Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

Washington Post Catch and Kill, not noticeably better than the Enquirer’s.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

People are complicated. Love is not.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

When you’re a Republican, they let you do it.

Everybody saw this coming.

Hey Washington Post, “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was supposed to be a warning, not a mission statement.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You are here: Home / Anderson On Health Insurance / Solidarity and Dissertation phase

Solidarity and Dissertation phase

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Good news everybody!

The Union was approved for Duke Grad Students. I voted yes along with 88% of my colleagues.

Solidarity and Dissertation phase

Personal life updates now as a grad student.

I completed my comprehensive exams and my required class work last May. I’m filing the forms to establish my dissertation committee this week.  I’ve gotten conceptual buy-in on my aims.  The data is all public use files.  I intend to speed run my dissertation phase with the objective of being done by the end of next summer.

For the jackals who are in the academic health policy universe:

I AM ON THE MARKET

I am looking for a tenure-track position with both research and teaching responsibilities.

I have two comparative advantages.

I  am good at seeing odd policy hooks because I have ridiculously deep subject matter expertise on the Affordable Care Act’s individual health insurance marketplaces.  I repeatedly and rapidly assemble teams from several institutions with access to relevant data to probe that oddity.  We then quickly write and publish papers aiming for policy impact in good journals. We’ve done that for advertising and navigators, automatic re-enrollment, automatic re-enrollment into dominated plans, plan re-entry, zero premium plans and the impact of affordability from Silverloading.  I have something to add to this list currently under review.  It started as a screenshot in a Twitter DM in February.  We question an assumption that a lot of states make.  Our evidence shows that things don’t work the way people think it works.  Secondly, I have a demonstrated history of production which substantially lowers the variance of my future outcomes.  In sports terms, I’m a high floor draft pick.

The median gestation time for my H-index papers is under a year.  This is what I love to do and what I do well. It is my strength.  It is my weakness. My five year research agenda is not as settled as many folks and it is not disease specific.  That is not the easiest thing to fund through the NIH grant mechanism.  This  shapes where I likely can fit well.

Teaching gives me energy. Let me teach undergrads, let me teach masters students, let me teach doctoral students!  I have designed and implemented a new class at Duke Sanford as an instructor of record. I have supervised master student capstone projects.  I have acted as mentors to younger students.  All of this gives me energy and new ideas to think about for my research.

Geography — I’m open to a mostly national search with some weather preferences.  I will very happily move to a state where teenagers are only stressed out about a test in 4th period calculus and whether that cutie in biology laughed yesterday with the funny comment or at the speaker of the not so funny comment. You know the normal stresses of being a teen instead of having a state sanctioned target on their back because of who they are.

I’m revising my job market materials right now and starting to look at the listings on a regular basis.  If you happen to know of things that could be interesting please send it to me at my Duke e-mail address (dma34 is the left hand side of the address)

 

Reader Interactions

40Comments

  1. 1.

    Burnspbesq

    “Well, what if we throw in Cameron season tickets? Would you stick around then?”

    Said no Duke department chair, ever.

  3. 3.

    Redshift

    Best of luck! It’s extremely unlikely, but if something relevant happens to randomly come to my attention, I’ll be sure to pass it along.

  4. 4.

    wmd

    What are your geographical preferences? (Edit: while you stated open to national, you did mention weather preferences)

    Your vita should lead to interest.

  6. 6.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    Congratulations and good luck to you! I don’t comment much but I do read just about everything you write regarding insurance and the ACA/ health care policy, which I deeply appreciate.

    Again, good luck!!

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    To think we all knew you when…

    I know nothing about your field and opportunities in it — instead I will be back here in the cheering section with the other Juicers who know nothing about health policy employment possibilities. Fingers, toes, eyes crossed for you.

  11. 11.

    evap

    @David Anderson:  I guess that knocks out the fine private institution of higher learning where I work, in Hotlanta.  January is usually fine, July not so much.  Although we do have a top-notch School of Public Health.

    Congratulations!  Good luck with the job search.

  14. 14.

    Fake Irishman

    I know we have chatted about Texas being a no-go zone. We’re working on cleaning the varmits out here.

    Also, that union logo looks a lot like University of Michigan’s Graduate Employee Organization’s…..

  15. 15.

    bbleh

    Congratulations!  One more hoop to jump through.

    Judging from your posts, you may already have a topic picked out, but if not, allow me to recommend that you go small.  There are many fascinating and highly relevant problems to be tackled, most of which are properly the work of a chunk of an academic career, or perhaps of an institute.  Find something achievable, do a good job on it, and get done!  Far too many people leave with an A.B.D.

  18. 18.

    Maxim

    I’m no longer in academia, so I will simply wish you the best of luck, knowing that you will enhance any institution you choose. I hope you will have an embarrassment of riches available.

  24. 24.

    Anonymous At Work

    1. Cough Need IRB help, let me know cough
    2. I’ve talked with some Duke IRB people.  No promises for all fields.
  27. 27.

    Miss Bianca

    Congratulations! And don’t forget the little people down below when you start ascending that Stairway to (Academic) Heaven!//

  29. 29.

    CaseyL

    Woo hoo! Congrats and good luck!

    University of Washington has been described as a medical school with a general university loosely attached to it. I don’t know if Seattle is one of your targets (our weather is famously lousy most of the year, as in cold and drizzly, but rarely too cold; while our summers unfortunately are turning hotter every year) but we do have a School of Public Health and an Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

    Best of luck in the search!​​​​​

    Link: https://sph.washington.edu/careers/jobs​

  30. 30.

    gene108

    @evap:

    I guess that knocks out the fine private institution of higher learning where I work, in Hotlanta. January is usually fine, July not so much. Although we do have a top-notch School of Public Health.

    From living in the South, there’s not much difference in summertime temperatures and humidity between Durham, NC, South Carolina, and Georgia.

  31. 31.

    Yutsano

    MAZEL TOV YA CRAZY KID!

    I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but I will second the recommendation of U of W.

  37. 37.

    frosty

    @David Anderson: Ha! Well, slightly more sincerely, good luck.

    I gave up on San Diego after graduating into Nixon’s recession. Went back to LA with my tail between my legs. Said to the college placement office: “Get me an engineering job doing anything in Southern California.” I ended up at Fluor, nothing remotely like what I was hoping for. Turned out to be a pretty good job with a lot of good co-workers.

  38. 38.

    Madeleine

    Dead thread, but: congratulations on the union and—even more—heading to dissertation land. Have fun!!

  39. 39.

    Burnspbesq

    @David Anderson:

    “UCSD” and “affordable housing” are, unfortunately, two terms that you will never again see in the same sentence. Same goes for every other UC campus except Merced and maybe Davis.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Congrats all around. I fully expect your “all but dissertation” period to end in 1 year.

Comments are closed.