Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs Emeritus & Faculty Director, Newark
Center for State Health Policy
fthompson@ifh.rutgers.edu, (848) 932-4656
Frank J. Thompson (Ph.D, University of California, Berkeley) is Distinguished Professor of Public Affairs and Administration Emeritus at Rutgers-Newark and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy in New Brunswick. Professor Thompson has served as a fellow with the U.S. Public Health Service and published extensively on issues of health policy and implementation. He has especially focused on issues of health policy and federalism, participating in multiple funded projects related to this subject. In 2008, Professor Thompson received a Robert Wood Johnson Investigator Award to study the evolution of Medicaid policy during the Clinton, G.W. Bush, and Obama administrations. This research led to several scholarly publications and culminated in a book, Medicaid Politics: Federalism, Policy Durability, and Health Reform (Georgetown University Press). Professor Thompson’s more recent publications have focused on how the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations have sought to shape the Affordable Care Act. This research informed his co-authored book, Trump, the Administrative Presidency, and Federalism (Brookings Institution), which received the 2021 Brownlow Award from the National Academy of Public Administration. Professor Thompson is currently a co-editor of the Tracking Health Reform section of the Journal of Health Policy, Politics, and Law.
