Center Staff
Richard Scheffler, PhD
Director
Richard Scheffler has been the Director of the Nicholas C. Petris Center since its inception
in 1999. He is a Distinguished Professor of Health Economics and Public Policy at the University
of California, Berkeley, and holds the Chair in Health Care Markets & Consumer Welfare endowed
by the State of California Office of the Attorney General. His research is on health care markets,
health insurance, the health workforce, mental health economics, social capital and health,
pharmacoeconomics, and international health systems. Professor Scheffler is a recipient of the
American Public Health Association's Carl Taube Award, which honors distinguished contributions
to the field of mental health services research. He was a Rockefeller and a Fulbright Scholar,
and served as President of the International Health Economists Association 4th Congress. He has been
a Scholar in Residence at the Institute of Medicine and the World Bank. He also served as an advisor
to the World Health Organization in the area of human resources. He has published more than 150 papers
and edited and written six books. His newest book will be published by Stanford University Press in
September 2008—Is There a Doctor in the House: Market Signals and Tomorrow’s Supply of Doctors.
Timothy Brown, PhD
Associate Director of Research
Tim Brown received his doctorate in Health Services and Policy Analysis, with a specialization
in health economics, from UC Berkeley, where he was an Agency for Healthcare Research and
Quality Scholar. His current research focuses on health care labor markets (physicians,
advanced practice nurses, dental hygienists, dental assistants), child behavioral health,
oral health, and the connection between social capital and health. His work has been published
in Health Services Research, Health Economics, The Archives of Internal Medicine,
Social Science & Medicine, and the Journal of the American Dental Association.
As Associate Director of Research, Dr. Brown manages the research staff and day-to-day research
work of the Petris Center. Current active projects include a study on access to dental care among
immigrants in California funded by the California Program on Access to Care, a study on oral health
and access to care among the elderly in California funded by the California Dental Association Foundation,
a study on social capital and cigarette smoking funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program,
and a study evaluating the Mental Health Services Act (Proposition 63) funded by the California Healthcare Foundation.
Dr. Brown also teaches a course on analytic methods for health policy and management in the School of Public Health.
Brent Fulton, PhD, MBA
Health Services Researcher
Brent Fulton received his doctorate in public policy analysis from the
Pardee RAND Graduate School, where his studies focused on microeconomics and
econometrics. While at RAND, his health research included health insurance
reform and health care financing. His current research includes studying
health insurance reform (including California's proposed reform), binational
health insurance between the United States and Mexico, global health
workforce supply-demand dynamics, the economics of
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and its treatments, and oral
health care disparities. Brent's MBA is from The Anderson School at UCLA and
his B.S. is from the U.S. Air Force Academy.
James Ross, MBA
Associate Director of Finance and Administration
Jim manages the financial and business operations of the Petris Center, which includes
budget administration, fund management, project management, liaison with funding
agencies, vendor relations, and general operations. He worked in finance, budgeting,
and information systems at UC Berkeley and the University of Massachusetts, and was a
consultant in these areas to private secondary education and health care
organizations. Jim also brings a private industry perspective to the Petris Center,
having led finance and information technology teams in the large corporate
environments of Wells Fargo Bank, U.S. Leasing, Itel Corporation, American President
Lines, and Levi Strauss, and in the small-firm, high-tech world - two software
companies and a systems integration firm. He has a BA from Indiana University and an
MBA from Saint Mary's College of California.
Amy M. Nuttbrock, BA
Program Coordinator
Amy is a graduate of Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts, where she received
her Bachelor's degree in writing, literature, and publishing. She currently handles
program coordination for the Petris Center, including all aspects of research
administration, conferences, and office management. She also administers the pre-and-post
doc training programs (AHRQ, NIMH, and Fogarty). Amy comes from a background in academic
publishing and human resources.
Stephanie L. Hastrup, BA
Executive Assistant to the Director
Stephanie received her Bachelor's degree in Psychology at Harvard College where she was a research
assistant in both the abnormal and social psychology departments. At the Petris Center, Stephanie
supports the Director, manages his calendar, plans special events, manages the office, coordinates
travel, composes and manages correspondence, and handles special projects.
Mistique Felton, MPH
Senior Research Associate
Mistique has been involved in health or healthcare research for 10 years including work at Chiron,
Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI), University of Michigan and University of
California, Berkeley. She received her masters at the University of Michigan in the department of
Health Policy and Management. While in Michigan, she worked for the Michigan Center for Genomics
and Public Health. She received her bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley in Molecular and Cell Biology.
Her work at the Petris Center has included topics such as the uninsured and access to prescription
drugs, the global market of ADHD drugs, Consumer Driven Health Plans and the Mental Health Service Act
(MHSA).
Susan Anthony, BA
Senior Editor
Susan has been a health care editor and communications consultant for over 25
years. She was publisher/editor of the Health Forum Journal, and founding
editor of two monthly publications: Strategies for Healthcare Excellence
and Healthcare Market Strategies. Susan served as developmental editor for
Regulating Managed Care: Theory, Practice, and Future Options, a book edited
by Stuart Altman, Uwe Reinhardt & David Shactman. She also does developmental
editing for the California HealthCare Foundation, the Health Technology Center, and
Health Care Investment Visions.
Leonard Miller, BA, PhD
Researcher
Leonard Miller received a BA and PhD in Economics from the University of
California, Berkeley, in 1967. He retired from Berkeley's School of Social
Welfare in June 2003 and is now Professor Emeritus. He has constructed
dynamnic models of the relationship between smoking and health and dying,
he was an expert witness in the Minnesotta & Blue Cross Blue Shield v.
Tobacco industry case and in the Federal suit v. Tobacco Industry. His
calculations divided the proceeds from the State Tobacco suit among the
states. His research experience includes smoking attributable medical
expenditures, the economic costs of schizophrenia, serious affective
disorders, alcohol and drub abuse, and mental illness. He directed the
evaluation of California's Multipurpose Senior Services Program in the
nineteen eighties, developed methods for rationalizing the In-Home
Supportive Services program in California, and prior to that worked on
the Economics of Higher Education. He has had over eighty publications
throughout his career.
Candy Pareja, BA
Research Coordinator
Candy Pareja is a graduate of San Francisco State University where she
received her BA in Economics. While completing her undergraduate degree,
she worked for the Human Services & Health Academy at Richmond High School
as an Associate Coordinator. She worked directly with high school
students, coordinated campus visits, student conferences, college
workshops, and other various student functions and events. She is now a
Research Coordinator at the Nicholas C. Petris Center on Health Care
Markets and Consumer Welfare at the University of California Berkeley. She
is working on coordinating the site visits for the Mental Health Services
Act study.
Salar Jahedi, PhD Candidate
Graduate Student Researcher
Salar is currently finishing his doctoral studies in Economics at UC
Berkeley. At the Petris Center, he is helping to estimate a long-run
model of demand and supply for dental services in California which will
then be used to examine various policy measures. Salar received his
Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Chicago.
Ellen Smith, BA
Graduate Student Researcher
Ellen Smith is a current Demography graduate student at UC Berkeley. She
received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis, and has since
worked in the field of international development in the U.S., Latin
America and Africa.
Hannah Hu
Webmaster
Hannah is a undergraduate at UC-Berkeley majoring in Computer Science. She
also works as a Web Development Assistant for the Department of Human Resources
at UC-Berkeley. Her interests include web and graphic design, user interfaces,
digital illustration, drawing, creative writing, and music composition.
Zoey Lin
Computer Specialist
Zoey attended the University of Maryland, College Park. She has previously worked for
Information Services and Technology (IST) as a Computer Resource Specialist. She
currently works at Departmental On-Site Computing Services (DOCS).