Managing the Health Commons
Who’s Involved
Project Director:
Michael D. McGinnis, PhD (Political Science), is Principal Investigator and Director of Managing the Health Commons, a project of ReThink Health. A Professor of Political Science, he is Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington, an inter-disciplinary research and teaching center focused on the study of institutions, development, and governance. A globally recognized center for institutional analysis, the Workshop was initially established in 1973 by Vincent and Elinor Ostrom. Its continuing importance was dramatically recognized when Elinor Ostrom was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Professor McGinnis’ current research focuses on the ways in which health care policy in the U.S. can be improved through increased collaboration among stakeholders at the community or regional level, rather than relying on reforms at national or state levels. Professor McGinnis received a BS in mathematics from The Ohio State University in 1980 and a PhD in Political Science from The University of Minnesota in 1985 and has worked at IU ever since.
Core Faculty:
Elinor (Lin) Ostrom, MA, PhD, the 2009 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, serves as a key advisor to ReThink Health, an initiative of the Fannie E. Rippel Foundation. Dr. Ostrom is also Core Faculty of ReThink Health’s project, Managing the Health Commons, which is led by the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Ostrom is Senior Research Director of the Workshop which she established in 1973 with her husband, Vincent Ostrom. She is also Distinguished Professor and Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science at Indiana University. Dr. Ostrom is author of Governing the Commons (1990), in which she theorizes that it is possible for users of common pool resources such as forests, fisheries, oil fields, grazing lands, and irrigation systems to work together and avoid a tragic fate by coordinating their resource usage and replenishment activities in a sustainable fashion. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Dr. Ostrom is the recipient of numerous other honors. Dr. Ostrom publishes prolifically and since the publication of Governing the Commons, has completed many others, most recently, Working Together: Collective Action, the Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice (2010, with Amy Poteete and Marco Janssen). She received her undergraduate degree, MA and PhD from UCLA.
Additional participants include:
Joan Pong Linton, PhD, serves as Research Faculty for Managing the Health Commons, a project of ReThink Health, led by the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Linton is an Associate Professor of English at Indiana University where she has taught a wide range of courses in literature, writing, literary theory and early modern literature. The author of numerous published works on early modern English writers, her current research is focused on early modern trickster poetics and politics. Dr. Linton earned her PhD at Stanford University.
Claudia A. Brink, MBA, MPA, is Co-Investigator for Managing the Health Commons, a project of ReThink Health. She also serves as Assistant Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington where she is PhD candidate in Public Policy. Ms. Brink received her undergraduate and master’s of Public Administration degrees from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. She holds an MBA from the University of Southern California.
Carrie Ann Lawrence, MS, is a Graduate Research Assistant with Managing the Health Commons, a project of ReThink Health led by the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington where she is a PhD candidate in Health Behavior. Ms. Lawrence serves as an Adjunct Instructor of Health Policy in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs as well as an Associate Instructor and Doctoral Student in the School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation at Indiana University. She has extensive experience working with children and families in social service settings which has driven her research interests in health policy, maternal/child health, family health, and health disparities.
Ryan Conway, is a Graduate Research Assistant with Managing the Health Commons, a project of ReThink Health, which is led by the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is a PhD candidate there in Political Science.