IOA Staff

Thomas R. (Bob) Konrad, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist

Dr. Konrad is a Senior Scientist at the IOA and currently serves as co-director of the National Evaluation Office for the RWJF sponsored Jobs to Careers Program, which aims to develop career advancement strategies for frontline (non-licensed) healthcare workers across various a broad variety of healthcare settings. He is also engaged in the evaluation of North Carolina's Personal and Home Care Aide State Training program and has served as co-Principal Investigator for the WIN A STEP UP program and the STEP UP NOW nurse aide training programs which were funded by the RWJF Better Jobs, Better Care initiative. Dr. Konrad's current research interests focus on understanding how training and career development of frontline direct care workers is linked to higher quality and more effective of long term care services and supports for frail older and disabled persons.

Dr. Konrad served as Co-Director of the Program on Health Professions and Primary Care at the Cecil G Sheps Center, and holds academic appointments as Professor of Social Medicine (School of Medicine) and Professor of Health Policy and Administration (Gillings Global School of Public Health). Working in conjunction with other investigators at Sheps, the IOA, and elsewhere, Dr. Konrad has directed or collaborated on over 50 health care workforce studies over the past 37 years, publishing over 120 articles in peer-reviewed journals, many on topics of substantive and methodological concern to health workforce researchers and policymakers. His interests include Community Health Center (CHC) staffing, National Health Service Corps (NHSC) clinicians, international medical graduates, and workforce issues in dentistry, physical therapy, allied health, and pharmacy. Dr. Konrad served as PI of the Congressionally mandated, HRSA-sponsored evaluation of the Effectiveness of NHSC conducted in conjunction with Mathematica Policy Reserch. During the late 1990s, Dr. Konrad was survey director for the RWJF-sponsored Physician Worklife Study, which collected professional and demographic data on a national sample of primary care and specialist physicians, and continues to work on follow-on projects examining how the organization and staffing of primary care practices affect quality and medical errors.

Email: bob_konrad@unc.edu