Thomas Mackie, PhD, MPH
Chair and Associate Professor
Health Policy and Management
- PhD: Brandeis University
- MPH: Boston University
TOM MACKIE, PhD, MPH, is Chair of Health Policy and Management and Associate Professor at SUNY Downstate. Trained as a medical sociologist and health services researcher, Dr. Mackie’s research aims to bring new evidence to pressing mental healthcare policy and practice dilemmas confronted by children and their caregivers. His research is motivated by the rapid expansion of system-wide innovations that seek to address the well-documented gaps in access to quality pediatric and perinatal mental healthcare. As a mixed methods and interdisciplinary researcher, his work has examined an array of system-level innovations, including universal screening programs, healthcare provider supports (e.g., psychiatry access programs), and monitoring programs (e.g., prior authorization and drug utilization reviews). His work also leverages the decision and system sciences to improve the use of research evidence in the development, implementation, and sustainment of these innovations. Dr. Mackie has received over 6 million dollars in external funding from a diverse array of sponsors, including W.T. Grant Foundation, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, National Institute of Mental Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Dr. Mackie also teaches graduate courses in U.S. Healthcare Policy and Management, Mixed Methods Research, and Mental Health Policy. He is deeply committed to an experiential pedagogy providing students opportunities for applying core concepts and skills through both case-based learning in the classroom and real-world applications as members of his research team. Dr. Mackie also served as the elected Health Policy Committee Chair for the Medical Sociology Section at the American Sociological Association and was competitively selected as a National Institute of Mental Health-funded fellow at the Implementation Research Institute.
Dr. Mackie most recently served as faculty at the Rutgers School of Public Health and as core faculty at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research at Rutgers. Dr. Mackie received a Joint-Doctorate in Social Policy and Sociology at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis University. He began his career in public health at the Boston University School of Public Health where he completed the Masters International program, which included service as an United States Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho.