Thomas Vaughn,  associate professor of health management and policy in the UI College of Public Health, recently became chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA), a network of university-based educational programs, faculty, practitioners, and health care provider organizations dedicated to excellence in health care management and policy education.

Vaughn is the director of the Master of Health Administration degree program in the Department of Health Management and Policy. His research interests include health services organization and policy, leadership and quality, and organizational factors associated with effectiveness. He led a Commonwealth Fund-supported study that led to the development of the Hospital Leadership and Quality Assessment Tool (HLQAT), an approach for examining the key structures, processes, and leadership behaviors associated with clinical quality performance. He recently co-led the evaluation of the AHRQ-funded TeamSTEPPS project in two community hospitals in Iowa. He is also an investigator on a study of implementing a pharmacist/physician collaborative model for blood pressure control in a national study of 27 clinics, as well as a study of Accountable Care Organizations serving rural communities.