Brian C. Quinn

Brian Quinn brings his extensive background in health policy analysis and innovative program development to his work in the Foundation’s Research-Evaluation-Learning (REL) unit. In his role, he collaborates with the vice president for REL in leading a team dedicated to understanding and measuring the key health and healthcare issues that are part of the Foundation’s strategy, as well as assessing the Foundation’s organizational performance. Brian works with the vice president on the team’s strategic and tactical decisions and oversees its daily operations. He also ensures that the Foundation’s 40 years of research and evaluation initiatives, which have been integral to its success and have informed the field of philanthropy as a whole, receive widespread dissemination.

“RWJF has a distinguished history of research and evaluation and our unit’s work has had a major impact on health and health care nationwide,” says Brian. “One of our major objectives is to develop and disseminate our focused research and to share our challenges, our successes, and the lessons we’ve learned.”

Prior, Brian was assistant vice president. He also was the team director of the Foundation’s Pioneer portfolio, which promotes innovative projects marked by their ability to affect transformational change in health and healthcare. Brian led a host of breakthrough Pioneer projects such as the Program in the Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS), which looked to expand awareness of the field of placebo studies; the NYC Macroscope program, the first domestic effort to aggregate electronic health record data into a surveillance tool to inform public health decisions; and Extending the Cure, a project that addresses the rising public health problem of antibacterial resistance to antibiotics. He was also instrumental in establishing the Foundation’s initial perspectives and approaches to the issue of global health, including the leadership of its Global Ideas for U.S. Solutions team.

Previously, Brian directed a range of health policy research studies and analyses in the Research and Evaluation unit, where he developed and managed projects to bridge the research and policy worlds. Most notably, he helped support work that contributed to the policy debates around the design and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He also served as program officer on the RWJF Synthesis Project, which supports researchers to synthesize complex research findings on perennial health policy questions for the policy community.

Brian joined the Foundation in 2006, after serving as a research associate at the Petris Center on Health Care Markets and Consumer Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, he served as an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) predoctoral fellow. He also worked as a research assistant/programmer at Mathematica Policy Research.

Brian holds a PhD in health services and policy analysis from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BA in economics from Colby College in Maine. His training includes a certificate of study from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has written and presented extensively on health and healthcare reform. He also serves as the chair of the N.J. advisory board of the Trust for Public Land and as a member of the Peapack-Gladstone Environmental Commission.

Born in New Hampshire, Brian resides in Peapack-Gladstone, N.J., with his wife Tacy, a media editor for Norton publishing, and their sons Charlie and Teddy. In his leisure time, he enjoys cooking, skiing, traveling, and rooting for any Boston sports team.

Commentary by Brian

Foundations Need to Back Up the White House’s Equity Agenda With More Equitable Research

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From Brian, on the Blog