Greer Sullivan Appointed Associate Director of RAND Gulf States Policy Institute

Greer Sullivan has been appointed associate director of the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute (RGSPI) in Jackson, Miss., RAND Corporation President and CEO James A. Thomson announced today.

RGSPI was created in late 2005 to develop a long-term vision and strategy to help build a better future for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Sullivan has spent the past seven years as director of the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center. The center promotes research and builds research capacity in U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities in the South Central VA Healthcare Network and their university affiliates in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

Since 1997, Sullivan has been a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Science. She was involved in the recent formation of a College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas.

Earlier in her career, Sullivan was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar and senior scientist in RAND Health from 1989 to 1996. She then spent another three years working on RAND research projects after moving to Arkansas.

“I am delighted by Greer's return to RAND,” Thomson said. “Her strong interests in research on quality improvement interventions, rural health care, health disparities and services for people with serious mental illnesses will be a great asset in the RAND Gulf States Policy Institute's work.”

Sullivan will work closely with RGSPI Director George Penick to strengthen the institute's relationships in the region and help RAND further develop its health research in the Gulf states. She will maintain her connections with the health community in the region through a joint appointment with the South Central Veterans Healthcare Network.

Sullivan received her M.D. from the University of Mississippi School of Medicine in Jackson in 1980, and a master's degree in public health from the UCLA School of Public Health in 1989.

RAND, which is a nonprofit research organization, joined with seven universities to create RGSPI. The seven universities are: Jackson State University and the University of Southern Mississippi in Mississippi; Tulane University, the University of New Orleans and Xavier University in Louisiana; and Tuskegee University and the University of South Alabama in Alabama.

RGSPI seeks funding from nonprofit institutions, other donors, government and the private sector to conduct a broad range of studies. It is the first organization of its kind in the region to conduct a full spectrum of policy research on pressing challenges facing the three states, including problems that existed even before the hurricanes struck.