Benjamin D. Sommers

Benjamin D. Sommers, M.D., Ph.D., is professor of health policy and economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His main research interests are health policy for vulnerable populations, the uninsured, and the health care safety net. Dr. Sommers has received numerous awards for his research, including the Outstanding Dissertation Award, Alice Hersh New Investigator Award, and Article of the Year Award from AcademyHealth. He is a practicing primary care internist, and is also associate professor of medicine at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. From 2011–2012 Dr. Sommers served as a senior advisor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and served in a part-time advisory role from 2013 to 2016. His current research projects focus on barriers to health care access among low-income adults, Medicaid policy, and national health reform. Dr. Sommers received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and his doctorate in health policy from Harvard University.