes. She is interested in learning about healthcare market analysis, health equity, and the impact of private equity acquisitions on quality of care. After graduation, Natalie plans to pursue a master’s degree as a physician assistant.
Ming Senn Teo – Data Analytics Research Assistant
Ming Senn Teo was an undergraduate research assistant at the Nicholas C. Petris Center. He graduated from UC Berkeley in May 2024, majoring in Data Science. At the Petris Center, Ming engaged in Data Analytics surrounding price variation and transparency compliance. He is interested in environmental health management, specifically the health impacts of climate change. After graduation, Ming hopes to pursue a graduate degree or go into the health-tech/climate-tech industry.