Director, Policy, Planning and Evaluation
B.A., psychology, University of Maryland; M.H.S., population health, Johns Hopkins University; Ph.D., policy sciences, University of Maryland
Dr. Namratha Swamy is the Director of Altarum’s Policy, Planning, and Evaluation Practice Area and brings more than 10 years of experience in monitoring and program evaluation, policy analysis, and the provision of evaluation technical assistance and training to a range of stakeholders. She is skilled in working with clients to identify their evaluation needs, implementing appropriate methodology, and articulating evaluation findings that are useful and practical for program improvement. She has led numerous evaluation projects involving formative research and process, outcome, and impact evaluation methods for a range of clients, including the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Department of Labor (DOL), and the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH).
She has directed several multisite evaluations to address overweight and obesity, including Bright Futures for Women’s Health and Wellness Initiative (HRSA) and the BodyWorks Toolkit (OWH). Dr. Swamy recently concluded a study on school health and prevention for the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) with specific focus on identifying and developing models for school-based health promotion and disease prevention activities. She also oversees the development and implementation of an evaluation strategy for several community health and prevention programs funded by MDCH involving the built environment including Building Healthy Communities and Complete Streets, and the impact of the implementation of revised nutrition standards. Currently, she is directing several multisite evaluations for HRSA’s Office of Rural Health Policy and DOL’s Office of Disability Employment Policy.
Dr. Swamy serves in an advisory capacity on several other multisite evaluation projects, including the evaluations of the SAMHSA State block grant programs and a study for the HHS Office on Women’s Health identifying factors that impact the sustainability of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary women’s health model in community health centers and academic medical centers.
Dr. Swamy has directed process and outcome evaluation projects across a broad spectrum of substantive areas, including nursing workforce diversity, vaccine injury, physical activity and nutrition, health information technology, disability employment policy, and women’s health and wellness. These projects involve a range of quantitative and qualitative methods, including site visits with State and local agencies, health care providers, and community-based organizations; key-informant interviews with federal, state, and local officials; Web-based, telephone, and mail surveys; secondary data analysis; data abstraction; and focus groups.
Previously, Dr. Swamy led several SAMHSA-funded projects involving evaluation and client access to treatment and retention. She was the Task Order Director for the Opioid Treatment Program (OTP) Accreditation Evaluation, a multisite evaluation of the accreditation process that all OTPs must undergo. She also led the Strengthening Treatment Access and Retention project, which aimed to improve the business and clinical processes of community-based treatment organizations to increase client access to treatment and retention.
Dr. Swamy holds a doctorate in policy sciences from the University of Maryland in Baltimore and an M.H.S. in population and family health sciences from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.
Areas of Expertise
Community Health
Obesity
Women, Children and Adolescents