领导委员会, an advisory board for the Schmidthorst College of Business, comprised of prominent alumni 和朋友s, 公认的博士. Amanda Cook as the recipient of the 2022 教师 Excellence Award in 博天堂官方网站.  The title of the award is 教师 Excellence in Intellectual Contributions with Positive Societal Impact Award and comes with a plaque and an award of $5,000.  The award was based on five indicators of excellence in scholarly activities that have positive societal impact, which included publications and quality, impact of intellectual contributions on society, 学术影响, grants with positive societal impact, and impact of research on social policies, 立法, 以及业务流程.  

Dr. Cook’s work could inform social policies and 立法. As a social science researcher, she uses innovative empirical tools to answer questions in a broad range of disciplines including health insurance, 医疗保健财务, 医疗保健政策, 公共卫生, 社区卫生, 社会学, 和经济学.

In 2020, the AACSB published new accreditation standards which focus on societal impact. 在第50页, 标准上写着“进一步”, high-quality schools have a positive societal impact by addressing broader social, 经济, 业务, and/or physical environment issues, 可能是在当地吗, 区域, 国家, 或者国际规模. This impact results from internal and external initiatives and aligns with the concept of 业务 schools being a force for good in society. 在这个背景下, interdisciplinary work becomes an important means to achieving goals that have great impact on society. Thus, interdisciplinary work is encouraged and applauded.”  Dr. Cook’s work is very interdisciplinary and as such, it informs decision making in a wide range of applications. In studying risky behavior (sexual health choices and marijuana decriminalization), she helps both individuals and local and state governments decide on evidence-based policy for themselves and their 社区. In studying health insurance reimbursement, she examines who benefits (and who does not) as health insurance eligibility and reimbursement change. As health insurance premiums are on the rise and health care expenditures become an increasingly large fraction of both GDP and household budgets, 这项工作影响个人, 社区, 公司, 和政府. Her current work focuses on three topics. 第一个, she is studying how increasing market power in the health insurance market outside the purview of FTC regulation impacts 公司, 保单持有人, 和支出. 第二个, she is studying the impact of cannabis legalization on prescription drug expenditures and health insurance claims and premiums. 第三, she is examining differential health care provision in the Emergency Department for minority populations.  While these topics may seem disparate, the common thread is examining how policy changes directly and indirectly impact individuals, 公司, 和政府. This information is needed to help create positive societal change.

Dr. Cook is grateful to the Schmidthorst College of Business’s 领导委员会 for encouraging and supporting research that has broad societal impact. 作为一名学者, she loves getting submerged in the research question and empirical techniques, 但是作为一个母亲, 妻子, 和朋友, she finds research the most rewarding when it matters for individuals or society broadly.