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The College is pleased to announce that Alison Evans Cuellar will continue to advance the College’s research strategy and implementation efforts as our associate dean of research. Since her appointment as interim associate dean in March 2023, Cuellar has moved quickly to help faculty expand their research capacity and support early-career and new faculty. Under her leadership, the College’s research portfolio has continued to grow in service to Mason's research mission.
Cuellar’s focus is to support a wide range of sponsored projects and research with our talented faculty. The Office of Research is cultivating a culture of project management and developing broad project capacity that allows faculty to leverage their unique research talents and advance their careers faster. Cuellar and the Office of Research are committed to helping our junior faculty and our growing number of PhD students in their research and project endeavors. She is guiding a talented team of five specialists who will also support faculty and student research.
In addition to her role as Associate Dean, Cuellar will continue her own research efforts, including two current projects focused on marginalized populations: a study related to Medicaid, African American men, and mental health; and a second project studying the impact of the pandemic on care to pregnant women and individuals with substance use disorder.
About Dr. Cuellar
Dr. Alison Cuellar been a professor in the Department of Health Administration and Policy since 2009, has served on prominent task forces, and served as the College’s interim Associate Dean of Research for the College in 2018-2019 and again from March to August 2023.
She has extensive research experience examining health policy related to health care systems, Medicaid, private insurance, behavioral health, and justice-involved populations. Her scholarly work includes evaluating new organizational forms, such as hospital systems and physician alliances and their effects on quality, efficiency, costs, and prices. Currently, she is engaged in research related to Medicaid perinatal care, equity, and payment.
Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute of Justice, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and private foundations including National Institute for Health Care Management, Robert Wood Johnson, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur, among others.
Dr. Cuellar was recently appointed to The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's Improving the Health and Wellbeing of Children and Youth through Health Care System Transformation committee. Additionally, Cuellar was appointed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as Chair of the Community Preventive Services Task Force (CPSTF), an independent, nonfederal panel of public health and prevention experts that provides recommendations and findings on programs, services, and other interventions to protect and improve population health.