Ellen Kurtzman is a professor of Health Administration at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Prior to her arrival at Bloustein, Dr. Kurtzman spent 15 years at The George Washington University (GW) with appointments in the Schools of Nursing, Public Health, and Public Policy. Dr. Kurtzman teaches health systems, health policy, population health, research, and statistics. Her investigator-initiated research explores the impact of federal, state, and institutional policies on healthcare delivery and the role of the healthcare workforce in achieving higher-value care. Her most recent work focuses on the influence of states’ changing cannabis policies on health care delivery. Given her expertise in this area, Dr. Kurtzman served, by invitation, on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committee, which released the 2024 report Cannabis Policy Impacts Public Health and Health Equity.
From 2018-2019, Dr. Kurtzman served as one of eight Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellows and worked in the Office of the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Office of the Surgeon General. From 2014 to 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. From 2011 to 2012, she was an affiliate scholar at the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center, and from 2007-2011, she collaborated with scholars at the University of Pennsylvania to build 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 large health services organizations, including the American Red Cross, the National Quality Forum (NQF), the American Health Care Association, and the National PACE Association.
She 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.
Research Interests
- Impact of federal, state, and institutional policies on health care delivery
- Cannabis use and cannabis policy
- Role of the healthcare workforce in achieving higher value care
- Team-based care
- Quality of care and the services delivered by nurse practitioners and physician assistants
- The influence of performance-based payment programs on practitioner behavior.
Undergraduate Courses
- Health policy and political processes
Graduate Courses
- Healthcare administration
- Health systems
- Health policy
- Population health
- Research methods
- Statistics