Coleman Drake

Coleman Drake is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Economics and affiliations with the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing, Medicaid Research Center, and UPMC Aging Institute. His research focuses on health insurance market design, administrative burdens in healthcare access, and the impact of cannabis legalization on opioid-related outcomes. He employs methods like causal inference and geospatial analysis.

Dr. Drake’s education includes a Ph.D. in Health Services Research from the University of Minnesota, a health economics fellowship at the University of Chicago’s Becker-Friedman Institute, and a B.A. in economics from Capital University. Prior academic roles include project management at Epic Systems.

His research has been funded by NIH, AHRQ, and foundations like Robert Wood Johnson. Key publications address consumer inertia in health insurance markets, recreational cannabis laws, and opioid policy. He teaches courses on microeconomics and health economics at the University of Pittsburgh.

Current grants include studies on Medicaid enrollees’ access to opioid treatment, rural broadband limitations for telemedicine, and state insurance policy impacts. His work has influenced legislative debates and been cited by media like Vox and Morning Consult.