Senior Research Director, Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy

Dr. Saunders is Senior Research Director, Health Care Transformation at Duke-Margolis. In this role, he oversees the Center’s workstream on payment and delivery reform initiatives, including generating practical evidence on these reforms; translating that evidence into recommended solutions; and accelerating progress on implementing effective policy actions at the state, national, and international levels. The team includes portfolios focused on Medicare accountable care transformations, health care transformation for health equity and social needs, Medicaid and state health care transformation in North Carolina and other states, medically and socially underserved populations, and bolstering population health. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Dr. Saunders was a Senior Director and then Senior Advisor to the President of the National Quality Forum, where he focused on identifying quality measures for federal programs and broader strategic issues around the future of quality measurement, and a Senior Program Officer at the Institute of Medicine, where he examined options for improving health care value and measurement. He worked on Capitol Hill during the Affordable Care Act debates and passage, managing health care legislative affairs for Representative Rush D. Holt. He has a PhD from Duke University and an undergraduate degree from William and Mary.