The Endowment
In 2017, with the goal of positively impacting the health and wellness of Alabamians, the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Public Health received $1.5 million from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama (BCBS) to establish the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama Endowed Chair in Health Economics…the school’s first Endowed Chair. This generous gift strengthened the long-standing partnership between UAB and BCBS and underscored the ongoing BCBS mission to provide Alabamians access to quality health care at the most affordable price possible. The Endowed Chair is tasked with mounting an independent and externally funded research program with a primary focus on health economics and health analytics with the goal of leading initiatives that will improve the health and well-being of Alabamians by decreasing the burden childhood obesity, diabetes, hypertension, smoking, and other chronic conditions. While the primary role is research, the Endowed Chair is also a thought leader, fostering interdisciplinary collaborations, mentoring the next generation of scholars, and developing relationships with community stakeholders in Alabama.
The Endowed Chair
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Bisakha “Pia” Sen, PhD is the first holder of the BCBS Endowed Chair in Health Economics and the first woman to hold an Endowed Chair faculty position in the school. She is a tenured Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Organization of the School of Public Health and has a secondary appointment in the Department of Health Services Administration of the School of Health Professions. Dr. Sen has affiliations with the Nutrition Obesity Research Center, Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, and O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. She received her PhD in Economics from The Ohio State University in 1998. Dr. Sen specializes in health economics and health policy, and her primary interest is investigating the role of policy, programmatic interventions, and social determinants on the health of vulnerable populations. Dr. Sen and her colleagues have developed an extensive research agenda focusing on health outcomes among Alabama residents, with funding support from Alabama Medicaid and the ALL Kids Children’s Health Insurance Program administered by the Alabama Department of Public Health. Dr. Sen is also funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Her research has been published in journals such as JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Pediatrics, Health Services Research, American Journal of Public Health, American Journal of Preventive Medicine, and Journal of Health Economics.
