Laura Nolan

Laura Nolan is a Senior Researcher with expertise in Medicaid data analytics, the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Analytic Files (TAF), and quantitative methods. Focus areas for her work include behavioral health, Medicaid and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program), and children’s health and well-being.

Nolan leads a large portion of the analytics work under Mathematica’s Medicaid and CHIP Business Information Solutions (MACBIS) contract with the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS). In this role, Nolan provides senior review and quality assurance for analytic products developed under the project. She has also led enhancements to the TAF to enable analyses of equity in the Medicaid and CHIP programs, developed topics on TAF data quality, and contributed to public use files and dashboards to support CMCS and other stakeholders.

Previously, Nolan led the annual development and publication of the congressionally mandated T-MSIS Substance Use Disorder Data Book under the MACBIS contract. She also led work under that contract piloting the use of the TAF for calculating quality measures for the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment benefit in Medicaid and for the Adult and Child Core Set measures.

Under a contract with the Department of Health Care Services in California, Nolan led the Medicaid data acquisition and assessment process for an evaluation of a Medi-Cal nutrition support program for beneficiaries with congestive heart failure and has provided senior review and quality assurance for a project with the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation within Health and Human Services.

Before joining Mathematica, Nolan completed a summer fellowship in Data Science for Social Good at the University of Chicago and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Columbia University School of Social Work. Her research has been published in the Journal of Economic and Social Measurement, Survey Research Methods, Social Science & Medicine, the American Journal of Public Health, and Population Research and Policy Review, among other publications. Nolan holds a Ph.D. in demography and social policy from Princeton University and a M.Sc. from the Harvard School of Public Health.