Alana is the director of the NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis and has over 25 years of experience leading health services research projects and implementing and evaluating public health programs. She has deep expertise in rural health, health equity, public health, health services research, telehealth, and evaluation. Alana has conducted numerous health services and health policy studies and public health projects funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Agency for International Development, and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, among others. Her project findings have informed state, tribal, and federal health policy.

Alana is the project director for the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model Evaluation funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and the Health FFRDC funded study examining the use of telehealth services among rural and urban Medicare beneficiaries before and during COVID-19. She also serves as the Primary Investigator for the Health Services and Resources Administration’s (HRSA) Bureau of Health Workforce’s Substance Use Disorder Evaluation and the Provider Resiliency Evaluation, and leads NORC’s team for the ETSU/NORC Rural Health Equity Research Center, funded by HRSA’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Alana also has extensive experience translating project findings into practice, such as the evidence-based toolkits housed on the Rural Health Information Hub (RHIhub) funded by FORHP. The toolkits, with almost 11 million page views, highlight evidence-based and promising programs implemented in rural communities that aim to improve the health and well-being of rural residents. 

Prior to joining NORC in 2009, Alana was the Associate Director for Research at the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Alana also has state and national public health experience having worked at the North Dakota Department of Health and for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).