Center Staff

Director of the Center for Health Policy, Senior Researcher and a Professor in the School of Public and Population Health in the College of Health Sciences at Boise State University. He earned his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Temple University in 1994. He has over 20 years of experience in healthcare working with hospitals, physicians, integrated delivery systems, biotech pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions. Dr. Baker’s research interests include healthcare policy, rural workforce planning, healthcare financing, and health system performance improvement.

Affiliate Faculty and Senior Researcher at the Center for Health Policy, and chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He is an internationally known and respected clinician who has extensive research expertise in training and retaining physicians in rural and underserved areas, the development of rural communities’ healthcare resources, and quality improvement in rural healthcare. He has published and presented extensively on his research. He practices as a family physician and teaches at the UND SMHS. He assumed the position in October 2016.

At the UND SMHS, Dr. Schmitz works collaboratively with the faculty and institutional leaders to build upon the School’s strong nationally recognized rural medicine program. As chair, he works with the SMHS’s clinical partners to innovatively meet the need for education and training of current and future health professionals to effectively serve rural and underserved areas of the state.

Schmitz earned his medical doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo. He completed his residency training at the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho in Boise. Schmitz is a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. He is board-certified in family medicine by the American Board of Family Medicine, where he has been a diplomate since 1999. He is currently president of the National Rural Health Association. He is the founding chair of the American Academy of Family Physician Member Interest Group on Rural Health. He also serves the academy through its Commission on Quality and Practice, and previously the Commission on Education. Schmitz is an Advisory Council member for the National Rural Health Resource Center, Technical Assistance and Service Center. He is an executive committee member of the Global Association of Family Doctors (WONCA) Working Party on Rural Health.

Associate Professor, School of Nursing, College of Health Sciences at Boise State University and Researcher at the Center for Health Policy. She received her Masters in Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) education at Idaho State University.  She has practiced in a variety of nursing settings for over 20 years, most extensively in public/community health and orthopedics. Currently she volunteers as a FNP at the Garden City Community Clinic serving the indigent population. She is presently enrolled in the doctoral program at University of New Mexico’s College of Nursing with an emphasis on health policy. Her research interests include vulnerable populations and rural nursing workforce challenges.

Assistant Research Professor and Project Manager at the Center for Health Policy. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from Clark University in Massachusetts in 2013. Sandina spent several years conducting fieldwork in Bosnia and Herzegovina, during which time she also worked as a researcher at a local research and policy foundation and supervised research projects conducted by students from several U.S. universities during their semester abroad in the Balkans. Since joining the Center for Health Policy, she has been involved in a number of research projects focused primarily on mental health and substance abuse in at-risk youth and the effects of home visiting as an early intervention strategy in promoting maternal, infant, and early childhood health and development.

Senior Research Associate, Grant and Project Coordinator at the Center for Health Policy at Boise State University.  She received her Master of Health Science degree in 2012 from Boise State University.  She has worked at the Center for Health Policy on projects including the Community Apgar Program for physician recruitment and retention at community health centers and critical access hospitals in Alaska, Idaho, Maine, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.  She has also provided support for physician scope of practice workforce assessments and the Idaho Maternal and Child Health needs assessment project.  Lisa is responsible for data management, report development, technical writing, and student supervision.