Elizabeth S. Chen, Ph.D.

Associate Director of Biomedical Informatics, Center for Clinical and Translational Science
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine – General Internal Medicine
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science
Education: B.S., Tufts University, 1998; Ph.D., Columbia University, 2004.

Dr. Chen is a formally-trained biomedical informatician with research interests in electronic health records, clinical decision support, standards, natural language processing, and data mining. She has previously held positions at Columbia University and Partners HealthCare System/Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School.

Catherine Hamilton. Ph.D.

Lecturer, UVM Business School and Health Care Management Certificate program
Director, Heath Care Management Certificate Program
Education: B.A. Bowdoin College, 1988; Ph.D. Robert Wagner School of Public Service, New York University, 2001.

Dr. Hamilton has worked in health care policy, management, finance and administration for 25 years in a variety of public, private and not-for-profit organizations. Her areas of expertise are in strategic planning, health care finance, health care reform policy and programs to expand health insurance coverage. Dr. Hamilton oversees strategic planning, health care reform, Medicare and individual markets and customer service for Vermont’s largest health insurance plan, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont. Prior to her position at BCBSVT, she worked as a regulator of health plans at the Mayor’s Office of Medicaid Managed Care in New York City. She is a part-time lecturer at UVM of Health Care Management and Strategic Planning in Health Care and serves as the Director of the Health Care Management Program.

Christopher Jones, D.Phil.

Assistant Professor of Surgery
UVM College of Medicine
Director, Global Health Economics Unit, Center for Clinical and Translational Science
Education: B.S. University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, 1999; M.S., University of Oxford (England) 2000; D.Phil., Christ Church, University of Oxford (England), 2006.

Dr. Jones brings a variety of skills and experience in health economics and comparative effectiveness research to his position as the Director of Global Health Economics Unit in the Center for Clinical and Translational Health. His past experience includes the following: 1) A fellow in the Centre for Outcomes, Research and Effectiveness (CORE) at University College London. 2) A health economist for the National Guideline Development Group on UK mental health initiatives that included comprehend-sively reviewing the empirical literature and providing health economic guidance on the use of financial incentives to reduce drug misuse. This work led to the publication of the health economics sections for six U.K. national guidelines. 3) A faculty member at The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health where he co-authored a paper on the importance of patient-based health technology assessment from a U.S. perspective and continued research on incentives with Dr. Ken Silverman and colleagues. 3) He co-founded the Health Economics Research Center for Evaluation in Luxembourg (HERCELUX), an academic initiative housed within the Central Hospital and funded as part of the Euro 140 million Partnership for Personalized Medicine. 4) Director of Global Health Economics in a multinational pharmaceutical company, evaluating new approaches to offering cost-effective care in rare diseases, liaising with patient advocacy groups and adopting U.S., Canadian as well as other international perspectives.

Betty Rambur, Ph.D., RN

Professor of Health Policy and Nursing
2000-2009 Dean, College of Nursing and Health Sciences
University of Vermont
Education: BS, University of Mary, 1978; FNP Certificate, University of North Dakota, 1981; MS, Rush University, 1988; PhD, Rush University, 1991; Fellow, American Council on Education, 2007-2008.

Dr. Rambur is a professor of nursing, and founding Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Vermont. She led the effort to establish a leadership role for the college with an emphasis on addressing critical health care workforce needs at the state and regional levels within a context of international impact, aspirations for educational and research preeminence, and fiscal restraint. As dean, Dr. Rambur was responsible for all educational, research, outreach, and financial and fund-raising matters of the college. She maintains an active program of research that focuses on the health professional workforce, health services, and health policy. She is a past member of the Board of Trustees of Fletch Allen Health Care, and served as the Chair of the Quality Committee of the board as well as a member of the Finance Committee. From 1991-1995 she led the health finance reform effort in the state of North Dakota. Dr. Rambur is an active teacher in both online and classroom venues.

Neil Sakar

Director of Biomedical Informatics, Center for Clinical and Translational Science
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science

Education: B.S., Michigan State University, 1998; M.Phil., Columbia University, 2002;
Ph.D., Columbia University, 2004; MLIS, Syracuse University, 2008

Dr. Sarkar’s work is dedicated to furthering a biomedical informatics research agenda across the entire spectrum of biomedicine, from molecules to populations. His specific research involves the development and use of a range of computational techniques (including knowledge gathering and discovery methods, phylogenetics, information theory, ontology development, semantic indexing, and natural language processing) to facilitate the analysis and linking of molecular and public health data. Ultimately, Dr. Sarkar’s research aims to enable the creation of testable models of disease and provide a framework to enable the assessment of comparative hypotheses across the spectrum of biomedicine and health care.

Patrick Standen

Education: B.A. University of Vermont; M.A. Boston College

Patrick Standen teaches philosophy at Saint Michael’s College and Medical, Healthcare and Clinical Ethics at the University of Vermont. He is the founder and board president of the Northeast Disabled Athletic Association (NDAA) and an accomplished multisport and wheelchair sport athlete. He serves on the Governor’s Council for Physical Fitness and Health and the Burlington Bike Path task Force. He lives in Burlington, VT.

Curtis Ventriss

Curtis Ventriss is a professor of public policy, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont and Professor (part-time) of Policy Studies, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University. He has published widely in public policy, public management and policy ethics. He also was a Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford and Johns Hopkins University.