Elyas Bakhtiari Named New Director of the Schroeder Center for Health Policy
Williamsburg, Va., June 28, 2024: William & Mary’s Public Policy Program recently announced Professor Elyas Bakhtiari, Associate Professor of Sociology, will be the new Director of the Schroeder Center for Health Policy. He succeeds Professor Jennifer Mellor who has led the center since 2009 and announced her decision to return full-time to the Economics Department earlier this year.
The Schroeder Center for Health Policy, established in 2003 with a generous gift from Cliff and Lois Schroeder and housed within William & Mary’s Public Policy Program, is dedicated to informing and educating current and future decision makers on many public policies related to healthcare and population health. For more than 20 years, the Schroeder Center has provided policymakers and community stakeholders with rigorous and unbiased analysis of health and healthcare problems, supported graduate and undergraduate students through training in healthcare and health policy, and engaged the W&M community on health policy issues. Suzanne Raitt, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, appointed Prof. Bakhtiari to lead the center beginning on July 1, 2024.
Outgoing Director Prof. Mellor said, “I am excited that Prof. Bakhtiari has been selected as the Schroeder Center’s new leader. His past research on health outcomes and health inequities engages directly with public policies related to social welfare and immigration, and he already teaches a variety of health policy-relevant courses.” She concluded by noting that “the Schroeder Center for Health Policy is truly a W&M treasure, and I am confident that Prof. Bakhtiari will lead the Center in important and exciting directions.”
Bakhtiari takes a “health in all policies” approach in his research and teaching – examining the broader social causes of health and mortality inequalities, particularly for ethnic and racial minorities and immigrant populations. For example, in “Medical Sociology” (SOCL 362), a course that serves as an undergraduate elective for Public Policy, Bakhtiari and the class examine how health, illness, and health care are shaped by society, and vice versa; and in “Social Inequality and Health” (COLL 350), students take a deep look at how social inequalities both in the health care system and in other institutions shape health inequalities in the United States.
The intersectoral nature of his interests and research experience will serve the Schroeder Center well and continue to create collaborative opportunities to connect with faculty, students and community leaders.
“We’ve learned that population health is shaped by a wide range of social determinants, from economic opportunities to neighborhood environments to how stressful people's lives are,” Bakhtiari said. “This complexity can make health policy challenging, because a lot of what matters for health begins well before someone encounters the health care system. However, this insight also highlights the many opportunities to improve population health through policies that aren't conventionally considered health policies. If all policy is health policy, we have more options for improving population health outcomes.”
Prof. Bakhtiari continued, “Professor Mellor has done such a fantastic job of building the Schroeder Center into a hub for health research at William & Mary, for both students and faculty. I hope I can carry that work forward and convince more members of our community that health policy is connected to their learning, research, and careers.”
Professor Paul Manna, who, as Director of Public Policy, served on the search committee that identified Prof. Bakhtiari, also recognized him as an excellent choice. Manna noted that “he brings a very broad lens to the study of health policy, which will enable him to connect to the diverse interests of W&M students and faculty who study this important policy area.”
Bakhtiari’s interest in health policy has deep roots. Before beginning his Ph.D. studies in graduate school, he worked as a writer and editor at Healthleaders magazine, a publication aimed at analyzing health care policy and industry trends for health care professionals.
Recently, Bakhtiari co-authored an assessment of how education shapes health outcomes among indigenous communities in the United States and Mexico. His work has appeared in a wide variety of outlets including American Behavioral Scientist, Social Science and Medicine, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Socius, Sociology of Health and Illness, and others. He has been at William & Mary since August 2016 and lives in Williamsburg with his spouse and two young children.
