Joan Alker
Co-Executive Director
Joan Alker is co-executive director at the Georgetown Center for Children and Families and a Research Associate Professor at the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute. Her work focuses on health coverage for low-income children and families, with an emphasis on state Medicaid initiatives including waivers, premium assistance policies, immigrant issues, and cost-sharing. Some of her recent publications include Children and Health Care Reform: Assuring Coverage Meets Their Health Care Needs, and Premium Assistance Programs: How are they Financed and do States Save Money?, as well as state-specific analyses of Medicaid changes in Florida, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Connecticut, and Georgia.
A frequent speaker and commentator, Alker has over twenty years of experience working on issues affecting low-income families. She holds a Master of Philosophy in politics from St. Antony's College, Oxford University and a Bachelor of Arts with honors in political science from Bryn Mawr College.
Joan's publications