Dr. Karen Edison, M.D.
Co-Director, Center for Health Policy

Karen Edison, M.D., is a clinician, educator, and researcher, with health policy expertise. She received her medical degree and completed her residency in dermatology at the University of Missouri in Columbia, where she joined the faculty in 1993. She served as Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow and then majority health policy staff for the Health Education Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee in the United States Senate from 1999-2001, where she was instrumental in the legislative expansion of Medicare reimbursement for telehealth services.

Edison was a key member of the legislative team that drafted the reauthorization of the Community Health Center Programs and spent two years as key staff in a bipartisan coalition that developed the “Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Act”, which was finally signed in to federal law in 2005. She returned to Missouri in 2001 where her current titles include Philip C. Anderson Professor and Chairman of the Department of Dermatology, Medical Director of the Missouri Telehealth Network, and Co-Director of the Center for Health Policy at the University of Missouri in Columbia.

Dr. Kristofer Hagglund, PhD
Co-Director, Center for Health Policy

Dr. Hagglund is the Associate Dean for Health Policy and Professor of Health Psychology. He was a 2000-2001 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the Office of Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), where he worked on legislation addressing patients’ rights, mental health parity, rural health care, health professions workforce, community health centers, and the National Health Service Corps.

Dr. Hagglund has an active research program and has published in the areas of adaptation to chronic illnesses and disabilities, health care delivery systems, and professional issues. His current projects include a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate a consumer-driven personal assistance services program being implemented by the State of Missouri. He is the principal investigator of the Missouri Model Spinal Cord Injury System, a five-year research and demonstration project funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.Dr. Hagglund is co-principal investigator of the Missouri Arthritis Rehabilitation Research and Training Center, where he is conducting a study of health care delivery systems for people with arthritis. Also, he directs a post-doctoral training program in rehabilitation research funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Hagglund obtained a B.A. in psychology from Illinois State University and a Ph.D. in Clinical (Medical) Psychology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Gwen Ratermann, Associate Director

Gwen Ratermann is currently Associate Director of the Center for Health Policy, previously serving as the Director for Health Policy at University of Missouri Health Care. From 2000 - 2003 she was Director of Government Relations for MU Health Care. Previous to her work at MU Health Care, she served as Director of the Communications Office for the Missouri House of Representatives from 1997-1998 after working as a speechwriter for the House members for two years. Ratermann holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rockhurst College in Kansas City, MO.

Stanton Hudson, MA, Project Director

Mr. Hudson is currently the Senior Health Policy Analyst for the Center for Health Policy. He is a graduate of Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History. He is currently studying to achieve a Master of Arts in Sociology at the University of Missouri. His professional experience includes state legislative research; public policy analysis; design, coordination, and implementation of research projects, large-scale data collection, coding, and management; assessment of organizational structure; and statistical analysis of data. His interests include local, state and federal health policy, racial and ethnic health disparities research, and telemedicine evaluation.

LaRita Emanuel, Administrative Assistant

- Biography Forthcoming -

Amy Sigman, Project Development Specialist

- Biography Forthcoming -