Professor Wins Award for Dissertation on Implementing Obamacare.

David K. Jones, an assistant professor of health policy and management, has won the annual Outstanding Dissertation Award from AcademyHealth, one of the nation’s leading health policy resource centers.

The award—for Jones’s thesis “Implementing Obamacare: Intergovernmental Battles over the Creation of Health Insurance Exchanges”—honors an outstanding scientific contribution from a doctoral thesis in health services research or health policy. AcademyHealth formally recognized Jones at its 2015 Annual Research Meeting (ARM), held June 14-16 in Minneapolis.

Jones joined the Department of Health Policy & Management in September 2014 after completing his PhD at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. He received a master of arts in political science from the University of Michigan in 2012 and a master of science in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2009.

His research examines the political and policy issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) implementation, including how states made decisions about what type of health insurance exchange to establish—or not establish. He has also written about Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and health reform in Europe.

Jones is a part of multiple organizations focused on disseminating research on the ACA and regularly speaks to clinicians and administrators at grand rounds, continuing medical education seminars, and medical society meetings.