Petry is a mixed-methods researcher and evaluator with more than a decade of experience leading and supporting studies focused on Medicaid and CHIP, behavioral health, rural health systems, community-engaged research, health care delivery, and health system transformation. She has extensive experience designing and conducting qualitative and mixed-methods studies, including interviews, focus groups, surveys, administrative data analyses, and participatory research approaches that engage community members, providers, and other stakeholders throughout the research process.

Petry has directed and supported projects for federal agencies, state governments, foundations, academic institutions, and health systems. Her work spans a range of topics, including Medicaid policy, behavioral health, health workforce development, maternal health, gambling, public health preparedness, reproductive health, and rural health system transformation. She regularly works at the intersection of policy, implementation, and evaluation, helping organizations understand how programs are experienced by participants and how findings can inform service delivery and program improvement.

Her research interests include health care access, patient experiences within health systems, identity measurement in survey and administrative data, community-engaged research methods, and factors that influence how individuals interact with health care and social service programs. Her doctoral research examined identity measurement and experiences navigating health care systems, including perceptions of treatment, communication, and access to care.

Petry has extensive experience partnering with community organizations, advisory boards, and individuals with lived experience to design studies, interpret findings, and develop recommendations. She specializes in translating research findings into practical strategies that strengthen health programs, improve service delivery, and support evidence-based decision making.

Her recent work includes leading the Minnesota Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) evaluation; supporting the Morehouse School of Medicine’s evaluation of the Network for Community-Engaged Primary Care Research (NCPCR); contributing to studies of sports betting among young adults in Massachusetts; supporting CMS technical assistance initiatives focused on behavioral health crisis response systems, behavioral health workforce capacity, substance use disorder treatment and recovery, and integrated behavioral health care; and supporting rural health system transformation initiatives. Across these projects, she applies qualitative and mixed-methods approaches to generate evidence that informs policy, implementation, and practice.

Earlier in her career, Pretry served as a policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured, where she assessed the effects of policies on Medicaid, low-income, uninsured, and immigrant populations.