Robert E. Burke was the Gordon A. Friesen Professor of Health Care Administration and the former Chair of the Department of Health Services Management and Leadership.
Professor Burke is a medical sociologist and a nationally known expert in long-term care, with extensive experience in developing, evaluating and implementing health care policy and managing multidisciplinary professional staff. For more than 25 years, he has conducted and directed health service research, payment and evaluation projects, and is thoroughly versed in the policy and program issues of Medicare, Medicaid and other public and private third-party payor systems.
As Department Chair, Professor Burke oversaw a well-known, well-respected faculty and a newly approved curriculum that stresses the "skills of business and the values of health care." In his capacity as Director of the Wertlieb Institute, Dr. Burke revitalized a national resource dedicated to preparing leaders to meet the challenges of providing quality services to aging and disabled individuals, and to promoting interdisciplinary education, dialogue and research in long-term care management. Prior to joining the faculty at GWSPH in 2002, Dr. Burke held senior research positions at the Institute of Medicine, the General Accounting Office (now the Government Accountability Office), the Health and Retirement Funds of the United Mine Workers and the Pepper Commission. For the past decade, he has worked with the Health Care Financing Administration (now The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services), directing the design of new prospective payment systems for post-acute care.
