Melinda Buntin, PhD, is the Mike Curb Professor of Health Policy and chair of the Department of Health Policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She was previously Deputy Assistant Director for Health at the Congressional Budget Office, director of and co-director of the Bing Center for Health Economics at RAND.  Dr. Buntin’s work at Vanderbilt is focused on health care delivery and costs, with an emphasis on improving the value created by the health care system. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and currently serves on the National Academy of Medicine’s Board on Health Care Services.  Dr. Buntin has an A.B. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and a Ph.D. in Health Policy with a concentration in economics from Harvard.