He received his PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh Health Policy Institute. His research focuses on the relationship between federalism and the development of public policy in the United States. His recent publications include “Modernizing Medicaid Managed Care: Can States Meet the Data Challenges?” (Journal of American Medicine, co-authored with Walid Gellad and Julie Donohue) and Obamacare Wars: Federalism, State Politics, and the Affordable Care Act (University Press of Kansas, 2016; coauthored with Daniel Béland and Alex Waddan).