Joy Piontak

Joy Piontak is a program manager and public health researcher with over 13 years of experience in social science research and expertise in program evaluation and implementation assistance for federal, state, and non-profit clients. Substantively, Dr. Piontak's work examines health care transformation, the movement toward value-based payment models, social determinants of health, racial and economic disparities in health, and poverty alleviation. In addition, her work seeks to understand how social and policy contexts impact program implementation and outcomes.

Dr. Piontak's research reflects a commitment to new and innovative ways to study health and health care. Her mixed-methods research has combined large administrative datasets, program data, momentary ecological assessment, and qualitative interviewing to examine the impact of environmental context and social policy on health, health care, and health behavior. Her current projects include the State Innovation Model (SIM2) Initiative Round 2 Evaluation, Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) Implementation, Primary Care First (PCF) Implementation, The Salvation Army National Pathway of Hope (POH) Evaluation, and the Accountable Health Communities (AHC) Evaluation.

Before joining RTI in 2017, Dr. Piontak served as a researcher in the Center for Child and Family Policy at Duke University.