McBride Installed as Bernard Becker Professor

Timothy McBride was installed as the Bernard Becker Professor at Washington University in St. Louis at a November 5 ceremony in Hillman Hall’s Clark-Fox Forum.

McBride, an influential health policy analyst and leading health economist, has helped to shape the national agenda on a variety of issues: health insurance, health reform, rural health care, Medicare and Medicaid policy, health economics, and access to health care. He studies the effects of health reform at the state and national levels, the uninsured, diabetes policy, and long-term entitlement reform.

“He is an extraordinary educator whose research is meant to make a difference,” said Dean Mary McKay in McBride’s introduction. McKay noted that McBride was instrumental in creating the Brown School’s public health program 10 years ago and served as the school’s first associate dean for public health. This spring, the program will graduate its 500th master of public health student.

“Tim, look what you started!” McKay remarked.

Timothy McBride Installation

McBride succeeds Ross C. Brownson in the Becker professorship, which is shared by the Brown School and the School of Medicine. Brownson remarked during the ceremony that McBride’s expertise in public policy helped served as a conduit between researchers and policymakers.

“Tim is really a connector, improving people’s lives in tangible ways,” Brownson said, who served as the Becker Professor from 2014 through 2018.

McBride’s address, “Bridging the Divide of Health and Economic Disparities in Rural America: Reflections from Research and Policy,” focused on health-insurance disparities in rural America and the similarities between rural and urban populations.

He urged researchers and policymakers to “concentrate on what connects us, and not what divides us.”

In addition to several dozen scholarly publications, McBride produced the book “Transdisciplinary Public Health: Education, Research and Practice” co-edited with Debra Haire-Joshu, as well as a collection of reports, white papers and other policy products that have had an important impact on the national policy debate.

McBride has been active in testifying before Congress and consulting with policy constituents on health reform, health insurance issues and rural health policy. He is a member of the Rural Policy Research Institute Health Panel that provides expert advice on rural health issues to the U.S. Congress and other policymakers.

McBride serves as a member of several national committees and boards, including the Methods Council for Academy Health and the St. Louis City Board of Health. He currently serves as chair of the state of Missouri’s MOHealthNET Oversight Committee, which advises the state’s Medicaid program.

He is co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health. The Center for Health Economics & Policy encourages the development of evidence-based research focused on improving health, and disseminates this work to policymakers and other stakeholders.

About Bernard Becker
The late Bernard Becker, M.D., emeritus professor and former chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, provided a gift to Washington University in 2013 which led to the establishment of this professorship.

As chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences from 1953 to 1988, Dr. Becker led the department to international recognition for exceptional teaching, clinical care, and research, especially in the management of retinal detachment and glaucoma.