Department of Health Policy

The Department of Health Policy recently prepared an evaluation report for the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) that examined the effects of the expanded Medicaid Adult Dental Benefit on Emergency Department utilization in Virginia hospitals for non-traumatic dental visits. Presented to DMAS in March 2025, the report was authored by Department of Health […]

Heather Saunders, Ph.D. ’21, is an alum of the Healthcare Policy and Research Program within the Department of Health Policy. She’s currently working as a Senior Research Manager for KFF, a non-partisan non-profit organization that conducts its own research, polling, and public health information campaigns. Saunders has an extensive research background, dating back to well […]

David Zhu, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate who will join the Department of Health Policy as a student in fall 2025, has a lot to celebrate — earning a spot on National Minority Quality Forum’s Top 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health for 2025 for his groundbreaking research on disparities in substance use disorders. And that’s not all! […]

On Tuesday, February 25, Vimbai Dihwa, a Ph.D. student, received the Black History in the Making award from VCU’s Department of African American Studies. The award, established in 1983 by Daryl Dance, Ph.D. to honor the achievements of African American students, has recognized over 550 students since then, with 62 more added this week. Dihwa, a student […]

Vimbai Dihwa is a Ph.D. candidate in the Healthcare Policy & Research program in the Department of Health Policy. She received both her Bachelor’s Degree, in Biology with a Chemistry minor, and her Master of Business Administration from Rosemont College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. However, she originally comes from Zimbabwe and completed high school in […]

Applications are now open for the VCU School of Public Health’s Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) in Health Policy. By Hannah Wente, originally published at VCU School Of Public Health Blog This fall, students in the School of Public Health’s M.P.H. program will have the chance to choose a new concentration –  health policy.  The […]

Muloongo Simuzingili, Ph.D. ’21, is an alum of the Healthcare Policy and Research program within the Department of Health Policy. She is currently an Associate Principal Scientist & Health Economist with Merck, but has also worked with The World Bank and the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention since completing her education. However, her story […]

For a new article published by Health Services Research, several VCU Department of Health Policy faculty members, students, and alums collaborated with other faculty from the VCU School Of Public Health and several officials from the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services (DMAS) to examine the relationships between healthcare use and food and housing insecurity […]

Robert Tyler Braun, Ph.D. ’18, is an alum of the Healthcare Policy and Research program within the Department of Health Policy. He’s currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College, where his research focuses on the effect of mergers and acquisitions on patient quality, cost, and utilization […]

Earlier this week, the Department of Health Policy received some great news: the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia had reclassified the Department’s Healthcare Policy & Research Ph.D. program to reflect the program’s alignment with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields as designated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Department of Health […]