About us

IHEA is a not-for-profit membership organization, with over 1,500 members from more than 100 countries. IHEA is guided by our mission, strategic goals and Bylaws, governed by a Board of Directors and Board committees, and managed by an appointed team.

IHEA’s mission is to foster an inclusive global community of health economists, committed to strengthening the field, sharing ideas and resources, developing and applying economic theory and methods and generating evidence for improved, equitable health and health care.

IHEA’s strategic goals are to: 

  1. Promote excellence in health economics research and teaching: IHEA pursues excellence in the field by supporting early-career researchers, strengthening the capacity of health economics researchers, teachers and practitioners and engaging around different methodological and theoretical approaches.
  2. Promote international engagement and collaboration among health economists: IHEA facilitates collegial engagement and promotes ethical collaborative practices between health economists across countries and world regions.
  3. Expand the profession and its impact: IHEA strives to increase recognition of the contribution of health economics to policy for social good, and to attract economists to the field, particularly in low- and middle-income countries and from diverse backgrounds.

Governance

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors meets virtually three to four times a year and is consulted electronically on key issues between meetings.

Audrey Laporte

President

Audrey Laporte

Prof. Audrey Laporte is a Professor and Director of the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto.  She is the Founding Director of the Canadian Centre for Health Economics and served as Chair of the Canadian Health Economists Study Group for 14 years. She has expertise in advancing econometric modelling of efficiency in health care including quantile regression and dynamic econometric modelling and also theoretical dynamic modelling of the demand for health. She was the co-Chair of the iHEA Congress in Toronto and, served as the iHEA Treasurer from 2016-2019. Read more

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Kara Hanson

President-Elect

Kara Hanson

Kara Hanson is Professor of Health System Economics and Dean of the Faculty of Public Health and Policy, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  She has over 30 years’ experience in health economics research, focusing on low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa and Asia. She has spent extended periods working in Africa and has led several large multi-partner, cross-regional research programs. Her research interests include health care financing, the operation of healthcare markets, human resources, and the economics of delivering priority health interventions. She has served on several IHEA Congress scientific committees and on the IHEA Board since 2018. Read more

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Winnie Yip

Past-President

Winnie Yip

Dr. Winnie Yip is Professor of Global Health Policy and Economics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and also Director of the school-wide Harvard China Health Partnership.  Her research focuses on the design, implementation, evaluation and scaling up of health system interventions, for improving affordable and equitable access to and the efficiency and quality of health care delivery, especially for the poor. Her approach typically involves large-scale social experimentation of health system interventions, particularly through collaborative projects in China and India. Dr. Yip is a Senior Editor of Social Science and Medicine (Health Policy) and Associate Editor of Health Systems and Reform. Read more

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Rosalie Viney

Treasurer

Rosalie Viney

Rosalie Viney is a Professor of Health Economics and Director of the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation at the University of Technology Sydney. She has been a member of the Finance Committee of IHEA since 2012. Her research interests include measurement and valuation of health outcomes and health related quality of life, use of discrete choice experiments to measure preferences, evaluation of health policy and health technology assessment. She has extensive experience in reimbursement decision making within the Australian context.  Read more

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Mehdi Ammi

Mehdi Ammi

Mehdi Ammi, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University in Ottawa. His research explores issues related to the determinants and effects of the organization and financing of healthcare services and of public health systems in high-income countries. Dr. Ammi is committed to connect research and policy, and he actively involves health policy makers, health system managers and clinicians in his research projects. Dr. Ammi is currently the President of the Canadian Health Economics Association, and he serves on the IHEA Student Paper Prize Committee 2021-2024. 

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John Ataguba

John Ataguba

John Ataguba is the Canada Research Chair in Health Economics at the University of Manitoba. He was previously a professor and director of the Health Economics Unit at the University of Cape Town. He is also the Executive Director of the African Health Economics and Policy Association. His research interests include health financing, health inequality, equity in health and health care, social determinants of health, health economics methodology design and the economics of ageing. He has received many awards, including the TW Kambule-NSTF emerging researcher award in South Africa (described as the ‘Oscar Award’ for science and research in South Africa).

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Josephine Borghi

Josephine Borghi

Jo is a Professor in Health Economics at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.  Jo’s research is focused on understanding how low- and middle-income country health systems respond to the incentives generated by different financing arrangements, including through the use of system dynamics and agent based modelling. Jo also leads the Health Financing Data Analysis Centre for Countdown 2030, which analyses global aid and domestic financing for Reproductive Maternal Newborn and Child Health.  Jo is co-convenor of the Health Financing for Universal Coverage Special Interest group.  Jo lives in London with her husband and three children.

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James Buchanan

James Buchanan

James Buchanan is a senior researcher in the Health Economics Research Centre at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on the health economics of genomic testing, and includes economic evaluation and stated preference work across multiple cancers and rare diseases. James joined the IHEA Board as the representative for the Health Economists' Study Group in 2023. As an IHEA member, he co-founded the Special Interest Group on the Economics of Genomics and Precision Medicine and was a convener of the ECR SIG (2017-2021). He also helped coordinate the Mentoring Programme and organised the 2019 ECR Pre-Congress Session in Basel. Read more.

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John Cawley

John Cawley

John Cawley is a Professor in the Brooks School of Public Policy, and the Department of Economics, at Cornell University, where he is Director of the Cornell in Washington program.  John is also an Honorary Professor at the National University of Ireland, Galway.  His primary field of research is the economics of risky health behaviors, with a focus on the economics of obesity. He has previously served on the Board of Directors of the American Society of Health Economists (ASHEcon), and as an Editor of the Journal of Health Economics.

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Sonja de New

Sonja de New

Sonja de New (née Kassenboehmer) is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Health Economics and Director of the Health Economics PhD Program at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Her research focuses on the intersection between labour economics and health economics with a particular focus on policy evaluation and the mental health and labour market outcomes of disadvantaged populations. She is an active member of the IHEA Special Interest Group (SIG) in Mental Health Economics and is the Vice President of the Australian Health Economics Society (AHES). She is also responsible for the scientific program of the AHES Conferences. Read more

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Claire de Oliveira

Claire de Oliveira

Claire de Oliveira is a Senior Scientist/Senior Health Economist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, Ontario, an Associate Professor at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and an Adjunct Senior Scientist at ICES.  Her main areas of research are in mental health and child health, including the role of mental health among high-cost patients, quality of care among patients with severe mental illness, and health and wellbeing among children.  Claire is a convener of the IHEA Mental Health Economics Special Interest Group.

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Ama Fenny

Ama Fenny

Ama Pokuaa Fenny is a Senior Research Fellow with the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economics Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana. She studies the role of health financing and targeted health system strategies to improve health seeking behavior and the use of cost-effectiveness methods to address the efficiency of health programmes. She has over 15 years of practical experience and has provided technical support to several international agencies. She has been a member of IHEA’s Scientific Committee for several world congresses and supports IHEA’s mentorship program. She is also a member of the IHEA SIG: Economics of Children’s Health and Wellbeing. Read more

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Emma Frew

Dorte Gyrd-Hansen

Emma is a NIHR Research Professor at the University of Birmingham, UK. Her research interests are in the economics of obesity and the use of methods to generate evidence to support public health decision making. Emma leads the Centre for Economics of Obesity that is about using health economics to support obesity policy tackling the wider determinants of disease.  She works closely with policy and commercial partners and is particularly interested in ensuring the evidence produced aligns with the decision-making needs within public health.  Emma founded the IHEA Special Interest Group in Obesity and was lead-convener from 2017-2022. Read more

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Dorte Gyrd-Hansen

Dorte Gyrd-Hansen

Dorte Gyrd-Hansen is Professor of Health Economics at the Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark and leads the Danish Centre for Health Economics (DaCHE). Previous positions include professorships at the University of Queensland and Copenhagen Business School, and a position as Director of Research at the Danish Institute of Health Services Research. Her research focuses mainly on experimental health economics, behavioral economics and elicitation of preferences.  She is a member of the Danish Medicines Council, the Danish Scientific Council of Prevention and is past president of the European Health Economics Association.

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Tiara Marthias

Tiara Marthias

Tiara Marthias, MD, PhD is a Senior Technical Advisor at the Nossal Institute for Global Health, The University of Melbourne, Australia. As a health systems researcher, she focuses on geographical and socioeconomic inequality in health care service utilisation, primarily on maternal and child health. She has contributed to RMNCH financing systems policy development and led the development of the national strategy for adolescent wellbeing in Indonesia. Her previous role includes lecturer at the Health Policy & Management Department, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia. Tiara is the Southeast Asia Equity Initiative Fellow since 2018 and was co-convenor of IHEA Early Career Researcher-Special Interest Group 2017-2021.

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Shiko Maruyama

Shiko Maruyama

Shiko Maruyama is a Professor in the Institute for Economic and Social Research at Jinan University Guangzhou, China. Before his move to China in 2021, he worked in Australia for 14 years (the University of New South Wales and University of Technology Sydney). His research interests include health insurance, the socioeconomic gradient of health, population aging, fertility, and applied econometrics. Shiko has been an active IHEA member since 2008. He co-founded the Asian Workshop on Econometrics and Health Economics (AWEHE) in 2018. Shiko currently serves as an Associate Editor of Health Economics and as a Co-Editor of Japanese Economic Review.

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Paul Rodriguez-Lesmes

Paul Rodriguez Lesmes

Paul Rodriguez-Lesmes is an associate professor at Universidad del Rosario (Colombia). He is a regular contributor to the Colombian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (IETS), the Colombian Fund for High Cost Disease (CAC). He holds a PhD in Economics from University College London (2016), and worked with the IDB, the World Bank and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). His research focuses mainly on the study of policies associated with healthy behaviours and chronic disease prevention; demographics and child development; regulation of health markets such as pharmaceuticals or personnel; and financing and universal coverage of health services. Read more

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Sally Stearns

Sally Stearns

Sally is a Professor in the Department of Health Policy & Management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research focuses on reimbursement methods, payment incentives and outcomes in the Medicare program, which covers health services for the elderly and disabled in the United States. She is especially interested in payment models for palliative and end-of-life care. Sally served twice as a Senior Advisor at the US Department of Health and Human Services. She has been a member of IHEA since its inception and helped organize the first IHEA “Mentoring Lunch” at the 2017 Congress. Sally currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Health Economics. Read more

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Virginia Wiseman

Virginia Wiseman

Virginia has over 20 years’ experience in health economics and is Professor of Health Economics and Health Systems at the Kirby Institute (University of New South Wales) and the LSHTM. Her research is at the ‘applied’ end of the spectrum, exploring how programs can be cost-effectively delivered to deprived populations under real-world conditions. Virginia's studies evaluate the introduction of new technologies such as point of care tests for HIV, malaria and TB in Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Cambodia. Another focus of her research is the evaluation of health equity and financial protection, and she is one of the convenors of IHEA’s Special Interest Group on Health Financing for Universal Health Coverage. More detailed bios can be found here and here.

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IHEA was formally founded on May 10, 1994, under the leadership of Tom Getzen who served as the first President, and with the support of Joseph Newhouse, Alan Maynard, Chuck Hall, Mark Pauly and Michael Morrisey, who served as the founding Directors.  Since 1999, regular elections for the Board of Directors have been held.  

  • Winnie Yip, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2020 – 21
  • David Bishai, Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, 2018 – 19
  • Adam Wagstaff, World Bank, 2016 – 17
  • Terkel Christiansen, University of Southern Denmark, 2014 – 15
  • Anne Mills, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2012 – 13
  • Guillem Lopez, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona, 2010 – 11
  • Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton University, 2008 – 09
  • Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney, 2006 – 07
  • Bengt Jönsson, Stockholm School of Economics, 2004 – 05
  • Peter Zweifel, University of Zurich, 2003
  • Richard Scheffler, Berkeley, University of California, 2002
  • Frans Rutten, Erasmus University Rotterdam, 2001
  • Mark V. Pauly, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania, 2000
  • Alan Maynard, University of York, 1999
  • Joseph R. Newhouse, Harvard University, 1998
  • Thomas E. Getzen, Temple University, 1994 – 97

Access the Minutes of Recent Board Meetings

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Executive Committee

The Executive Committee makes decisions and takes actions on behalf of the IHEA Board between Board meetings. The Bylaws place explicit limits on the decision-making powers of the Executive Committee.

Chair: Audrey Laporte

President
University of Toronto

Kara Hanson

President-Elect
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Winnie Yip

Past-President
Harvard University

Rosalie Viney

Treasurer
University of Technology Sydney

Richard Smith

Additional Board Member
University of Exeter

Finance Committee

The main source of income to fund activities to benefit our members is membership fee revenue.  Registration fees for our biennial congress are set on a cost-recovery basis. We also raise sponsorships and grants to keep membership and registration fees as affordable as possible. 

The Finance Committee monitors IHEA income and expenditure through reviewing the report of the independent auditor. It also provides advice on the budget, financial management and monitors IHEA’s investments.

Chair: Rosalie Viney

Treasurer
University of Technology Sydney

John Cawley

Cornell University

Sverre Kittelsen

University of Oslo

Paula Lorgelly

University College London

Anthony Scott

University of Melbourne

Aparnaa Somanathan

World Bank
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Di McIntyre

Ex-Officio as Executive Director

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EDI PMG

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Promotion and Monitoring Group (EDI PMG) recommends ways of promoting EDI within IHEA, facilitates the implementation of the IHEA EDI strategy and its regular revision, and monitors progress.

Kara Hanson

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

John Ataguba

University of Manitoba

Tuba Saygin Avşar

University College London

Anton Avanceña

University of Texas at Austin

Eeshani Kandpal

World Bank

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Kompal Sinha

Macquarie Business School

Virginia Wiseman

LSHTM and University of New South Wales

Nominating Committee

The Nominating Committee oversees the election process for Board Directors and President-Elect. It proactively identifies potential candidates, issues an open call for nominations, screens all nominees, compiles a final list of candidates, oversees the election process, and reports on and ensures transparency in these processes.

Nominating Committee for the 2021 elections:

Chair: David Bishai

Johns Hopkins University

John Ataguba

University of Cape Town

Giancarlo Buitrago

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

Kara Hanson

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Jui-Fen Rachel Lu

Chang Gung University

Yuting Zhang

University of Melbourne

Management team

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Di McIntyre

Executive Director

Di McIntyre

The Executive Director (ED) is appointed by the IHEA Board. The ED works closely with the Board of Directors to develop strategic plans to further the mission of IHEA and her main responsibility is to oversee the implementation of Board-approved plans. She is also responsible for overseeing the day-to-day management of IHEA and for ensuring good governance and financial management of the association.  She is an Emeritus Professor in the Health Economics Unit, School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town.

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Nicole Cork

Association Manager

Nicole Cork

As IHEA's Association Manager, Nicole supports the Executive Director in managing all aspects of the association and supports the strategy and operations of IHEA programs. During her time in Association Management she has worked with over a dozen National and International clients, and brings best practices and efficiencies to IHEA's operations. Nicole supports the IHEA Mentorship Program and oversees all technology and website needs of the association. 

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Kate Foster

Membership & Communications

Kate Foster

Kate manages all aspects of IHEA's Membership and Communications and supports our Special Interest Groups in their webinars and programming. Kate joins the team with a background in project coordination from a variety of volunteer based non-profit organizations.

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