Associate Professor of Public Affairs
Education:
Ph.D. in Public Policy, Harvard University, 2000
M.S. in Operations Research, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1994
M.S. in Industrial Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1989
B.S. in Industrial Engineering, State University of New York at Buffalo, 1987
Teaching Areas:
Research and Empirical Methods
Social Policy
Todd Olmstead is an associate professor of public affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. At the LBJ School, he conducts economic evaluations of a wide variety of health care programs and teaches courses in empirical methods, management science, and health economics. Dr. Olmstead is the health economist on several large grants funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Current research projects include estimating the cost-effectiveness of programs designed to:
- Provide alternative responses to 911 calls with a behavioral health component;
- Prevent falls and treat depression in homebound older adults;
- Improve outpatient treatment utilization in emerging adults with substance use disorder;
- Improve treatment outcomes for persons with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis;
- Stop smoking in hospitalized smokers with cardiovascular disease;
- Improve treatment outcomes in persons with co-occurring substance use and mental health disorders;
- Promote HIV testing among high-risk women; and
- Promote job-seeking activities among unemployed persons living with HIV/AIDS.
In addition to his work in health care, Dr. Olmstead has published in the areas of intelligent transportation systems, highway safety and administrative rulemaking.