As the College of William and Mary returns to in-person classes, Director of the Schroeder Center for Health Policy Jennifer Mellor is excited about the class offerings, research and several other opportunities she partakes in that allow her students to grow. Mellor, who teaches in both the economics and public policy departments, and is the current head of graduate studies for the Masters of Public Policy program.
“I went to graduate school in economics, and I received a Ph.D. in econ,” Mellor said. “I had gone to graduate school because I attended a liberal arts institution, and as an undergraduate, I was really excited to work with a faculty member on research. When I was on the job market, looking for a place to land, I was really drawn to William and Mary because those opportunities for students to work together with faculty were really strong here.”
Mellor teaches a variety of courses across all levels of education at the College. Currently, she is teaching a COLL 150 course called ‘The Economics of Bad Behavior.’ In addition to this course, she is teaching several courses on the 300 and 400 level pertaining to health policy and economics. At the graduate level, Mellor teaches a master’s course about healthcare policy.
Mellor’s position as the Director of the Schroeder Center for Health Policy allows her to help educate policymakers and lawmakers, as well as students, about a broad array of public policies related to healthcare and population health. The three main goals of this center include providing people in power with timely analysis of healthcare problems, supporting students of the College studying in health-focused public policy fields and bolstering faculty who are actively engaged in research on health and healthcare policy.
“One of the things that the Schroeder Center tries to do is to create ways for students at William and Mary to learn more about health policy,” Mellor said. “This can include research, but it can include other things like course offerings, a speaker series and other opportunities to connect with other students who are interested in health policy. And on the research side, we have a health policy research lab that we offer. It’s a lot of different activities and ways for students to get connected to health policy, and right now one of our activities is focused on behavioral health policy.”
“One of the things that the Schroeder Center tries to do is to create ways for students at William and Mary to learn more about health policy,” Mellor said. “This can include research, but it can include other things like course offerings, a speaker series and other opportunities to connect with other students who are interested in health policy. And on the research side, we have a health policy research lab that we offer. It’s a lot of different activities and ways for students to get connected to health policy, and right now one of our activities is focused on behavioral health policy.”
Outside of her work with the Schroeder Center, Mellor is also involved in her own personal research where she focuses on studying policies related to Medicaid and Medicare. Her work specifically examines policies related to individuals who qualify for dual-eligibility for both of these programs.
“My research is largely focused right now on issues related to this dual-eligible population,” Mellor said. “Things like how many of those who are eligible to receive both types of benefits actually enroll and get the help they need, what types of changes in enrollment policy could make more people eligible for these important benefits, and on the payment side how can we ensure that these types of individuals are receiving the benefits that they need for certain services, and getting access to the certain services that they need for these programs. It’s really just about studying federal and state policies and how they work.”
Mellor is excited about new developments in the Master of Public Policy program at the College which was revived this fall. The program was suspended in Spring 2019 and revived in Fall 2021, missing two cohorts that would have started in Fall 2019 and Fall 2020.
“I act as director of graduate studies in the master’s program of public policy, and the master’s program has just recently relaunched,” Mellor said. “We’re excited that many students in our entering class were William and Mary undergraduates. I would definitely want William and Mary students to know that they can do a bachelor’s degree at William and Mary and a master’s of public policy here in just five years. I have been working with the leadership in the public policy program and we have some exciting developments in the program because it is recently relaunched.”
Mellor is also interested in the rising levels of individuals suffering from issues related to behavioral health.
“At this time in the U.S., we know that mental health policy and mental health is a serious concern,” Mellor said. “It is partly due to the pandemic and the social isolation that was caused by the pandemic, the stress that was caused by the pandemic, and the challenges of remote work and remote learning. So, if you look at some statistics prior to the pandemic, about 1/10 Americans reported symptoms of anxiety and depression. Now in the pandemic period, that is up to about 4/10 Americans. So people are dealing with a lot more anxiety and depression and that’s the mental health problem.”
Mellor’s interests also encompass the other side of behavioral health: substance abuse.
“On the substance abuse side, which is the other aspect of behavioral health, we know that drug overdose deaths hit a record high in 2020, with 93,000 drug overdose deaths,” Mellor said. “I think that is a record increase since 1999. These 93,000 drug overdose deaths represent a lot of individuals who are dealing with substance abuse issues and didn’t find the treatments that they needed for their substance abuse, the symptoms of their substance abuse and workforce shortages in the mental health industry.”
Mellor acknowledged her research’s consequences in the real world.
“Recognizing that this is such an important time both for mental health and substance abuse, we decided to focus on what types of policies can be targeted towards these problems,” Mellow said.
