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NORC at the University Chicago

Roy Ahn

Pronouns: He/Him

Vice President
Public Health
Roy is a public health implementation scientist with 20+ years working in U.S. and global health policy, nonprofit/civil society organization management, and public health.

Roy is vice president in the Public Health department who directs/has directed several maternal health projects for the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), including the multi-year Maternal Health Portfolio Evaluation. He also specializes in health implementation research and leads projects for CDC’s Division of Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention that address hypertension in high-burden settings. Roy also supports NORC’s evaluation activities on several large-scale health implementation projects for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (e.g., antibiotic stewardship, MRSA prevention, COVID-19). 

Roy is the project director of several large-scale evaluation and capacity building support projects for HRSA, including the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Maternal Health Portfolio Evaluation and the Office of Planning, Analysis and Evaluation’s Data Analysis and Technical Support project. He also serves on the project leadership team on various AHRQ Patient Safety Initiatives, including the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention and the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use. 

Prior to joining NORC in 2015, he served as the founding associate director of the Division of Global Health and Human Rights in the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he designed, implemented, and evaluated maternal/women’s health programs in nearly a dozen countries. Roy also served as a full-time faculty member at Harvard Medical School between 2009 and 2015, most recently as Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine. He also served as a Research Fellow studying foundations and civil society organizations at Harvard’s Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

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Expertise

Education

ScD, ScM

Harvard University

MPH

MPH Yale University

BA

University of California, Los Angeles

Appointments & Affiliations

Member

American Public Health Association

Steering Committee, Estimating the Prevalence of Trafficking Workshop

National Academies of Science

Corporate Culture of Health Advisory Committee

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/GISR

Project Contributions

AHRQ’s National Nursing Home COVID-19 Coordinating Center

Connecting AHRQ’s nursing home safety initiatives and the nursing home quality improvement community

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use

Multiyear effort focused on developing and enhancing antibiotic stewardship programs across care settings

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Buffalo Network Evaluability Assessment

Determining the evaluation readiness of a metropolitan network service delivery model for trafficked persons

Funder:

National Institute of Justice

HRSA Strategy to Address Intimate Partner Violence

Updating the federal government’s strategy for addressing and responding to intimate partner violence

Client:

Health Resources and Services Administration

Global Practices to Improve Maternal Mortality Outcomes in the U.S.

A comprehensive look at countries’ practices to address maternal mortality

Client:

Health Resources Services Administration

A Study of Women’s Health Needs in the U.S.

A major study of women in the U.S. from countries with high rates of female genital mutilation

Client:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Reproductive Health

Evaluating USAID’s Counter-Trafficking Efforts in Cambodia

NORC assesses whether job programs can reduce labor trafficking

Client:

U.S. Agency for International Development

Older Adults and Caregivers in Public Health Emergencies

A study of the needs of older adults and caregivers during COVID-19 and resources to help them

Client:

CDC Foundation

Culturally Responsive Vaccination Communication Skills and Techniques

Developing evidence-based interventions to improve provider communication with racial and ethnic minority patients

Funder:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention

Scaling and evaluating an evidence-based approach to MRSA prevention in hospitals and long-term care facilities

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Maternal Health Portfolio Evaluation and Capacity Building

A large-scale, mixed-methods evaluation of HRSA’s Maternal Health Portfolio

Client:

Health Resources Services Administration

ERASE Maternal Mortality Evaluation Plan Development

Planning for the evaluation of the U.S.’s primary source for review of pregnancy-associated deaths

Client:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine

Improving patient safety in the telemedicine environment

Client:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Equitably Promoting a Hypertension Control Method

Determining if the Hypertension Management Program is effective in high-burden, low-resourced health care settings

Funder:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention

Reducing Health Disparities Through Quality Improvement

Helping to embed health equity into Medicare and Medicaid services

Client:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Office of Minority Health

Publications

Research Library & Findings