Julia is a health policy researcher specializing in Medicaid and Medicare data, program evaluation, health care quality measurement, and data strategy. At NORC, she provides expertise in administrative data analysis, measure development, stakeholder engagement, and federal health policy to help government agencies and health care leaders make evidence-based decisions. Julia has over a decade of experience working with Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), state Medicaid agencies, and large-scale health datasets, leading efforts to improve data quality, evaluate health system performance, and translate complex policy and technical requirements into actionable guidance. She bridges the gap between data, policy, and operations by developing meaningful performance measures, analyzing program outcomes, and communicating technical findings to diverse audiences.

Before joining NORC, Julia held leadership roles at Mathematica on several high-profile CMS initiatives focused on Medicaid and Medicare program improvement. She served as data quality measures lead for the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Business Information Systems program, where she led the development and implementation of Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) data quality measures and helped states improve the completeness, accuracy, and usability of Medicaid data submitted to CMS. Julia also served as data and content lead for the Medicaid and CHIP Scorecard, overseeing measure selection, data products, and public-facing reporting developed in collaboration with CMS. In addition, she contributed to evaluations of the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus model, Medicaid Section 1115 demonstrations, and Medicare Shared Savings Program learning initiatives, helping assess the impact of value-based payment and delivery system reforms on quality, utilization, and cost outcomes.

Earlier in her career, Julia built a strong foundation in health policy research through positions in academia and applied policy research. At Georgetown University and the Urban Institute, she conducted quantitative analyses on health insurance policy, provider behavior, and health care access, including research that informed recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and studies examining state insurance regulations and provider practice patterns. At Evergreen Health Cooperative, Julia helped oversee research evaluating primary care interventions for patients with chronic conditions and developed analytic approaches to assess insurance enrollment initiatives.