Colleen Staatz uses qualitative research methods to evaluate public health and behavioral health interventions. Her areas of focus include COVID-19, routine vaccination, and the opioid epidemic.
Staatz currently serves as a lead site visitor for a qualitative study evaluating promising practices for COVID-19 testing and vaccination in states and tribal organizations. The study focuses on populations that are medically or socially at disproportionate risk for COVID-19 or related adverse outcomes. She is also exploring opioid treatment programs’ use of mobile medication units for a study for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Previously, Staatz led a task to interview state and local health officials about their experiences implementing COVID-19 case investigation and contact tracing programs for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She also has significant experience working on Mathematica’s evaluations of behavioral health programs, including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s State Targeted Response to the Opioid Crisis grant program and the U.S Department of Labor’s National Health Emergency Grants to Address the Opioid Crisis.
Before joining Mathematica in 2015, Staatz worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She holds an M.P.H. in global health from the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.
This study investigated how public health departments used case investigation and contact tracing (CI/CT) during the COVID-19 pandemic, including CI/CT methodology, staffing models, training and support, and efforts to identify or prioritize populations disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
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