Center for Delivery, Organization, and Markets (CDOM): Staff Biographies

Cindy Brach

Cindy Brach is a Senior Health Policy Researcher at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). She conducts and oversees research on health literacy, cultural and linguistic competence, chronic care, and Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). Cindy leads AHRQ's health literacy activities, coordinating AHRQ's work in developing measures and improving the evidence base, and integrating health literacy activities throughout AHRQ's portfolios and serves on the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Health Literacy Roundtable. Cindy's health literacy projects have included the development of a Health Literacy Universal Precautions Toolkit, CAHPS® Item Set for Addressing Health Literacy, and the AHRQ Informed Consent and Authorization Toolkit for Minimal Risk Research. Cindy is also AHRQ's point person for cultural competence. She has developed a research agenda for cultural competence, and is currently overseeing projects to improve cultural competence in hospitals. Cindy participates in the Prevention/Care Management Portfolio. Her work in the chronic care area includes commissioning the development of Integrating Chronic Care and Business Strategies in the Safety Net: A Toolkit for Primary Care Practices and Clinics, and overseeing a study of its implementation. Cindy's work on Medicaid and SCHIP notably included the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative (CHIR) a public-private partnership. She currently oversees the National Evaluation of CMS CHIPRA Quality Demonstration Grants.

Cindy has published in journals such as Health Affairs, Medical Research and Review, American Journal of Health Behavior, Health Care Financing Review, and Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. Cindy's earlier experience includes serving as a mental health policy research director, a welfare reform consultant and provider of technical assistance, a SState-level administrator, and a municipal policy analyst. Cindy received her Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley, where she was also advanced to Ph.D. candidacy.

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