The Tolan Center for Healthcare Past Events

Impact of Medical Debt Relief on Healthcare Utilization and Health, Authors: Betsy Q. Cliff, Kirsten Eom, Joseph D. Bruch

On February 13, 2026, Dr. Betsy Q. Cliff, assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Chicago shared her work in a Research Brown Bag about how health insurance impacts spending and utilization in the US health system.

On January 22, the Tolan Center and the Kilts Center will partner to host a roundtable-style discussion with Mike Nolte, a seasoned healthcare executive who has held multiple CEO roles across the healthcare industry. Drawing on decades of leadership experience, Nolte shared candid insights into navigating complex healthcare organizations, leading through change, and building impactful careers in the healthcare sector.

Terri Wareham, Managing Director and Founding Partner of Kaufman Hall. Terri's areas of expertise include development and execution of strategic and financial plans, business planning, financial advisory services, and facilitation of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and affiliations.

Laura Wallace was a Principal Researcher (postdoc) at Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. She joined Emory University's Goizueta Business School as an Assistant Professor of Organization and Management in July 2025. She completed her Ph.D. in social psychology at Ohio State University and her B.A. in Organizational Communications at Xavier University. Wallace presented, When health leaders avoid collaborating with victims due to anticipated distrust.

David Ridley, PhD, is a health economist at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. His research focuses on incentives for innovation and quality, as well as pricing. He is dedicated to creating and studying tools that improve health. Ridley presented, Optimal push and pull funding for global health.

Jiguang is a 3rd-year PhD student in Econometrics and Statistics at Booth, with a broad research interest in Bayesian statistics, machine learning, and their social science applications. Previously, he worked as a full-time research professional at the Center for Applied AI under the supervision of Sendhil Mullainathan. Jiguang holds a master's degree in statistics from Yale and a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Middlebury College.

Dr. Catina Latham, acting director of the Healthcare team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), currently leads the Health Care Team, which plays a critical role in congressional oversight of Medicaid and other health care programs. This fireside chat offered valuable insights for those curious about the future of government healthcare programs in an election year. 

Dr. Jaeyoung “Jae” Park serves as a principal researcher within the Tolan Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His scholarly pursuits are centered at the nexus of machine learning and healthcare, where he delves into comprehending healthcare systems through a lens of data. Dr. Park earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the University of Florida.
 
He presented, Evaluation of the Federal Communications Commission Rural Health Care Program’s Impacts on Broadband Infrastructures and Telehealth Utilization in Medically Underserved Areas.

Nathan Pelzer is the Co-founder and CEO of Clinify Health. Clinify Health assits payers and providers in steamlining processes to deliver more effective care. Nathan has previously worked at VillageMD and Accenture. Nathan attended the University of Minnesota-Carson School of Management and received an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Alyssa Jaffee is a Partner at 7wireVentures where she invests in companies that empower everyone to be better stewards of their health. Her portfolio includes Caraway Health, NOCD, MedArrive, Brightline, Zerigo Health, Ayogo, and Jasper Health. Previously, Alyssa was an investor at Pritzker Group Venture Capital and Hyde Park Angels. Alyssa is also a cofounder of TransparentCareer, a NVC winning company helping people make more data-driven career decisions. Alyssa spent time at the Advisory Board Company where she launched new technologies and consulted hundreds of hospital executives to understand their needs and recommend solutions.

Madjav Rajan, dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting, sat down with Matt Notowidigdo, the David McDaniel Keller Professor of Economics, at this Spring 2024 event in San Francisco. Prof. Notowidgo shared with alumni attendees recent research studying the effects of health insurance, his thoughts on the post-pandemic healthcare worker shortage, and his current projects training the healthcare workforce for the "work of the future." He also discussed some lessons from his new book Better Health Economics: A An Introduction for Everyone.

Pauline Mourot is a sixth year Ph.D. student in Economics at Chicago Booth. Her research examines the organization of production in healthcare and its consequences for aggregate healthcare quality and patients' outcomes. She presented, Are the Best Surgeons at the Best Hospitals? Sorting and Complementarities in Healthcare.

Kathy Najarian, MHA, is the Vice President of Payer Contracting and Strategy for The University of Chicago Medicine academic health system. Kathy is the senior leader responsible for managing the contract portfolio and relationships with commercial and governmental payers and setting the strategic direction for payer partnerships. Kathy previously served in similar leadership roles at Rush Health, part of the Rush University System for Health in Chicago, IL and Atrium Health, formerly Carolinas Healthcare System in Charlotte, NC.

Dilara is a third-year Ph.D. student in Chicago Booth’s Operations Management Department. She has a master's degree in Industrial Engineering. She is primarily focused on the intersection of healthcare and data analytics. Her research alongside Professor Dan Adelman centers around primary healthcare, specifically, how to optimize practice patterns to improve clinical and financial outcomes. She presented on, Primary Care Continuity, Frequency, and Regularity Associated With Medicare Saving.

The Tolan Center joined with the UChicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center to host a faculty seminar in Spring 2023. At the morning session, faculty presented recent research and leaders shared health system and patient priorities. Nearly 30 faculty from Booth and the Biological Sciences Division participated in the afternoon break-out roundtable sessions to discuss overlapping areas of mutual interest and potential new collaborations.

Steven Gould, MD, Consulting Director, Ventures, at The University of Chicago Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Steven has in-depth experience in clinical and scientific research, raising capital for and investing in early stage companies, founding and leading a development stage biotechnology company.

A fireside chat with Molly Schnell, Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Economics, Northwestern University! Her research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of provider behavior, specifically in regards to the opioid crisis, and her more recent work has shed light on the economic impact of school shootings.

A fireside chat with Bill Chase, former CFO, of AbbVie and board member of Parexel. AbbVie’s mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. They strive to have a remarkable impact on people’s lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women’s health and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio.
Parexel International is an American provider of biopharmaceutical services. It conducts clinical trials on behalf of its pharmaceutical clients to expedite the drug approval process.

The Center For Applied Artificial Intelligence at Chicago Booth (CAAI) hosts a virtual annual conference to further efforts toward combatting algorithmic bias across domains. In 2022, CAAI partnered with the Tolan Center to focus on the healthcare industry. We brought together healthcare professionals in industry and policy to advance the conversation around mitigating algorithmic bias to improve health outcomes.