Research Scientist

Beth's primary research interests involve evaluating programs and policies that are designed to improve health outcomes for vulnerable children. These populations include children who are poor, in the juvenile justice system, in foster care, in special education or who have emotional and or behavioral problems. She is particularly interested in applying the best research methodology to inform decision makers as they balance goals of cost, quality and access in providing health care.

Recent Publications

1. Foster, E.M., E.J. Gifford (2005). The Transition to Adulthood for Youth Leaving Public Systems: Challenges to policies and research. In R.A. Settersten, F. Furstenberg, R. Rumbaut (Eds.) (Ed.).  On the Frontier of Adulthood: Theory, Research, and Public Policy. University of Chicago Press.


2. E.J. Gifford, R. Weech-Maldonado, P. Short (2005). Encouraging Preventive Services for Low-Income Children: Implications for Expanding Medicaid Coverage to Parents. Health Care Financing Review, 24(4), 81-94.


3. Bhandari, S. and E.J. Gifford (2003). Children with Health Insurance in the United States: 2002, 60-224.

1. Comparison of Three Regression Approaches to Model Resource Use in Multinational Clinical Trials, 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making, San Francisco, CA, 2005
2. Race and Space: Community-level variation in the racial disparity of use of therapeutic psychostimulant medications by youth, Investing in Health: 5th World Congress, International Health Economics Association, Barcelona, Spain, July, 2005
3. Understanding Provider Influences on Residential Length of Stay Among Youth with Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Co-occurring Disorders: A Bayesian cross-classified approach, 24th Biennial Conference, Society for Multivariate Analysis in Behavioral Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany, July, 2005
4. Combining Information from Multiple Informants, Center for Child and Family Policy, Duke and Chapin Hall Center for Children, June, 2004
5. An Introduction to Geographic Information System Methods and Resources, Penn State University, Health Policy and Administration Colloquium, January, 2004