Kenneth Thorpe, Ph.D.

Kenneth E. Thorpe is Robert W. Woodruff Professor and Chair of the Department of Health Policy & Management, in the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. He was a Vanselow Professor of Health Policy and Director, Institute for Health Services Research. He was previously Professor of Health Policy and Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Associate Professor and Director of the Program on Health Care financing and Insurance at the Harvard University School of Public Health and Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Public Health at Columbia University. Dr. Thorpe has also held Visiting Faculty positions at Pepperdine University and Duke University. Most recently, Professor Thorpe was Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In this capacity, he coordinated all financial estimates and program impacts of President Clinton's health care reform proposals for the White House. He also directed the administration's estimation efforts in dealing with Congressional health care reform proposals during the 103rd and 104th sessions of Congress. As an academic, he has testified before several committees in the U.S. Senate and House on health care reform and insurance issues. In 1991, Professor Thorpe was awarded the Young Investigator Award presented to the most promising health services researcher in the country under age 40 by the Association for Health Services Research. He also received the Hettleman Award for academic and scholarly research at the University of North Carolina and was provided an "Up and Comers" award by Modern Healthcare.

Dr. Thorpe has authored and co-authored over 60 articles, book chapters and books and is a frequent national presenter on issues of health care financing, insurance, and health care reform at health care conferences, television, and the media. He also serves as a reviewer on several health care journals.

Professor Thorpe received his Ph.D. from the Rand Graduate School, an M.A. from Duke University and his B.A. from the University of Michigan.