AP-NORC Center Experts

Micah is a vice president in the Economics, Justice, and Society department at NORC. He collaborates with department leadership to facilitate and direct department functions including recruitment and staffing, business development, and financial management. In addition to his department leadership role, Micah currently serves as the chair of NORC’s Institutional Review Board.

Micah has more than 25 years of experience working in research and survey management, with particular expertise in the lifecycle management of large-scale cross-sectional and panel surveys utilizing responsive design and multimode technical solutions to facilitate data collection. Micah’s responsibilities include the development and implementation of project management tools and indicators; the enhancement of training and oversight programs for large data collection teams (> 150 staff); and the promotion of measurement and monitoring techniques pertaining to quality assurance and process improvement across project tasks, milestones, and deliverables.

At NORC, Micah has led activities on several national surveys including data collection efforts for programs funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the National Science Foundation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Agency for Children and Families, and the U.S. Census Bureau. For over 20 years, Micah has worked on the Survey of Consumer Finances, currently serving as senior advisor. Sponsored by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Survey of Consumer Finances collects detailed measures of wealth, including information on the assets, liabilities, and demographic characteristics of U.S. households. Micah also recently served as the director of field operations for the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, a continuous, multipurpose survey of a nationally representative sample of the Medicare population conducted for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Micah also plays a critical role in the development of effective teams and the promotion of knowledge-sharing across management and operational teams within NORC. This includes cultivating internal functional teams and building external partnerships to design effective and responsive research operations, while also fostering opportunities for staff growth and exploration through the development of innovative solutions. As an example of this collaborative exchange, Micah served as project director for NORC’s role in the Chicago COVID Contact Tracing Corps, leading a team of resource navigators trained to provide critical services and resources to Chicago residents in need during the pandemic.

Adil works on issues at the intersection of health care and public health. Adil has 25 years of experience in health services research, consulting, and program evaluation. He has extensive knowledge of federal and state programs to support health care financing and delivery with expertise in the health care safety net and health IT programs.

Adil directs NORC’s Physician Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) support contract with the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NORC supports the PTAC federal advisory committee’s work by conducting in-depth policy analysis, facilitating expert convenings, and providing analytic support central to the Committee’s review of alternative payment models proposals submitted for consideration. Previously, Adil directed a multi-million-dollar evaluation of Health Care Innovation Awards funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. These projects aimed to improve health care quality, control health care costs, and improve health outcomes. The interventions fostered integration and communication across health care settings and help patients access health education, behavioral health, and social support resources. Each project focused on a population with conditions (e.g., diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease) that drive morbidity, mortality, and avoidable health care expenditures.

Prior to coming to NORC, Adil was a consultant for the Lewin Group. At Lewin, he conducted strategic planning, program evaluation and market analysis projects for government agencies, biotechnology firms, and health care associations. He also served as an analyst at ASPE’s Division of Health Policy. At ASPE, he helped coordinate research activities across HHS and helped design the first ever national evaluation of the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

Kristina has 30 years of evaluation and policy expertise in health-care delivery and payment reform, Medicare and Medicaid, chronic care, disability, and health IT. Kristina is a vice president and senior fellow in the Health Care Evaluation department at NORC. Kristina has directed numerous large-scale quantitative and qualitative studies on behalf of state and federal government agencies, not-for-profit and consumer organizations, academic researchers, foundations, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and professional associations. These mixed-methods studies have included quantitative analyses of secondary data such as Medicare and Medicaid claims and primary data collected through original surveys, focus groups, structured interviews, and site visits. Kristina has published research in peer-reviewed publications on innovative approaches to payment- and delivery-system reform such as accountable care organizations (ACOs), access to care, state variations in the coverage and delivery of mental-health and substance-abuse services, public attitudes concerning mental illness and substance abuse.

Among her ongoing projects at NORC, Kristina is the project director of the evaluations of the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) Model and the ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She also serves as a senior advisor to the Vermont All-Payer ACO Model Evaluation and the Evaluation of Rhode Island’s Medicaid Section 1115 Waiver. In addition, she oversees the department’s human services evaluation work, which includes research for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL); as well as its military and veterans health research portfolio, serving the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). Kristina also leads a number of internal cross-cutting initiatives focused on disability and behavioral health.

Prior to joining NORC, Kristina was a Research Director at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, where she managed the multi-stakeholder Accountable Care Organization Learning Network and the Long-Term Quality Alliance. Kristina was previously a senior analyst in the Office of Policy at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where she managed the Office’s Medicare Part D portfolio and the launch of several on-line consumer resources. She served as a Part D liaison between the Office of the Administrator, other parts of the Agency and DHHS, Capitol Hill, and external organizations. Prior to CMS, Kristina was a senior research manager at Harris Interactive and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kristina has served as an Instructor at Harvard College, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard School of Public Health.