Dr. Yasmin Dada-Jones

Yasmin Dada-Jones, PhD, MPH, MSc She was appointed executive director for the Pennsylvania Medicaid Policy Center (PMPC) in February 2007. Previously, she served as the executive policy director for the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADOH). In that role, she was responsible for developing evidence-based policy for the governor’s policy office and for executive management in the PADOH.
 
Before arriving in Harrisburg she was Chief Director Social Sector, in the Policy Coordination and Advisory Service of the Presidency of South Africa in which role she provided technical policy advice to the President and Deputy President of South Africa. In this position she was instrumental in developing a blueprint for social policy action for South Africa for the next decade as well as a monitoring evaluation framework.
 
Yasmin has 10 years of experience in Public Health planning, research and implementation. She has conducted research on issues as diverse as economics to health promotion. As a health economist she has studied the impact of poverty and inequality on health. As a public health professional she has worked on women’s health and children’s health as well as concentrated on developing a sustainable Healthy Cities Program, additionally her background as a molecular biologist has also helped in developing a public health research priority process for South Africa.
 
She is an alumna of University of Pittsburgh – Graduate School of Public Health (GSPH), having earned an MSHyg there in 1992 and an MPH in 1993. She earned her PhD in Health and Economic Policy Analysis in 2002 from the University of Maryland.