Morrisville, NC (April 24, 2020) — The North Carolina Institute of Medicine is pleased to welcome Michelle G. Ries, MPH, to the role of NCIOM Associate Director.
Ries previously served as a project director at the NCIOM for 6 years. In that position, Ries managed task forces and served as primary author on task force reports including the Task Force on Serious Illness Care, aimed at developing a workable plan to meet the needs of individuals living with serious illness and their caregivers across the state of North Carolina; Task Force on Health Care Analytics, focused on developing a concise set of metrics to improve population health and quality of care under Medicaid reform; Dementia-Capable North Carolina, the state plan for addressing the needs of people with dementia and their caregivers; and the Task Force on Essentials for Childhood, a statewide collective plan to prevent child maltreatment and ensure child and family well-being.
“I have had the great pleasure to work with Michelle for the past six years. She is a talented policy analyst, a big thinker, and skilled at bringing people together around a shared solution,” said NCIOM President and CEO Adam Zolotor, MD, DrPH. “I look forward to continuing to work together in her new role at the NCIOM.”
Ries spearheaded NCIOM’s pioneering Legislative Health Policy Fellows program, which provides state lawmakers and their staff with the data and resources needed to make effective decisions about the health of our state. During the first two sessions, dozens of General Assembly members from both sides of the aisle learned about the health issues facing North Carolina, the state’s priorities for health care delivery, and challenges and opportunities for improving the health of all North Carolinians, with a focus on evidence-based solutions.
Prior to her work at NCIOM, Ries worked as senior program associate in the International Health Policy and Practice Innovations program at the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to achieving a high-performing health care system. Previously, Ries also completed the Health Research Training Program at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Office of Health Media and Marketing, where she managed citywide health media campaigns on various health issues, including cardiovascular disease, childhood obesity, and adolescent mental health. Ries received her MPH from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a B.A. with honors in dramatic art and anthropology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa. She is a 2019 graduate of Leadership North Carolina.
“The NCIOM has a unique and impactful role in building stakeholder relationships and identifying policies and practices to improve the health of North Carolinians,” said Ries. “I am thrilled to serve as Associate Director for this important work.”
The North Carolina Institute of Medicine (NCIOM) is an independent, quasi-state agency that was chartered by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1983 to provide balanced, nonpartisan information on issues of relevance to the health of North Carolina’s population. For more information, visit www.nciom.org.