Policy research

Carol J. Simon, PhD, leads The Lewin Group’s Center for Evaluation and Advanced Analytics. She brings more than 25 years of experience in health economics, evaluation design and policy consulting to help government clients design and implement effective health reforms. 

Author of more than 40 peer-reviewed articles, Simon’s work has appeared in the American Economic Review, Journal of Health Economics and Health Affairs, and has been cited in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and health care business publications.

She was an associate professor and director of the health economics program at Boston University, and a professor of public policy at the University of Illinois, University of Chicago, and UCLA; she has a doctorate from the University of Chicago and a master’s from MIT.

Cliff Goodman has 30 years of experience working with government, industry, and nonprofit organizations in such areas as health technology assessment, comparative effectiveness research, health economics and health care innovation. 

A compelling public speaker, Goodman is a nationally recognized health issues moderator and panel facilitator. He is past president of the Health Technology Assessment International and is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering.  

He received a Doctor of Philosophy from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Science from The Georgia Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University.

For nearly 30 years, Cindy Gruman, PhD has worked to improve the quality of life for individuals connected to the health and human services system by conducting policy studies, literature reviews, gap analyses and employing innovative knowledge-sharing methods.

Gruman has managed projects or collaborated on projects for the Administration for Children and Families, Veteran’s Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration, Centers for Disease Control, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Findings from her research have been published in peer-reviewed scientific literature, presented at national meetings and disseminated to federal and state policymakers. In addition, she has co-written many detailed legislative, public policy and health policy reports.

Yvonne Powell offers broad insights across the continuum of health care services, including managed care program design, acute care and long-term care financial modeling, and the design of long-term care and community support services for populations with special needs.

Powell has more than 20 years’ experience in public sector delivery of health care services, providing policy, programmatic and technical assistance to state Medicaid programs. This includes evaluating and designing new health care delivery structures and methods.

Powell received a master's degree in public policy from the University of Michigan. 

Dummit brings more than 25 years of policy analysis experience, focused on payment policies, and health care markets and spending, including a multi-year project for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on coordinating care for Medicare-Medicaid enrollees.  

She has led engagements on Medicare Special Needs Plans, accountable care organizations, Medicaid health plans, and home- and community-based services. She was formerly the director for Medicare payment issues at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Dummit has also held positions with the Alpha Center for Health Planning, the National Health Policy Forum and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Grecia M. Marrufo has extensive experience conducting empirical research on a wide range of health care programs, including managing projects and applying econometrics methods to assess policy impacts on access to care, expenditure and utilization rates. 

Marrufo was a principal research director at Acumen LLC where she focused on the Medicare program, including evaluation studies on payment demonstrations and program interventions, models to simulate the impact of changes in coverage, and performance measurement. 

She received a Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from the University of Chicago.