Emily Johnson
Director of Policy Analysis
Emily Johnson, Director of Policy Analysis, oversees data analysis for CHI, including for the biennial Colorado Health Access Survey. She has led a variety of projects with an emphasis on quantitative analysis and financial modeling. Her work involves developing statistical models to estimate localized data, such as prevalence rates by ZIP code, and studying how both local and federal proposals could impact Colorado, its budget, and the health of our residents. She also leads quantitative and policy analysis on health topics including mental health, Medicaid managed care, Medicaid expansion, and the financial impact of informal or unpaid caregiving.
Emily serves on the leadership team of the Colorado Maternal Mental Health Collaborative & Framework. During the pandemic, she supported the governor’s Innovation Response Team and served as a member of CHI’s elite Strike Team, formed in 2020 to quickly respond to the public health crisis caused by COVID-19.
Before coming to CHI, Emily worked as an analyst with national and international health nonprofits.
Emily earned a master’s degree in health services research from the University of Colorado. Her academic work focused on associations between state regulations and nonprofit hospital community-benefit spending and behavior. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Sample Projects:
- Root Causes: Explore What Affects Mental Health in Colorado
- An Uneven Burden: Food Insecurity in Colorado
- Making a Home for Health: Supporting Health by Putting Housing First
- Medicaid Surge Due To COVID-19: Financial Impacts for Hospitals
- Changing the “Public Charge” and Health Insurance in Colorado
- Substance Use Primary Prevention Funding in Colorado: A Financial Map
- ACA Repeal Plan’s Impacts on Medicaid
- Mapping Data A to Z: Social Determinants
- ColoradoCare: An Independent Analysis – Finances
Skills: Financial modeling, quantitative analysis, policy analysis, economic analysis, presenting
Focus Areas:
- Behavioral Health
- Medicaid
- Immigrant health
- Public policy
- Health expenditures
- Hospital community benefits
I Do This Work Because… Health and access to health care are key to helping Coloradans live their best lives, and I want to support policymakers and communities working to create a more equitable system. There is no shortage of rhetoric and dogma in health care policy debates, and we are morally obligated to add objective, evidence-based analysis to the discussion whenever possible. I believe CHI’s place as a responsible steward of data, analysis, and sense-making is more important now than ever before.