Nicole Lurie, MD, MSPH, an internationally renowned health services researcher and health policy expert, has been named a Penn LDI Distinguished Health Policy Fellow. This one-year affiliation is reserved for individuals who have made outstanding contributions to health policy. 

“I’m inspired by Nicki’s commitment to public service and her decades of leadership around health equity.  I’m thrilled to welcome her back to Penn, where our community of health policy experts and students will have the opportunity to learn from her diverse experiences,” said LDI Executive Director Dan Polsky.  
 
Dr. Lurie served as the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) during the Obama Administration. She is currently a consultant to the World Bank and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Initiatives.  

Public health emergencies
In her role at HHS, Dr. Lurie provided leadership in preventing, responding to and recovering from the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters. She had spent previous portions of her career at the University of Minnesota and at RAND, where her focus was on access to and quality of care, health equity, and population health.  She has led multiple, successful community-wide initiatives to improve the health of underserved populations.

Dr. Lurie has Penn roots, having attended college and medical school here. She was the founding graduate fellow of Ware College House. She went on to complete her residency and Master of Science in Public Health as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles. During her time at HHS, she served as a mentor to several Penn Clinical Scholars.

Next generation of health leaders
“A priority for me is to help develop the next generation of health leaders for our country.  I am thrilled to ‘come home’ to Penn, and to rejoin its rich multidisciplinary and collaborative community of scholars and doers,” said Dr. Lurie.   

Joining LDI’s 250+ Senior Fellows, and 100+ Associate Fellows, Distinguished Health Policy Fellows enrich the intellectual life of the LDI community by sharing policy expertise and experiences with researchers and students. Dr. Lurie will make regular visits to campus throughout the year and mentor early-career researchers. Former Distinguished Health Policy Fellows include Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz.