Benjamin Sommers, PhD, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School

Professor of Health Policy and Economics
Department of Health Policy and Management
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Benjamin Sommers, MD, PhD is a health economist and a practicing primary care physician whose research focuses on Medicaid, health insurance, and vulnerable populations. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Alice Hersh New Investigator Award, and the 2015 Article-of-the-Year Award from AcademyHealth, a preeminent national association of health policy researchers; and the Outstanding Junior Investigator Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine. He served as a Senior Advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, from 2011-2012. His work has been published in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Health Affairs, and his research has been widely covered in the media, including The New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He received his B.A. from Princeton, and his M.D. and Ph.D. in health policy from Harvard.