Ellen T. Kurtzman, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN joined the Bloustein School in August 2022 as Professor with tenure and will assume the program directorship of the health administration program.
“Ellen’s accomplishments include an outstanding record in scholarship,
a clear ability to run our health administration programs, teaching excellence,
and a commitment to public service. We are thrilled to have her join the
Bloustein School and I look forward to working with her.”
— Interim Dean Stuart Shapiro
Dr. Kurtzmanis a health services researcher and arrived at Rutgers with 15 years of academic experience at The George Washington University (GW). At GW, she served as a tenured associate professor of nursing with secondary appointments in the university’s Milken Institute School of Public Health and Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration.
Dr. Kurtzman’s investigator-initiated research explores the impact of federal, state, and institutional policies on health care delivery and the role of the health care workforce in achieving higher value care. Her most recent work explores the role of team-based care in the quality of office-based physician practices and the impact of states’ cannabis policies on health outcomes. She has led studies examining the quality of care and the services delivered by nurse practitioners and physician assistants, the impact of occupational restrictions on clinician practice, the effect of Medicaid expansion on community health centers, and the influence of performance-based payment programs on practitioner behavior. In 2021, Dr. Kurtzman was awarded a grant from The Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement Policy Center (DEPC) titled “The Impact of Recreational Marijuana Laws on Marijuana Use Disorder during ‘Treat and Release’ Visits to Hospital Emergency Departments, 2017-2019” which has been the focus of her most recent research.
Throughout her career, Dr. Kurtzman has pursued unique extramural collaborations to advance her scholarship. From 2018-2019, she was one of only eight mid-career professionals selected to participate in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Fellows program. During her year on Capitol Hill and in the Administration, she worked in the Office of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, The Honorable Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), and in the Office of the Surgeon General, Jerome M. Adams, MD, MPH. From 2014-2016, Dr. Kurtzman served as the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)/AcademyHealth Health Policy Fellow, which placed her “in residence” at NCHS to collaborate with federal researchers and access NCHS restricted data assets. From 2011 to 2012, was an affiliate scholar at the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center. Serving as both a collaborator from 2007-2010 and Visiting Nurse Scholar from 2010-2011 with the New Courtland Center for Transitions and Health at The University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Kurtzman advanced and built policy support for a model of care for chronically ill elderly, referred to as the Transitional Care Model.
Before joining academia, Dr. Kurtzman served in senior capacities for organizations such as the American Red Cross, National Quality Forum (NQF), American Health Care Association, National PACE Association, and the Partnership for Behavioral Healthcare. While at NQF, she was the architect of national consensus standards for measuring nursing’s contribution to quality. She also led NQF’s national efforts to establish hospital and home health care quality and performance standards.
Dr. Kurtzman received her PhD in public policy and administration from GW’s Trachtenberg School, her MPH from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and her BSN from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2009, Dr. Kurtzman was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.