Eric R. Wright is director of the Center for Health Policy, a partner with the Center for Urban Policy and the Environment. He is also a professor in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and associate director of the Indiana Consortium for Mental Health Services Research. He holds adjunct appointments in the Department of Public Health, the IU School of Medicine, and in the Department of Sociology, IU School of Liberal Arts.
As a medical sociologist, Dr. Wright’s research interests center on social responses to health problems, health policy, and the social organization and effectiveness of health services and public health programs. Currently, he is co-chair of the Workgroup for Healthcare Reform, a group commissioned by the state of Indiana to draft proposals for the redesign of the health care system in Indiana.
Dr. Wright recently completed a research project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health that investigating the role mental health treatment programs play in shaping the HIV risk of people with serious mental illness. He is or has been the principal or co-principal investigator on several other major, funded research and evaluation projects, including the Indianapolis Network Mental Health Study, the Central State Hospital Discharge Study, and the Indiana Youth Access Project. He was also the principal investigator of a comprehensive evaluation of the Dawn Project, a system of care initiative in Indianapolis, and for a new mental health screening program being implemented for children in the child welfare system by the Indiana Department of Child Services.
Dr. Wright has published two books on teaching and more than 50 evaluation reports and peer-reviewed papers that have appeared in sociology and interdisciplinary health journals, including the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Social Networks, Sociological Focus, AIDS Care, Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research, and Psychiatric Services.
He received his BA degree in sociology from Lewis and Clark College in 1984; his MA in sociology from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1987; and his PhD in sociology from Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1994.