AYSPS welcomes new faculty
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

GARY HOOVER is an assistant professor of economics. After receiving his doctorate in economics from Washington University in St. Louis in 1998, he became an assistant professor at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where he was named a James I. Harrison Family Endowed Teaching Excellence Faculty Fellow. He was promoted to associate professor prior to joining AYSPS.

Hoover’s research interests are public policy analysis, public finance, income distribution and labor economics. He is at the forefront of examining unethical behavior, such as plagiarism in scholarly journals, in the economics profession.

PATRICIA KOTA is Director of Community Health Systems Development with the Georgia Health Policy Center. She leads a team of community health system developers who provide technical assistance to rural and community health networks across the country. Previously, Kota directed a successful rural community health network in New York and facilitated the establishment of a regional network that linked urban and rural communities across an eight-county region. From 1990-1995 she served as New York’s rural representative on the Public Health Council and was a founding member and first president of the New York State Association for Rural Health.

DOUGLAS KRUPKA is an assistant professor of economics. He earned his Ph.D. at the Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago, where he went for his masters degree in 1997 after graduating from the University of Virginia. His dissertation, “Location-specific Human Capital, Migration, and Amenities,” examines the relationships among investments in location-specific human capital, migration and the attractiveness of different kinds of cities. Krupka’s research interests are labor and urban economics, microeconomics and environmental economics.

LINDSEY LONERGAN joined GHPC as a research associate. She works on a variety of projects from Medicaid case management to building community leadership capacity. She also provides technical assistance to strengthen rural health networks throughout the country. Previously, Lindsey worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services where she reviewed Medicaid managed care waivers and demonstration plans and S-CHIP state plan amendments. She also developed and managed special projects related to managed care and health care financing. Lindsey earned her Masters in Health Science with a concentration in health policy from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

CHRIS PARKER worked as a physician with underserved communities and faith-based organizations in Kingston, Jamaica, before joining GHPC. Today, he works on a wide-range of projects, including the examination of select Community Health Initiatives on behalf of the Commonwealth Fund, an assessment of the public health districts in Georgia, and an examination of the issues surrounding health care coverage for the uninsured. He has facilitated work to support and assist the Central Georgia Cancer Coalition as they planned for designation as a Regional Program of Excellence. Chris is a graduate of the Rollins School of Public Health where he completed his MPH degree in Health Policy and Management in 2001.

INAS RASHAD earned her Ph.D. in Economics at the City University of New York Graduate Center, completing “Essays in the Economics of Obesity” under the supervision of Michael Grossman. Joining AYSPS as an assistant professor in the Department of Economics, her research interests are health economics, labor economics and public finance.

Rashad’s current research centers on the rapid acceleration of the obesity rate in the U.S. and on finding causes and solutions for the epidemic. She is interested in demand driven health economics problems such as risky teenage sexual behavior and drug abuse. Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health. She has written for Dallas Morning News and has been cited in numerous articles. Her articles have appeared in Journal of Health Economics, Public Interest and Gender Issues.

PETE TERREBONNE, who joins the Environmental Policy Program as assistant research professor after earning doctorate and graduate degrees in economics at Emory University, works with environmental policy issues, especially issues that relate to water resources. His publications have appeared in Public Choice, Eastern Economic Journal and the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management. His current applied work with the Environmental Policy Program includes evaluating engineering models of river basins, evaluating the effectiveness of residential water demand management programs, and conducting field work related to Geographical Information Systems.

– Sallie Barker, GHPC, contributed