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Dr. Jay Himmelstein is a nationally recognized physician, researcher and educator in the areas of occupational and environmental health, worker's compensation health care, disability and employment policy, and public sector health information technology policy. He has authored over 60 publications, has lectured nationally and internationally in his areas of expertise, and has been awarded over $15 million in extramural funding as a principal investigator on grants funded by federal agencies and national foundations over the course of his career.

Dr. Himmelstein is a Professor of Family Medicine & Community Health and Internal Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. He has held numerous academic and administrative positions during his career including: Director of the Occupational and Environmental Health Program (1988-1996), Founding Director of the University of Massachusetts Center for Health Policy and Research (CHPR) (1997-2007), and Assistant Chancellor for Health Policy (1992-2007). While directing the Center for Health Policy and Research he developed an innovative policy research collaboration with the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) designed to enhance the evaluation and research capabilities of EOHHS in support of improving consumer service and health outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries while effectively managing costs for the Commonwealth.

Professor Himmelstein is an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. He has served as a National Program Director for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Workers' Compensation Health Initiative. He sits on numerous editorial boards of peer-reviewed journals and has served on grant review sections for the National Institutes of Health and the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Dr. Himmelstein has served as an expert consultant for the Institute of Medicine and the Social Security Administration on the intersection of Health care, Disability and Employment Policy. He served as the Physician representative on the Massachusetts Public Health Council from 1988 to 1992, and worked as a Health staff member with Senator Edward Kennedy for the US Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources (currently the HELP committee) during his sabbatical year as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow from 1991-1992.

Dr. Himmelstein is committed to improving health care and health outcomes for those who are served by the public sector, with a special emphasis on people with disabilities. His current research and policy efforts are focused on improving the effectiveness of public sector health care through the transformative power of health information technology and health information exchange. He is currently leading several projects related to health information technology in the public sector funded by the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Dr. Himmelstein is currently the principal investigator on the Massachusetts Medicaid Infrastructure and Comprehensive Employment Opportunities Grant (MI-CEO) funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This multi-year collaboration with CMS and the State of Massachusetts is focused on maximizing employment opportunities for people with disabilities through applied research, and policy and infrastructure development.

Professor Himmelstein holds an MD degree from the University of Maryland, a BA from Johns Hopkins University, and an MPH and MS degrees from the Harvard School of Public Health. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Occupational and Environmental Health/Preventive Medicine and is a member of the American College of Physicians.