Heather Rouse, Ph.D.
Heather Rouse is an Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Iowa State University, where she is leading a state-university partnership to develop an integrated data system (IDS) focused on informing a more comprehensive, coordinated system of care for young children and their families.
Dr. Rouse has been involved in the development and use of integrated data systems for policy research for over 10 years. As the first Deputy Research Director for Philadelphia’s IDS, she helped develop and implement procedures and policies to connect research and policy using health, education, and social services data for multiple projects focusing on young children, multi-system involved youth, and families experiencing homelessness.
She was later recruited to serve as the Health Policy Research Director for the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement in the state’s medical school. In this role she managed a health policy research agenda directed by the governor that used a statewide IDS including medical claims, hospital discharge, and a dozen other systems to inform efforts including the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, payment improvement efforts to streamline Medicaid costs and services, and statewide monitoring and interventions for childhood obesity.
Dr. Rouse graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Ph.D. in School, Community, and Clinical Child Psychology and an M.S.Ed. in Psychological Services.