The Evidence Base

Informing Policy in Health, Economics & Well-Being
A collaboration with
USC Dornsife Center for economic and social research

The Schaeffer Center’s Data Core Bring a Wealth of Experience, Expertise

At the heart of the Schaeffer Center’s Data Core are a group of five research programmers who support faculty, contribute to research projects, and help students get up to speed on research programming.

Patricia St. Clair, Data Core Director, started the current research programming group when she joined the Schaeffer Center in 2011.  St. Clair brought 32 years of experience to the Center including a decade working on the RAND HRS. Currently she works with claims data for the Part D and VEBA research projects, advises the Future Elderly Model (FEM) and Future America Model (FAM) development, and oversees the analytic computing infrastructure. Patty has a ScB Computer Science from Brown and studied neurobehavioral genetics at UCLA. Prior to her work at Schaeffer, Patty was a research programmer at RAND for 18 years, spent six years working on Aetna’s claims payment system, and eight years directing Wesleyan University’s social sciences data lab.

Bryan Tysinger, Director of Simulation and Data at the Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation, joined the team in late 2011 as a research programmer. Tysinger develops the U.S. FEM and U.S. FAM models, and provides support to international teams developing FEM models for other countries. Additionally, he supports adaptation of microsimulations for Los Angeles County and microsimulation adaption for cost-benefit analysis of randomized control trials. Bryan has an M.Phil. in Public Policy from the Pardee RAND Graduate School and a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College.

Laura Gascue, Programmer/Quantitative Analyst, also joined the 2012 and work with claims data and EMR to support research on healthcare prices and various topics around medication, such as safety, adherence, and disparity. Gascue has a Masters in Statistics from UC Berkeley and a Licenciatura in Economics from UDELAR. Prior to her work at the Schaeffer Center, Gascue spent seven years in litigation consulting working on class action, antitrust, and damages cases in multiple industries, including pharmaceuticals.

Duncan Leaf, Research Programmer, joined the team in late 2012, and works on applications and extensions of the FEM/FAM. Leaf has a Ph.D. in Statistics with specialization in Computational Science and an M.S. in Statistics from Purdue University, as well as a B.A. in Computer Science from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prior to joining the Schaeffer Center, Leaf worked for several years as a statistical consultant for non-profit and academic clients.

Brendan Rabideau, Research Programmer, is the most recent addition to the team, coming on board in April of 2015. He works on quality assessment of physicians and hospitals. Rabideau has a Bachelors in Neuroscience and Philosophy from USC, and prior to joining Schaeffer spent two years of research programming in criminal justice policy.

The Schaeffer Data Core bring a wealth of knowledge and are an invaluable resource for faculty and students. Please feel free to reach out to them with questions.