Meet our new faculty: Becky Staiger
- Discipline: Health Policy and Health Economics
- Research interests: I am interested in understanding how marginalized populations (such as Medicaid enrollees) access and utilize the healthcare system, particularly through their relationship with their providers.
- Hometown: Madison, WI
- Current City: Berkeley
- Hobbies: Long “dog walks” with my husband, kids, and our dog
In July 2023, Berkeley Public Health welcomed new assistant professor of health policy and management Becky Staiger. Dr. Staiger received her PhD in Health Policy and Management from Yale in 2019 and her BA from Williams College in 2009. We asked her about her work and hopes for the semester.
Berkeley Public Health: Where did you live and work before joining the UC Berkeley School of Public Health?
Becky Staiger: From 2019 until now, I was a postdoc at Stanford.
What drew you to work and teach at UC Berkeley? Are there any researchers here who you really wanted to work with?
I don’t have a concise answer to this—I’m really excited to be joining Berkeley for a variety of reasons, both academic and cultural, and I’m excited to meet many new collaborators and colleagues.
What are you currently working on?
I work on a variety of projects, many of which use a large national Medicaid claims database to explore how policies and providers affect patterns of healthcare utilization among Medicaid enrollees. For example, in one project, I look at how Medicaid enrollees treated by providers who prescribe lots of opioids use opioids differently than Medicaid enrollees who are treated by providers who prescribe fewer opioids. In another project with colleagues that we began in response to the recent Dobbs Supreme Court ruling, we seek to understand the implications of closures of abortion-providing clinics on healthcare utilization patterns and outcomes among women of traditionally child-bearing age who are enrolled in Medicaid.
What are your hopes going into the fall semester?
I will be on maternity leave until October, and then am excited to jump in and get to know students and faculty both in and outside of the division of health policy and management.